Chapter 205: Chapter 140: Strategic Food Reserve, Recruiting Scientific Researchers
He first had the others step back. After taking a deep breath, he dropped into a horse stance and planted his feet firmly. Power surged from the soles of his feet into his upper body, and finally, aided by his back and arm muscles, he unleashed a charged punch as fast as sound.
The straight punch broke the sound barrier, sending a sonic boom’s shockwave rippling through the air.
As his fist connected with the lock core of the steel gate, a terrifying force approaching one hundred tons, amplified by its sonic velocity, was transferred into the gate.
The next moment, the coat of anti-rust paint on the supposedly Indestructible alloy door shattered. Then, the extremely hard alloy began to twist and deform, absorbing the force from the punch and letting out a deafening crash.
Fortunately, the mountain rock above absorbed the energy of the sound waves, preventing the noise from traveling for kilometers.
However, the nearby ground and the entire mountain trembled violently. The shaking was so intense that it caused numerous cracks to appear on the reinforced concrete walls inside the cave.
Nearby wildlife scattered and fled.
Once the dust settled, the group walked back inside.
The entire gate was completely twisted and warped. The section with the lock on the right side was caved in, leaving a gaping, palm-sized hole.
The three steel bars within the lock’s core had also snapped. The force had been transferred so quickly they didn’t have time to bend or suffer metal fatigue; they had simply shattered.
Lin Feng opened the sealed gate with just a gentle push.
Shining a searchlight inside, they saw stacks of large black boxes in the dim cavern, all filled with standard-issue, dark-green tin Cans.
They had the look of something from forty or fifty years ago.
They were a far cry from the modern, portable, self-heating individual MRE pouches.
The latter were at least proper pre-cooked meals. The food inside these Cans, sealed for years, had likely disintegrated into mush. But when you’re desperate enough to tap into strategic reserves, taste and texture aren’t a priority. All that mattered was that it could fill their stomachs.
The stockpiled supplies consisted of only a few items. After Han Yuxin took inventory, she found that more than half were compressed biscuits, while the rest included soybeans, pork, beef, and white sugar.
As the apocalypse dragged on, their value would only continue to skyrocket.
Once he confirmed the supplies were in order, Lin Feng called Chen Yanyan and had her station her fleet on the side of the mountain.
The winding mountain road at the edge of the range was less than two kilometers away.
A Land Patrol Battleship would make too much noise coming in, but sending the Flying Wing Tanks into the forest was perfectly fine.
Having people haul everything out ton by ton would take far too long; they simply didn’t have the time.
By the time Lin Feng had punched open the other two strategic food caches in the same manner, the fleet was already parked by the road. The roar of Tank engines soon echoed from within the forest.
Trees toppled one after another as the Flying Wing Tanks used the triangular battering rams on their fronts to plow a path forward.
Lin Feng put Han Yuxin in command of the operation on-site, then returned to the Battleship and retrieved his Tiger-toothed Chainsaw Sword.
Chen Yanyan was sitting in the driver’s seat and spoke up:
"Going to find that Professor Ding? Do you still remember the way?"
Lin Feng nodded. Ding Fatty had plenty of goodies; the Chainsaw Sword alone was highly valuable for trade.
"If an Awakener can’t remember a path after walking it once, there’s something seriously wrong with their head."
"My original plan was to take over all of Jin City, then spend time recruiting a ten-thousand-strong force to serve as the foundation of our power, and then find professionals to join us..."
"But with the Thirteenth Division nearly in hand, some things need to be set in motion ahead of schedule," Lin Feng replied with a shrug.
’A group of a few hundred, or even a thousand, constantly displaced people can’t provide a stable environment for research, nor can they bear the resource cost.
’But a massive army of over ten thousand could hold a defensive line, fend off the Zerg Race invasion, and the materials collected from clearing the battlefields could be given to researchers for analysis.
’If I want to establish my own faction, I can’t just pursue martial power. A dedicated research center would allow me to obtain the latest critical intelligence.
’From my escape from Hai City to my growth to this point, the intelligence provided by Ding Fatty has been indispensable.
’Whether it was the files on the Zerg Race or the latest weaponry.
’In the Underground Zerg Nest, I witnessed the powerful combat capabilities of Genetic Warriors like Qin Hu. Although they weren’t on my own monstrous level, I won’t underestimate them.
’On the contrary... this is a path chosen by both humanity and the Zerg Race.
’One only has to look at Shen Jie to see that this path holds infinite possibilities.
’Even if I would never accept such a distorting technology, that doesn’t mean I want to discard the revolution it represents.
’While the Replicas from my bound equipment can multiply my subordinates’ combat strength, their personal power without them is less than half that of a Genetic Warrior or a Samurai Hunter Zerg. They would even struggle to defeat a large Zerg Race creature of the same rank.
’If I had a batch of Genetic Warriors under my command, and then equipped them with my Replicas, such a powerful War Legion would be invincible, capable of slaughtering any enemy.’
With these thoughts in mind, Lin Feng slipped into the darkness alone. He activated his Flying Tiger Armor’s Flight Mode and found the Research Institute moments later.
The area around the institute’s main building was swarming with heavily armed guards on patrol.
They were guarding against the marauding refugees of Jin City.
Lin Feng landed silently on the rooftop, took out his phone, and dialed Ding Fatty’s number:
"Hey, where are you?"
"Huh? I’m in the workshop!"
