Chapter 1362: The Nuclear Warhead On The Beach
Translator: _Min_ Editor: Rainystars
The North American colony in the apocalypse.
Zhou Guoping summoned the officials and held a quick meeting in the Governor’s Mansion.
“…The first phase of the project is only halfway to completion and we need more slaves to contribute to our colony. Now our colony is quite crowded and the construction site is filled with refugees from other places. I suggest we immediately begin the second phase of the project by developing the residential area outside the fortress.”
“We are colonists, and we are not here to do charity work in North America. We are feeding more than 30,000 laborers, and that’s more than enough. What we need now is money, not more people,” Zhou Guoping emphasized again.” It’s not caps, nor crystals, but credit points.”
Even if he never implemented the system himself, he had seen its action.
After the time he spent at the Sixth Street, Hongcheng, and Shangjing in underground activities, even if he was not too gifted in governing, he was not blind. For example, he knew the most important point, that was, no matter what you do, you cannot do without money.
Now that the budget was nearing depletion, the first and foremost important issue was to solve the funding problem. The funding here did not refer to North American survivors, but to the credit points that circulated in the NAC.
From the most basic construction steel to the high-end munitions production line, the amount of material in this new colony was much higher than it appeared. The only thing that they didn’t lack was food and refugees were attracted by food.
Food was always a great commodity sold everywhere. However, if they just relied on food alone, it would be difficult to exchange for the real goods from these ordinary survivors.
Whether the National Guard or Minutemen, they all held a cautious attitude towards NAC’s actions on the West Coast.
In particular, the self-proclaimed righteous National Guard, with pre-war thinking, regarded NAC as the “remnants” of the Pan-Asia Cooperation. Although they did not take any hostile actions towards the NAC outpost, they were never friendly either.
Just as the people around the table were discussing how to develop the local specialties of the colony to draw investors from the Sixth Street in, a messenger ran in. After he saluted, he reported to Zhou Guoping.
“…Our reconnaissance team witnessed a large number of Mud Crabs in an abandoned port ten kilometers away from the colony, it is suspected that there is a nest there.”
“Don’t bother me with such trivial things,” Zhou Guoping waved his hand impatiently, “Do what you should do.”
“Yes!”
After the messenger saluted again, he ran out. However, before he even took two steps, Zhou Guoping suddenly stopped him.
“Wait,” Zhou Guoping stopped the messenger.
The soldiers stopped, turned around, and saluted again.
“What else, sir?”
“What is the difference between the Mud Crabs here compared to the Mud Crabs in Asia?” Zhou Guoping’s eyes turned while he touched his chin.
Before the messenger had time to answer, another NAC officer sitting at the conference table responded with confusion in his tone.
“Bigger, lighter in color, crab claws with serrated barbs, crab roe is milky white… Is there any problem?”
“No problem, it’s just that I suddenly thought of Yizhou. Remember the crab roe from the Yizhou island colony? I ate it once and it was delicious.” Zhou Guoping licked his lips as fascination appeared in his eyes as well as a touch of excitement.
Just now, he suddenly thought of a good way to make money.
The North American colony could follow the example of Yizhou Island and cultivate aquatic products like Mud Crabs in coastal areas.
By that time, he could give these North American Mud Crabs a new name, one distinguished enough to sell its milky crab roes to the Sixth Street. It would definitely have a market!
“Clean up that abandoned port, and collect all the mud crab eggs!”
“Roger!” The messenger gave a military salute and turned away.
…
Outside the abandoned port, rusty containers were piled up randomly, and destroyed goods were scattered everywhere. For strange reasons, a large cargo ship beached on the shore, and half of the ship ran aground on the slope-like shore, covered by countless seaweeds from the sea.
With plenty of food and suitable humidity, this semi-humid environment was the most optimal for Mud Crabs.
Early the next morning, the roar of the engine from a distance broke the tranquility of the abandoned port.
More than a dozen trucks, escorted by four assault armored vehicles, parked in the open space in front of the port.
Soldiers with rifles jumped off the truck one after another. A small part of them was from the NAC army while most of them were mercenaries composed of local survivors. Everyone was divided into two teams and assembled in front of the vehicles. The NAC officer in power armor walked to the front of the team and shouted in a hoarse voice.
“Okay, cheer up, lads. You have already received your mission, so I won’t repeat it here. If we are lucky, we can eat fresh grilled crab roe at noon.”
“What if you are not lucky?” someone couldn’t help but ask.
“Then you’ll be turned into crab roe.”
NAC engineers stepped forward, placed explosives on the bulkhead of the cabin, and quickly retreated. With the weapons provided by the NAC, the mercenaries at the forefront stood by at a safe distance from the explosion as they eagerly fiddled with the new equipment in their hands.
With a loud bang, the rusty cabin was blasted open with a hole half-a-person high. With the rocket launcher provided by NAC soldiers, Blood Axe rushed into the freighter on the shore first. He pointed the rocket launcher at a Mud Crab that made a hoarse noise and pulled the trigger.
As a trail of smoke left the rocket launcher, the flame illuminated the other end of the ship.
After he tossed the launcher away, Blood Axe quickly equipped the rifle behind his back and unleashed his firepower at another Mud Crab that emerged from the corner. His boys also join the fray as they greeted the Mud Crabs with more rockets and grenades.
Although the shell of Mud Crabs was thick, they didn’t last long under this barrage.
Soon, the smoked Mud Crabs curled up into balls and crooked to the side of the hallway. At this time, the NAC force, which entered from the other side of the cabin, also joined the battlefield. Armed with weapons that were significantly better than these mercenaries, they weaved a net named death inside the ship.
Sparks jumped in the cabin, and soon half of the cabin was cleared out. The part that was immersed in the water could not be cleaned for the moment. The officer asked the engineer to go up and weld the doors with alloy plates to prevent the underwater Mud Crabs from coming up.
After the engineer had done all this, he yelled to the soldier behind him.
“Search the area! Collect the eggs! Pay attention to the big eggs. The little crabs from there are harder to deal with…”
NAC’s price for these eggs was a basin-sized egg for a bag of instant noodles. Blood Axe had very much enjoyed trading goods with goods. Compared to the pointy caps, he preferred the “hard currency” that could be exchanged for goods anywhere.
Just as he ordered his boys to collect these crab eggs, he went deeper into the cabin with his rifle to see if there was anything worth searching. This port had been abandoned for so many years and had obviously been visited by survivors countless times, but this freighter occupied by Mud Crabs was undoubtedly an undeveloped territory.
The deeper he went, the more humid the surrounding environment and the denser the sticky seaweed.
At this moment, his EP suddenly flashed, indicating that the radiation level exceeded normal levels.
Blood Axe immediately gave himself a shot of iodine. As he watched the flashing red light gradually dim, he stepped forward and continued.
At the end of the warehouse was a row of cracked containers, completely wrapped by seaweed. The water stains on the ground illuminated with indescribable fluorescence, which made him afraid to take a step forward. Obviously, the radioactive source was there, and the radiation there was not something an iodine shot would resist.
“I found something here,” Blood Axe shouted behind him.
NAC recognized the value of intelligence.
The stuff inside was obviously not something he could recover, so he chose to contribute this information to the NAC. If the NAC found something good here, based on their past behavior, they were never stingy with rewards.
“What’s the situation?” The officer in the power armor and four soldiers walked over here.
“The amount of radiation here exceeds the average,” Blood Axe pointed at the container wrapped in seaweed with his thick index finger, “There must be something in it, but I can’t be sure.”
The officer frowned slightly and walked forward.
Power armor had top-level radiation resistance, and it could easily cross areas that received nuclear attacks, and naturally, it was not afraid of this level of radiation. When the officer walked in front of the container, he lifted his heavy steel palm and tore apart the seaweed stuck to the surface of the container.
“The sign of radioactivity… there should be something incredible.” The officer turned his head and said to one of the soldiers, “Bring the engineer over and remember to put on protective clothing.”
Soon, an engineer with a toolbox ran over.
After the engineer took out a thick laser-cut gun from the toolbox, he pointed a sharp knife at the container. In a stream of water mist, the humming blade cut into the container like tofu, then left a neat cut on the container.
Blood Axe stared nervously at the container that was gradually being cut open, his heart was pounding furiously as he silently prayed. If they found something good, it would increase his pay.
Soon, the engineer cut a two-person wide opening in the container, and then quickly exited the radiation area with the toolbox. The officer took a step forward, pulled the half-dangling aluminum alloy skin off the container, and stepped into the container.
These mutated seaweeds had strong penetrating power and had penetrated into the container. They even covered the goods stored in the container. When the officer turned on the tactical flashlight, he wiped the seaweed from the surface.
“Let me see what exactly is inside… the radioactive sign…”
Suddenly, the outstretched hand stopped.
The officer involuntarily took a step back. He muttered to himself in a low but trembling voice.
“This is… a nuclear warhead?”