Apocalypse: the Most Ruthless Person

”Okay, it’s good that everything’s fine. I heard from Teacher Duan before that you mentioned something about the firepower generator?”

Zhang Su naturally inquired about the generator.

”Yeah, haha, I just mentioned it casually back then, Brother Zhang, don’t take it seriously.”

Jia Shiqin didn’t expect his joke to be taken seriously, and he repeatedly explained.

Zhang Su patted Jia Shiqin on the shoulder and said, ”Why would that be a joke? I specifically came over to ask you about the generator. I heard that you had a friend who used to work at a power plant on the east side of Qin City. How much do you know about that?”

”No, no, Brother Zhang, I really was just joking around back then, it’s impractical... The scale of a power generator is huge, easily taking up nearly a thousand square meters. Even if we had space, there’s no way we could bring it back, it’s exaggerated, exaggerated...”

Jia Shiqin continued to explain, blaming himself for speaking too much initially.

”A thousand square meters?”

Zhang Su turned around and looked at the parking lot. A thousand square meters is just a thirty-three-meter square area. If you say it’s big, it’s not that big, but as Jia Shiqin mentioned, bringing back such a large set of generators would be quite a task!

Given the current transportation capabilities, it’s impossible unless special vehicles are found.

”Yeah, and that’s one of the smaller ones. Of course, when I say small, I mean small for a city; actually, it’s quite large, with twenty megawatts, normally sufficient for fifty thousand households’ daily use.”

Jia Shiqin embarrassedly explained, saying that in the current state of Celestial Horse Island, even if you gathered all the survivors in Qin City, it’d be hard to make up ten thousand people, let alone fifty thousand households...

”Fifty thousand households...”

When Zhang Su heard this, a number that seemed insignificant before now appeared astronomical. He didn’t think it was an exaggeration like Jia Shiqin did, but had a sudden flash of inspiration, as if the number fifty thousand had some sort of magic, stirring his mind.

Why not develop according to this standard...

Zhang Su pondered silently, wondering how he even dared to think about it. Suddenly, the target of fifty thousand households seemed very appealing. If a camp could grow to the size of fifty thousand households, it might not be unparalleled globally, but it should be dominant in its region.

However, this kind of grand ambition was hard to express openly, lest others think he was aiming too high.

”Fifty thousand households are indeed too many. Even counting an average of three people per household, that’s still 150,000 people. I heard that before the disaster, Qing County had only about 400,000 people. Haha. But even if we’re not going for such high-powered generators, are there no smaller ones?”

Zhang Su asked.

”Finished!” Taking advantage of the chat, Guo Dachao finished his work, took off his welding mask, and chimed in, ”Brother Su, if you’re talking about powering the camp, I think a one-million-watt firepower generator would be more than sufficient!”

”One million watts? We were just talking about megawatts, and now it’s gone down to watts; we skipped right over to the billion-unit... How many people can use one million watts?”

Zhang Su calculated on his fingers but couldn’t quite sort it out. In fact, his mental math skills weren’t weak; he used to own a convenience store and frequently needed to do quick calculations, but those were always small amounts, at most a few tens of thousands of RMB. This jump to megawatts was indeed a challenge to convert.

”A one-million-watt generator can produce about seven or eight hundred kilowatt-hours per hour, which would be enough for two to three hundred households before the disaster.”

Jia Shiqin skillfully answered Zhang Su’s question as he dealt with electricity every day, these numbers were second nature to him.

”Two to three hundred households? That’s about seven to eight hundred people, hmm. Now we can’t calculate electricity consumption based on pre-catastrophe living standards, so it should definitely be enough. Master Jia, see if you can find a generator around the one-million-watt level!”

Although Zhang Su hadn’t interacted with the high-precision experimental equipment that Fu Weijun had mentioned, he’d heard that laboratories consumed a lot of electricity, which shouldn’t be calculated based on normal household use. Having ample electricity is always a good thing.

”There really is one!”

The three of them walked towards the restaurant, and Jia Shiqin, slightly excited, said, ”If we’re just talking about one-million-watt generators, I know of several places that have them. There’s the Xinjing Garden District in the development zone north of Qin City, the property management bought one there. Also, a wind turbine blade factory in the development zone has two, and... right, there’s also the development zone, a chemical plant called something with ’Ou’ in its name has around a million watts of power equipment there, and the Beihai Amusement Park has one too. That’s right, the amusement park’s is quite new, it was purchased around the beginning of the year.”

”Haha, no wonder you’re a seasoned industry insider, able to pull out even the most niche information at will. Old Jia, impressive!”

Zhang Su patted Jia Shiqin on the shoulder, not holding back his compliments.

Jia Shiqin scratched his head and laughed, ”Hehe... this is just from chatting with people when there was no work, it’s nothing much. But Brother Zhang, the disaster has been going on for quite some time now, it’s possible that some of these have already been snapped up by others.”

”No way!” Zhang Su shook his head confidently, ”If my guess is correct, the one-million-watt generator is probably not small, right?”

”Indeed, it’s not small, covering several square meters, at least ten tons!” Jia Shiqin gestured exaggeratedly.

”Exactly! Small generators might be taken for use, but enterprise-level generators aren’t so easily moved. Frankly, there aren’t many camps that both need and have the capability to transport such a generator. Even if they need it, they can’t take them all; there are bound to be some left behind.”

Zhang Su was not worried at all, knowing that such a large chunk of iron would be hard to transport. It’s like trying to tow away the tanks without engines from the barracks, a massive challenge!

He considered the plan for generators and experimental equipment. If they could really develop a drug that stops the self-replicating nature of the zombie robots, it might not completely conquer the zombie crisis since it’s not a vaccine, but it would still ensure a great degree of human safety.

Once they mastered that technology, future development prospects would be in sight!

As they walked into the restaurant, others were already dining. The steamy porridge, stir-fried fresh vegetables, and some canned foods would make for a decent dinner, even before.

”How’s the house been sorted out?”

After eating, Zhang Su saw Ju Mumio and Yi Xiaoling sitting in a corner, so he pulled a chair over to join them.

The two had already changed out of their ill-fitting, grubby clothes. The new down jackets lay folded to the side, and they wore fitted tops, clearly allocated from the storeroom.

”Brother Su.”

”Don’t get up, keep eating, don’t mind me...”

Seeing Yi Xiaoling putting down her chopsticks to stand up, Zhang Su motioned for her to stay seated. Ju Mumio didn’t stand up either, but she paused her eating.

”The rooms are great, fully equipped. We didn’t have to organize much, it’s incredibly convenient, completely beyond our expectations.”

The color had returned to Yi Xiaoling’s face, and her eyes were full of excitement. She had never even dreamed that she could live in a place with heating and a balcony again; not only was there hot water, but also a television!

Though there were no channels on the TV, just seeing the glowing screen made one feel like they were still living in modern society—far better than finding a random courtyard in a village and being constantly on edge!

Zhang Su smiled, nodding, ”How does the camp’s atmosphere feel?”

”Very good.” Yi Xiaoling looked around at the people eating, lowly proclaiming, ”It’s like being back at school; there’s a kind big sister who helped us find our room, and eating feels like being in a cafeteria, with everyone’s happy chatter—it’s a scene I wouldn’t even dare dream of.”

Ju Mumio looked at Yi Xiaoling with soft eyes upon hearing her words and then continued eating.

”It’s great you’re not feeling unfamiliar. Since you’re at Celestial Horse Island, as I mentioned before, you’ll also have to take on some of your responsibilities.”

”Of course, Brother Zhang, you tell us.”

Yi Xiaoling nodded repeatedly. The living environment at Celestial Horse Island felt like a paradise to her. She would enthusiastically work even without Zhang Su’s prompting. If life could continue this way, she would have to find something to do!

”Xiaoling, you studied agriculture in university and have practical experience, so you should work in your field, taking care of the greenhouse. Go and report to that uncle, Ma Changshou, he’s our camp’s technical consultant.”

Zhang Su pointed to Ma Changshou, who was eating in the corner.

Yi Xiaoling followed Zhang Su’s finger to see a typical rural uncle. She nodded and agreed readily, ”Yes, Brother Zhang, I certainly have no problems with farming!”

Then, she glanced at Ju Mumio and smiled, asking, ”Brother Zhang, what about Xiaojuzi?”

”As for Xiaojuzi...” Zhang Su turned to find Ju Mumio looking at him, evidently waiting for him to speak. ”You have considerable fighting skills, so you can temporarily serve as a coach for our elite team, teaching combat techniques.”