N-A-A Chapter 64 The Zhang Family
Chapter 64 The Zhang Family
Chapter 64 Going Home
"Buck."
A clear command from Luo Wei rang out from behind the gas mask.
"Go and drag the spare folding soft oil bladder from the trailer here."
"What?!" Buck thought he had misheard. "That's for storing fuel, Advisor."
"Now we need to use it to store something more valuable." Rowe pointed to the leaking incision in front of him. "Drain it."
"Advisor, this is plague bathwater! It's soup made from excrement and corpses!" Buck was on the verge of collapse. "If this stuff is put into oil sacs, how will we store oil later? The Inquisition will burn us all!"
"The courts only burn tax-debt scum," Rowe declared sternly. "Listen, Buck, our land is dead; normal fertilizer won't revive it. We need something stronger!"
"There are indeed viruses and contaminants in it. As long as we dilute it a thousand times and sterilize it three times at high temperatures after we get back, it will be the best nutrient solution."
Seeing that Buck still had reservations, Rowe continued, "Buck, you've seen the way those refugees stare at canned meat. Once the food supply stops, hunger will instantly strip them of their humanity, turning them into beasts that kill each other."
"At that time, in order to maintain the balance of the granary's income and expenditure, we had no choice but to throw them into the fermentation tank as inferior raw materials to make corpse starch and fertilizer."
"Now tell me, do you want to use this truckload of plague-ridden, filthy water to irrigate the land, or do you want to use tens of thousands of lives to irrigate the land?"
After Rowe said that, Buck stopped insisting.
"Now, execute the order. Insert the pipes, turn the pumps to maximum power, I'm taking this asset with me."
At that moment, Buck felt that the frail clerk before him was more insane and more awe-inspiring than the writhing volcano of flesh behind him.
This is a kind of greed and rationality that transcends fear.
"—Yes, sir."
Buck waved his hand, and two dumbfounded men dragged over the massive oil pipeline.
"Pfft."
The tube was roughly inserted into the frozen incision.
With the roar of the pump starting up, the viscous, golden slurry began to gush out in the transparent tube.
Then it was continuously sucked into the oil sac.
"Glug, glug."
The liquid level inside the reactor began to drop.
This massive bio-factory felt insulted and threatened.
It stopped just vibrating and started convulsing wildly.
The fleshy growth on the ceiling of the hall, like a ripe fruit falling, crashed to the ground and burst into clumps of acid.
The fungal carpet on the surrounding walls also began to peel off, revealing the rusty metal supports underneath.
"Warning! Structural stability has dropped to 20%!" Father Alpha screamed. "Advisor, it's collapsing, physiological shock! Its sphincter has loosened; the entire hall is going to collapse!"
"Ten more seconds."
Lowe stared intently at the flow meter on the oil pipeline.
One ton.
Two tons.
Three tons.
These are more than just numbers.
This was his guarantee of survival for the next six months, and the source of his confidence to stand tall in front of the governor.
"Enough! Pull the plug and retreat!"
Just as a concrete slab fell from the top of the hall.
With a wave of his hand, Luo Wei forcibly severed the oil pipeline, spurting out a foul-smelling liquid.
He quickly jumped into the passenger seat of the chimera.
Before the car door was even fully closed, Father Alfa had already pushed the power to its limit.
"Boom!"
A deafening roar came from behind.
The fleshy "volcano" could no longer hold on, and its massive body collapsed with a crash.
During this process, it also emitted a shrill scream similar to a baby's cry, piercing everyone's eardrums.
The scalding broth, mixed with pebbles and pieces of corpses, surged and crashed outwards like a tsunami!
"Hurry, hurry, hurry!"
Buck was in the back of the truck, frantically pounding on the partition of the driver's compartment.
Two Chimera trucks, each pulling a fully loaded trailer, were engaged in a life-or-death race through a narrow tunnel.
The tunnel behind them is being submerged and swallowed up section by section.
Luo Wei gripped the handrail, his body swaying violently with the bumps of the vehicle.
He did not turn around to look at the scene of destruction behind him.
Instead, he painstakingly recorded it in his notebook:
[Updated Asset Recovery List]
【1. M36 Industrial Centrifuges: 3 units (Forced detachment from the biomass reactor due to fouling, resulting in severe parasitic infestation and damage to the core components, requiring deep purification and repair)】
2. Solid fuel (coal): Approximately 15 tons (a "carpet" formed by the polymerization of cadaver fat and fungi under geothermal conditions; it has an extremely high carbon content and can replace natural fuel after being crushed and sieved)
3. Premium High-Energy Liquid Fertilizer (High-Pressure Broth): 3.5 tons (Extremely dangerous biochemical polymer liquid, rich in nitrogen, phosphorus, and potassium; for use only in the core area after dilution)
4. High-purity alloy stones (rat stomach contents): approximately 1 box (containing one giant stone from the rat king and several ordinary stones, recovered by the widows' group after dissection; these are rare metal essences purified through rat bio-enzymes)
[5. Live specimens of giant rats infected with fever: 5 rats (already placed in lead-sealed cages, extremely dangerous. Their bodies contain special biological enzymes that are resistant to high temperatures and strong acids, possessing extremely high scientific research and medicinal value, and must be immediately sent to the laboratory for isolation and culture)]
He finally let out a sigh of relief after writing the last line.
After the convoy had traveled some distance, a final, muffled roar came from the depths of the tunnel behind them, before fading into silence.
The underground hall of the core grain depot of the Ninth Agricultural War Zone has completely collapsed.
The convoy gradually slowed down and stopped on the side of the road for repairs.
Everyone looked like they'd been pulled out of the water, drenched in sweat.
Seven or eight death row inmates were slumped on the truck full of charcoal and corpses, panting heavily, their tired faces showing a hint of joy.
They survived such a dangerous operation.
They were about to receive the canned meat that Loewy had promised.
Luo Wei pushed open the car door and jumped out.
The ground underfoot was still damp, but it was no longer scalding hot.
The murky air was no longer filled with the nauseating smell of decay.
He walked to the front of the car to check the extent of the damage.
However, his movements froze when his gaze fell on the frontal armor of the chimera.
After devouring a plague foreman and being immersed in an environment filled with high concentrations of subspace radiation for so long, the "Wall of Gluttony" has undergone some changes.
The originally dark red metal surface has now hardened completely, presenting a deep texture similar to obsidian.
In the very center of the armor, where the double-headed eagle insignia should have been, lies the armor.
An eye has grown.
Eyes that are not made of flesh and blood.
Instead, it is a compound eye woven from countless crystalline sensors and metal fibers.
At this moment, the compound eye was turning slightly, shimmering with a ghostly blue light, and staring at Rowe.
Fortunately, Lowe did not sense any hostility.
There's only one kind of affectionate gesture, similar to how a pet fawns over its owner.
"Advisor, this—" Buck leaned closer.
Seeing this, I was so frightened that I almost dropped the gun in my hand.
"It's watching you." Father Alpha also came over, his face showing no fear, but rather a fascination as he stretched out his mechanical tentacles, trying to touch the eye. "The machine spirit—it has evolved, it has developed some kind of intelligence."
Luo Wei remained silent for a moment.
He reached out and patted the cold metal compound eye through his thick gloves.
It's like soothing the neck of a wild horse.
"As long as it obeys orders and can still stop bullets, it is the Empire's equipment."
He won his gamble this time.
Although every item brought back was tainted with heretical aura that could drive the Inquisition mad.
But that's the price of survival.
Purity is the privilege of the dead.
Living people are only fit to wallow in the mud and then scavenge for sustenance from rotten flesh.
"Count the number of people, check the vehicles, and get ready to go home!"
"When you get back, remember to hide the fertilizer well. It's the key to whether we'll have enough to eat in the future."
Seventh Agricultural Theater.
The granary of the east.
Abandoned transfer station in underground B-3 area.
This area was originally a closed zone used to process expired fertilizers and highly toxic pesticides, and it was erased from official maps a long time ago.
At this moment, the heavy explosion-proof gate slowly closed, blocking the outside world's prying eyes.
Only a few dim emergency lights were flashing.
Standing in the shadow of the Chimera troop carrier, Rowe removed his gas mask and took a deep breath of the cool air.
Even after filtration, the air was still extremely polluted.
He did not immediately order the unloading.
He first glanced down at the brass pocket watch in his hand.
4:27 a.m.
There were less than two hours until dawn.
"Case." Rowe pressed the communicator to his ear.
"Sever all physical connections to the outside world from Zone B-3, including the check valves in the ventilation ducts. Connect the monitoring signals here to your underlying logic; no one but me can see them."
Soon, the Case server's electronic voice responded: "Command confirmed. Executing logic overwrite—"
The area is now silent.
Rowe nodded, his gaze sweeping over the entire convoy.
Two Chimera trucks and several trailers.
The wheels were covered in a thick layer of black mud, a mixture of fungal growth and corpse oil, which was still stuck to them.
Inside the train carriages were "contraband" enough to prompt the court to burn the entire eastern grain depot to ashes.
However, in Luo Wei's eyes, this was a complicated balance sheet.
As a qualified clerk, his job is not to eliminate risks, but to keep the table on the verge of collapse through precise calculations and operations.
"Let's begin." Rowe waved to Father Alpha behind him. "Be careful. If the broth spills, this whole area will be ruined."
The unloading work was oppressive and silent.
The death row inmates dared not speak; they were terrified by their recent hellish experience and now only wanted to finish their work quickly and receive the promised canned meat.
They worked in pairs, laboriously carrying sealed boxes filled with "coal ash".
These dark red clumps are incredibly dense; even though they are only the size of a briefcase, they are as heavy as lead.
"Thump."
A muffled thud.
One of the death row inmates slipped, and the box crashed heavily to the ground.
"Watch out, you idiot!"
Buck, who was resting by the wheel, jumped up when he heard the sound.
His reaction was unusually strong.
His single eye was bloodshot, and his pupil was constricted.
He was extremely tense, and a low growl, like a wild animal guarding its prey, came from his throat.
"Hungry----"
Buck stared at the death row inmate.
To be precise, it was about staring at the muscles bulging from the tension in the condemned prisoner's arms, and the pulsating blood vessels beneath the skin.
Saliva spilled uncontrollably from the corners of his mouth, dripping onto his oil-stained breastplate.
It wasn't just him.
In the corner, old John, who was in charge of recording the list, dropped his pen to the ground.
This usually shrewd old man picked up a lump of caustic soda as if it were an exquisite delicacy, licked it, and then stuffed it into his mouth.
Meanwhile, on the side of the defense force's heavy weapons squad.
Three machine gunners on this mission were gathered around a barrel of industrial wastewater used to cool their gun barrels, their eyes gleaming, seemingly discussing whether it was safe to drink.
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