Chapter 325: Scavenger Hunter (Patreon)

Chapter 325: Scavenger Hunter

As for those shelters affiliated with a certain supercity,

they had absolutely nothing to do with Su Wu.

None of that mattered.

At worst, he could just take them by force.

It wouldn’t even waste much time.

"The supplies from the mountainous region can be temporarily stored there."

"Once we have more free time later, we can gradually transport them back."

"The overall losses shouldn’t be too significant."

"It mainly depends on the direction and speed at which the geologically active zones from the seabed spread after reaching land."

"But even in the worst-case scenario,"

"it would only mean detouring a few hundred extra kilometers at most."

Having planned the evacuation routes for the supplies,

Su Wu felt slightly more confident.

After all, although this disaster was an unexpected situation,

and the time he had to prepare wasn’t much,

the transport capacity he now commanded—along with the professional loading and unloading teams that had grown stronger during the recent dismantling of shelters and recycling of city ruins—

had already reached an enormous scale.

With careful planning,

it was highly likely that he could keep the overall losses within a manageable range.

Shifting his gaze,

Su Wu proceeded to further subdivide and command the main fleet of Ice Lake-class Transport Ships based on the priority of the remaining tasks.

Over 4,000 Ice Lake-class Transport Ships.

On paper, the number might not seem like much.

But one only needed to see them in reality—

to witness the massive hulls of the Ice Lake-class, each as tall as a seven- or eight-story residential building—

to immediately grasp just how awe-inspiring a sight it was to have so many transport ships gathered in one place.

Where they docked, they could instantly form a city.

Yet, with such an astonishing scale,

fully utilizing their capabilities

was bound to be an exceptionally complex undertaking.

Not to mention anything else,

just the supporting engineering teams responsible for loading and unloading cargo—

along with the various types of engineering equipment and the sheer number of robots serving as the workforce—

easily numbered in the hundreds of thousands.

And when it came to actual coordination and command,

without the support of supercomputer-level computing power,

an ordinary staff team

would be worked to death and still fail to cover everything flawlessly.

"Among the engineering teams currently stationed in the Kuan Jiang River Basin,"

"equipment related to demolition work—such as Crushers, Compressors, and Mobile Rapid Cement Production Lines—"

"don’t need to stay behind."

"Considering the considerable overall value of these devices,"

"we can assemble a dedicated transport ship squad to bring them back to the farmhouse."

"As for the remaining robot forces and engineering equipment responsible for loading supplies,"

"they should accompany the main fleet of transport ships to the coastal mountainous region."

The manufacturing cost of robots was also far from cheap.

By deploying them to the dangerous coastal mountainous region at this time,

Su Wu was bound to suffer significant losses.

But compared to the returns from relocating over 100 million tons of general supplies and more than 60 million tons of fuel,

these losses

were still acceptable.

"Next, assemble a squadron of Sixth-Generation Fighter Jets."

"Have them airdrop a batch of robot forces to seize those shelters 70 kilometers north of the coastal mountainous region."

"Occupy them first,"

"then carry out warehouse modifications in advance."

Zooming in on the map north of the coastal mountainous region on the holographic display,

Su Wu casually circled the four or five dozen shelters of varying sizes there,

marking them all for forcible requisition.

It was foreseeable.

The one to two million residents in those shelters combined.

Whether they were once high-ranking officials or the exploited lower-class civilians.

All would passively face monumental changes in their lives and destinies.

Yet these matters.

Were utterly insignificant to Su Wu.

Not even worth mentioning specifically.

Half an hour later.

Upon receiving Su Wu's orders.

The first batch of dozens of Ice Lake-class Transport Ships activated.

Slowly appeared near the coastline.

Their massive searchlights illuminated the snow-covered ground ahead, which appeared dim under the thick, low-hanging clouds.

"Wind speed at 25.2 meters per second."

"Significantly higher than an hour ago."

"Now reaching force 10 wind levels."

Through the camera on the lead Ice Lake-class Transport Ship.

Su Wu glimpsed the faint outline of massive structures towering in the distance.

These were the temporary warehouses Su Wu had rapidly constructed on the surface of the Coastal Shelter back then, to facilitate the transfer of supplies from Zhenhai City.

But now, all the materials inside had long been completely emptied and transported further north into the mountainous areas.

Only the shells coated with a thin layer of Rapid-setting Cement remained.

At that moment, a bolt of lightning suddenly streaked down from the clouds.

Striking the cluster of ground warehouses.

One warehouse, right at the lightning's impact point.

Was immediately blasted open with a huge gap.

Sending numerous debris fragments scattering into the raging winds.

Su Wu fell silent for a moment.

He said nothing more.

Just sighed softly and shifted his gaze back to the transport ships' advance route.

He knew it wouldn't be long.

Before that currently still imposing cluster of warehouse buildings.

Would vanish in the coming, even fiercer storm.

And this would only be the beginning.

The main Coastal Shelter underground, along with other nearby shelters.

Would soon follow the same path to destruction.

"If not for the Farmhouse Compound."

"Perhaps this place would already be strewn with corpses by now."

Despite how the Coastal Shelter now.

Even the entire Kuan Jiang River Basin had long become uninhabited zones.

Where disasters could rage unchecked without harming anyone.

In reality, without Su Wu's intervention.

In Zhenhai City alone.

Perhaps fewer than 100,000 people would have escaped by now.

The remaining 30 million residents.

Would have had to join the now completely destroyed Zhenhai City Shelter.

In eternal slumber at the bottom of the ocean.

Similarly, the Coastal Shelter at the coastline's edge and other nearby shelters.

Wouldn't have possessed the capacity for large-scale evacuation either.

The tens of millions living there.

Could only watch helplessly as disaster approached.

Tearing apart their only sanctuary piece by piece.

Destruction was truly the theme of this era.

After continuing along the storm-engulfed coastline for over an hour.

The advance team finally reached the true temporary supply storage deep in the mountains.

Hatches began slowly lowering from the massive Ice Lake-class Transport Ships.

Countless robots and unmanned engineering vehicles.

Carrying essential tools and supplies.

Poured out like a tidal wave.

Immediately beginning to load the mountain-stored materials onto the transport ships without pause.

Farmhouse Compound, Underground Level 3.

Remote Control Center No. 3.

Zhang Chen carefully manipulated the robot located in the coastal mountain area from afar.

The robot stepped out from the transport ship's inner cabin.

Once it left the shelter of the vessel,

his control screen immediately displayed a slight overload warning.

Power consumption had risen by more than 5 percentage points.

"The environment here is just too harsh."

Zhang Chen instinctively became more cautious with his controls.

The service-type humanoid robot he was operating

was among the lowest-performing models owned by the rural compound.

Its entire body was assembled from the most basic low-temperature steel skeleton.

In terms of weight alone, it barely surpassed the much smaller machine dog.

Such lackluster performance

naturally brought various inconveniences.

For instance now, as it walked through the mountain-blocked winds that had weakened considerably,

its movements still showed unavoidable signs of obvious distortion.

This forced the built-in AI program within the robot's body

to expend more power to correct its movements and center of gravity,

just to maintain balance.

As its operator,

Zhang Chen also had to devote extra attention to avoid making any large movements

that might disrupt this already precarious balance.

Fortunately,

this difficulty was only temporary.

After arduously entering a massive temporary warehouse where the fierce winds no longer interfered,

the humanoid service robot finally regained its original agility

without developing any malfunctions.

Zhang Chen breathed a sigh of relief.

After glancing at the task assigned by the AI system,

he began maneuvering the robot deeper into the warehouse.

His job

was mainly sorting and checking for omissions.

Any remaining tasks requiring substantial strength

would be handled by other specialized robots of different types.

Once fully engaged in the work,

Zhang Chen—now familiar with the operations after these days—

no longer needed to maintain such intense concentration.

He could spare some attention

to chat with his colleague nearby.

"The surface environment today is absolutely terrible,"

Zhang Chen complained. "I almost lost control earlier."

Next to him

sat a middle-aged man named Hu Shi with a full beard.

Despite his rugged appearance,

he was actually quite mild-tempered and rarely got into conflicts with others.

"It is rather bad,"

Hu Shi agreed. "From my position, I can even see a massive vortex cloud."

"Just looking at it makes my heart race."

"Vortex cloud?"

"Like the kind that appeared over Zhenhai City?"

Zhang Chen showed some interest.

"Not just like it—"

"I think it is the same vortex cloud from Zhenhai City."

"Except now it's moved to the coastline."

Hu Shi shook his head, his tone tinged with subtle concern.

As a native of Zhenhai City,

he still harbored some lingering attachment to the shelter he once called home.

He always found himself unconsciously collecting related news.

Before coming to work today,

he had learned that the last warehouse district of Zhenhai City's shelter had just been swallowed by magma.

Combined with the sudden order to abandon his original task and rush to repair roads along the coast,

Everything was pointing toward an even worse possibility.

Now, even staying in land-based shelters might not guarantee safety.

"What a world we live in."

"Simply leaving no room for survival."

Zhang Yun recalled the swirling vortex clouds he had seen online, along with the netizens' scientific explanations about them. He couldn't help but shudder.

If that monstrous thing appeared over land, it might even uproot entire mountain peaks.

He hardly dared to imagine it.

How many shelters would ultimately survive after its passing?

Northern coastal mountain region.

Qingniao Shelter.

Sublevel 17, Black Nova Bar.

The dim amber lighting cast a gloomy hue over the modestly sized interior.

A group of young men, dressed diversely but uniformly rugged in physique, sat around chatting over carbonated syrup cola.

They were Scavenger Hunters.

Equipped with homemade or purchased tools, they braved the -70°C surface wasteland, scavenging pre-apocalypse relics or trading with other shelter residents to secure survival resources.

Occasionally, they'd run shady errands for the wealthy—jobs that couldn't see the light of day.

Though grueling and perilous, their earnings far surpassed those of ordinary shelter dwellers.

"Hey, heard the news?"

"Hookline Shelter's gone dark."

"Thousands there—cut off from the outside world."

Though alcohol was beyond their means, the fizzy cola still buzzed their nerves, loosening tongues to spill secrets.

"That one just 20 klicks away?"

"The whole shelter submerged underwater?"

"I once traded with their folks."

"Generous bunch—meds and food like they'd never run out."

A young Scavenger Hunter's curiosity piqued.

"Their shelter was built to large-scale specs."

"Yet only housed a few thousand."

"Of course they were loaded."

The middle-aged Scavenger Hunter who broached the topic smirked, envy and disdain flickering across his face.

"But what's wealth good for?"

"Luck runs out."

"Now they're history."

"Heard the ground split open beneath them."

"Swallowed the whole shelter."

"Not a trace left now."

Regret seeped into his eyes as he spoke.

If only people had died—their assets could've lined the pockets of daring, well-connected scavengers like him.

But no.

Nothing remained.

Hookline's affluent, along with their endless supplies, now rested eternally in the depths.

"A major shelter—gone just like that."

The young Scavenger Hunter whistled, struggling to process it.

Then anxiety quickly set in.

"We're not far from them."

"Could it happen here too?"

"Who knows with luck?"

"Next victims might be us."

The middle-aged hunter chugged his cola indifferently, about to continue when his ear suddenly twitched.

He detected some unusual movement.

Immediately standing up, he pressed his ear against the tavern wall.

After listening intently for a while,

his expression soon darkened.

"I heard gunfire and the tremors of explosions."

"On a considerable scale."

"Someone's attacking from outside."

(End of chapter)