Armed Train in the Apocalypse

Wei Mountain’s face was as grim as if it could wring out water.

The conversation with Haywood still lingered clearly in his mind.

In just over half a year, Su Huan had grown from a small force that lucked out against the Steel Council to this point.

Wei Mountain took a deep breath—one lucky strike is one thing, but if it’s always luck, then it’s hard power, especially now with the Genetic Primordial in the city, Su Huan couldn’t be provoked.

There were many others who were similarly dissatisfied, but no one dared to voice a single doubt.

Shu Wei knocked the gavel, ”The auction begins, the first item, a medicinal liquor that slightly enhances life force. Not for consumption by ordinary people, with no side effects, a total of two vats, weighing ten pounds, starting bid at 10,000 points, and each increment must not be less than one thousand.”

As these words fell, most people appeared confused, as they had no concept of ”life force,” but agents from major powers immediately looked different.

This was something their organizations had clearly instructed them to bring back.

Mr. Shu, Lian Jin, and others’ expressions also turned serious, not expecting the train to start by unveiling such a fierce offering.

It was meant to be a good start indeed.

Soldiers opened the box and moved the two vats of amber-colored medicinal liquor to the display stand beside them.

The attendees in the front row leaned closer, their eyes showing astonishment, ”There’s a pan-energy fluctuation.”

”Looks good, but what does life force mean? A factor determining career advancement?”

”Does anyone know? I’ll pay a hundred points to find out.”

”...”

Some were more clever and looked at Shu Wei asking, ”What does life force mean? Can you explain it to us, otherwise we don’t even know what we’re buying it for.”

Instantly, everyone’s eyes focused on the secretary.

Shu Wei was prepared for this and calmly replied, ”Life force pertains to advancement rules, and it’s not free to disclose. If you need detailed information, it’s two hundred points per person and cannot be spread before the auction concludes.”

There was immediate discontent and debate among the crowd.

On the armed train, two hundred points is no small matter. It could equip a Scavenger with a full set of tactical gear, with enough left over to buy a pile of food.

Moreover, there’s only one way to acquire points: exchanging resources with the train, with prices depending on the train’s demand and not market prices.

Facing the noisy crowd, Shu Wei made no attempt to maintain order, allowing the discussion to continue.

But some gritted their teeth and exchanged two hundred points for the information, looking at the two vats of liquor with intense heat in their eyes upon returning.

Seeing more people hesitating whether to exchange for information, Lian Jin couldn’t hold back and shouted, ”I offer ten thousand.”

The room went silent, then a low, smooth voice sounded, ”Twelve thousand.”

Lian Jin frowned and looked over to see a man in camouflage, with an aura dense as iron, obviously also a Tier Two.

The man had no insignia, so it was unclear which faction he belonged to.

At this stage, there were no Tier Two Evolvers in the wilderness, so he must be from a major power.

After some thought, Lian Jin directly stated his bottom line, ”Fifteen thousand, all paid in Pan-energy Crystals.”

The other party fell silent immediately.

Shu Wei waited a moment, and seeing no one continued to raise the bid, knocked the gavel.

The two men’s extravagance immediately swept out the small factions with insufficient funds, leaving no opportunity even to raise their bid.

Sitting on the sofa, Su Huan was extremely satisfied, as Director Xu had prepared a total of 12 vats of liquor, and the raw materials for these 12 vats required only two Life Potions, while the raw materials for two Life Potions were half a Crown Pear.

So using one twelfth of a Crown Pear brought him fifteen thousand points!

Converted to Pan-energy Crystals, that’s fifteen hundred Tier One Pan-energy Crystals.

If the conductor were a bit more ruthless and slightly lowered the purchase price of Tier One Pan-energy Crystals, getting sixteen hundred or seventeen hundred wouldn’t be a problem.

And seventeen hundred Tier One Zombies, at the Armed Corps’ hunting pace, would take a week, considering the zombie horde isn’t differentiated by level. High-tier Zombies are always surrounded by a large number of regular zombies, and adding the extraction time, it would still take at least ten days to half a month!

This is without calculating war losses and bullet consumption costs.

’This is way faster than robbing...’

With Su Huan’s mental capacity, he quickly understood this transaction and realized its speed.

He then frantically calculated the previous combat costs against the cost-benefit ratio of the spoils.

Soon concluded, trading was far faster than fighting.

And the further it went, the faster it became, the larger the scale, the faster it grew.

With this thought, Su Huan’s gaze on everyone became more amiable.

Shu Wei had already begun auctioning the second item, also from the armed train, three sets of Tier One ”Firepower Hand” complete potions, and called a soldier to demonstrate on-site.

...

Chenxi Square, at the auction outskirts store.

Due to the auction, business in the outside stores rose by thirty percent, whether on the main street or in the narrow alleys privately built behind, people were everywhere. Aside from the vigorous surface, violence, sex, and slaughter were the main themes of this city.

Beasts let out of the cage naturally wouldn’t want to be restrained. Those surviving the apocalypse only trusted the knife in their hands, not the order established by any faction.

If the order was upheld at gunpoint, that would be a different story.

Yet, some incidents were still challenging to handle, such as the violent dismemberment cases that occurred during the two-day auction.

The first case appeared three days ago, discovered by the train due to a strong pan-energy fluctuation, but by the time the corps officers arrived, the person had run away, and the matter was hastily concluded as an unexpected incident.

The City Guard Army, after all, was not the Law Enforcement, lacking such professional investigative experience.