Jiang Chen was lying on a chair beside the swimming pool, enjoying the last rays of the summer afternoon.
Although he was eager to return to the other side to tell Sun Jiao that he was safe, the interdimensional bracelet was on cool down; there was nothing he could do about it, so he rested.
The weather was becoming chillier, and it wouldn't be long before fall arrived.
Thinking about it now, it had to be close to winter time in the apocalypse.
Because of the radiation dust, winter in the apocalypse world came earlier than it did in the modern world. Going by what Sun Jiao said, usually by mid-October, winter would come to Wanghai City—and it would rightly be called a nightmare.In one month's time, the temperatures would drastically drop to subzero with unnatural snow coating the city in an unhealthy white. Despite this, compared to the first few years, it was getting better. Based on documentations, during the initial years after the nuclear war, the entire world remained frozen in a state of nuclear winter. Only winter, no summer.
During that time, the mutants chose to hibernate or migrate to warmer areas such as abandoned nuclear facilities or geothermal wells.
The only ones unaffected by the harsh temperatures were zombies. Their bodies did not possess enough water to be frozen, but due to the reduced sunlight, their sleep times were also lengthened.
Jiang Chen was deep in thought as he stared at the chilled orange juice placed on the table.
It was necessary to have enough food, clothing, and fuel for the winter, but these were not difficult for him to procure. The coming season would not be too bad for the Fishbone Base.
There was obviously enough food, and winter clothing more effective than down clothes were sold in Sixth Street. Fuel could be substituted by electricity, but overall, the levels of power generated and consumed would decrease in the winter since with the outside temperature already at subzero, the fridge system in the basement could be shut down.
What worried him most was the combat power of the base.From what he gathered during the battle with the mutated humans, the weakness of the Fishbone Base was finally exposed.
Ample money, but still too weak.
With their power armors, they could steamroll through most survivor groups, but if they wished to expand, their opponents were not limited to small groups. Wanghai City had so many forces to begin with—what about outside of the city? In the country? And what about the unknown mutants?
If they didn't have the support of heavy weaponry, they would instantly be at a disadvantage upon encountering a military force of mutated humans.
Even more detrimental was the fact that there was no way to replace power armors. This time, four of them had been busted while the remaining were damaged. Despite eliminating the mutated humans, in the end, it was a terrible trade for Fishbone Base.
He did not expect a group of mutated humans to appear out of nowhere. After realizing the Huizhong Mercenaries were in trouble, he had been ready to take advantage of the situation. But upon finishing off the mercenary group, the new opponents were not friendly and immediately opened fire.
From the start, there had been no chance of a peaceful resolution between normal humans and mutated humans. He grasped the glass of juice and chewed on the straw, deliberating as he gazed at Ayesha's body floating in the water.
They lacked heavy weapons.
Fishbone Base was too dependent on Sixth Street who was likely unwilling to sell heavy weaponry to them. At most, they would offer a heavy machine gun or rocket launcher. The only reason they sold them the high-energy vacuum bombs was because they were ineffective in most situations—useless against zombies and easily intercepted by laser weapons.
These items were limited to begin with since the production facilities were all but destroyed during the war. Weapons like tactical nukes and concentrated laser bombs were all raided from battlefields and half-destroyed military warehouses. Typically, possessing these sort of super weapons reflected the force of a survival camp.
While it was important for Fishbone Base to possess its own firearm production line, they had to also think of ways to develop heavy weaponry. What gave Jiang Chen a headache was that he possessed the technology but not the production capability.
Excluding production equipment, the two limiting factors to Fishbone Base's growth were raw materials and population size.
Mining was impractical in the apocalypse. All of the sources near the surface were emptied. The major mining hubs on small sub-planets and moons had been blown into debris.
And though they did purchase some construction materials from Sixth Street, after this crusade, their own production supplies would have become scarce, so who would be willing to sell to him?
If he wanted to develop the industry, he had to improve waste recycling first.
Because of the rapid advancement in material science, refining matter with page-long names was no mean feat. Jiang Chen knew little about the subject, but he did hear from Zhao Chenwu that 35% of Sixth Street's industrial production was based on "waste recycling" because although organic materials could solve some needs, bullets, bombs, and armors all depended on metal.
As for the matter of population....
Even if they didn't have a complete production line, if they modified some equipment, they could partially create it by hand. This, however, required an excessive amount of labor. The spider tank, for example, required tens of thousands of parts to be assembled. And to use the small population of Fishbone Base to develop military tech.... Zhao Chenwu's military factory alone had more workers.
Could he produce some of the less complex parts in the modern world before moving them to the apocalypse? They had plenty of mining resources, and even if they didn't have the best skills, he could at least acquire some simple production equipment....
Think about it, Jiang Chen wryly smiled and shook his head to give up on the idea. It was too dangerous.
It was not practical in this country. Even if the workers didn't understand the purpose behind the spare parts, a factory without a stated purpose would very soon catch someone's attention. And if anyone happened to find out that he possessed military technology....
The scenario was simply too beautiful to imagine.
Perhaps overseas? Except Jiang Chen was of the mind that all crows in the world were of the same color. If they chose to follow their constitutions and laws, there was a chance that the country would not take action. But if it involved a giant of the military technology field—a massive conglomerate that came into prominence after World War II—they would not pass this opportunity. At this time, the country was willing to keep one eye open, but that was only until the military technology was on the brink of falling into the hands of "their people."
It was such a waste if he could not utilize the rich resources of the modern world.
At that moment, Ayesha burst from the water. Shaking her wet hair, she cast a pleasant smile in Jiang Chen's direction.
Instantly, his eyes light up.
[Urg, it was not because of that….]
Island!
"Fu*k, why didn't I think of it before?" Jiang Chen slapped his head with a humorless smile. The only thing the apocalypse lacked was food, but in this world, it could be obtained almost anywhere. And if work was hard to do domestically, then the situation would be different on a small, developing island.
If he could simultaneously have a base in the modern world, it would greatly benefit the development in the apocalypse! There was no need to worry about resources and labor in the modern world so long as he could control a small neutral country far from international regulations.
His heart began to pump at the thought.
For a long time now, he had been searching for an option to fall back on.
This was after he had introduced Future 1.0 and was asked to have a chat with the person whom he had saved. Of course, he could say this only in his mind, but once he came out from the Wang family's home, he had the intention of leaving.
But the exact details had to be planned out.
He stood up from the chair and began walking towards the mansion. Ayesha swam to the side of the pool, seductive water droplets hanging on to her dark brown, curly hair. Her tender white arms leaned against the poolside.
The look in her eyes asked, "Don’t you want to sleep together?"
Jiang Chen gulped uncontrollably as he took in the charm that she herself didn't know she exuded.
This girl was becoming more and more attractive by the day.
Her white skin was partially due to race, but also partially due to the nutrients in the training chamber. Thanks to it, the grease and the dirt under her skin had been washed away, and the natural pores of the Caucasian race contracted. After days of care, Ayesha's previously stiff skin became as smooth as jade.
It was no exaggeration that if Jiang Chen used the nutrient to open a cosmetic center, he would earn overwhelming profits.
Not only that, but because of the genetic vaccine and the daily workouts, traces of abs began to show. With her perfect legs, the exotic charm became more and more seductive by the day.
But what intoxicated him most was the gaze full of love.
This bikini-clad, attractive figure flourished only for one person.
Jiang Chen had the urge to jump into the water and "play" with her.
But he still had many things to do, and those sorts of actions could be done later at night. Compared to before, he was much better at controlling his desires.
"Ahem, why don’t you play by yourself? I have some things to care of."
Suppressing his desire, Jiang Chen awkwardly smiled and hastily left the pool area.
-
Mansion basement.
Jiang Chen observed the mutated human's body. Taking a deep breath, he extended his right hand.
The storage dimension could not keep living creatures; he had tried it before. Ants could be stored—but not cockroaches—only to be instantly killed. It seemed it would be impractical to kill people using the storage dimension.
It did not cost much energy to store corpses in the dimension, and the energy bar had been charged to 10%.
Jiang Chen tensed at the slight pain radiating from his wrist.
"Fu*k, don’t you break on me!" When there was still no reaction, Jiang Chen began to sweat profusely.
After a short delay, the mutated human twitched and disappeared into the storage dimension.
He let out a long, relieved sigh and wiped the sweat from his forehead. He glanced at his right wrist.
It had cost 5% energy. He then used the remaining energy to remove crystals from the storage dimension before charging the interdimensional bracelet's energy to max capacity.
It seemed that function had already recovered. Next was interdimensional travel.
Jiang Chen initiated the ability.
But soon, his excitement was killed by the pain in his wrist. The storage function had recovered, but the travel ability did not.
"Too soon?" He looked at his right hand, unable to do anything.
But since the storage function had recovered, the travel ability should follow soon after.
After taking care of the body, Jiang Chen went to the third-floor office and booted up his computer.
He had to prepare his plan to purchase an island.
Opening up Baidu Wiki and Google Earth, his eyes searched the Pacific Rim region.
It didn't have to be too big. Even if he ran out of land later, the apocalypse world had the technology to create artificial land masses. Only, the ocean was more frightening than land, so the technology was not well-known among survivors.
There was also no need for many people as it would be easier to control. If later he needed more, he could simply bring some in.
An unstable political situation, but not too chaotic.
The lower the GDP, the better. The poorer they were, the easier it would be to purchase the land. He would have to invest in it regardless.
Ideally, they wouldn't have a dispute with neighboring countries over annoying things like natural gas or oil. He would eliminate those materials at any time. He didn't need them to make a living, and it would be troublesome to guard against "thieves" when developing in seclusion.
Another important factor was that it had to be away from the "five thugs"! (Likely referring to the five permanent members of the UN Security Council.)
Finally, he found a small country located on Pannu Island.
It almost seemed made for him.
A smile on his face, Jiang Chen called Robert's number.
"Hello? My old friend, you finally remember your unlucky friend." Robert’s glib tongue was in action on the other side of the phone.
"I've been busy lately. Would you like to cut a deal?" Jiang Chen didn't bother with chit-chat and cut straight to the topic.
