Chapter 320
The metal gate opened as the smell of desiccant dirt blew in his face.
Hu Youde searched for the button on the wall as he turned on the lights to the warehouse.
The dark space instantly lit up. The thick wooden boxes almost stuffed the entire area to its max capacity.
Inside the open boxes were baseball shaped heat sensor grenades, and bowl sized rockets. On the wall directly facing the door were rows of ghost sniper rifles, and by crude estimation, at least another hundred in the boxes on the side with changeable scopes. As to the barrels along the other side of the wall, without a doubt, must be launchers to the rockets.
“Ghost sniper rifle, heat sensor grenade, “Python” anti-tank rocket, reaper rifle, along with some other reliable gadgets. I trust you will definitely be interested.” While Hu Youde laughed, he signaled a satisfied gesture to Jiang Chen.
Jiang Chen walked up and picked up a “Python” and tried to scope.
“Is this thing good.”
“One round would bust a power armor,” Hu Youde immediately added, “The land type too.”
“Is the quality reliable?”
“I can guarantee it with my head.” Hu Youde promised while pounding his chest.
Jiang Chen nodded, pleased. As he put down the rocket launcher in his hand, he strolled around the warehouse to try out a few things to ensure the quality of the other weapons.
“If you don’t mind me asking, is Mr. Jiang planning something big?”
“Oh? Why do you think so?” Jiang Chen played with the ghost sniper rifle in his hands as he said nonchalantly.
The small cunning eyes spun as Hu Youde cracked a smile. “Everyone knows that it is almost impossible to sell firearms at the Sixth Street now. Mr. Jiang is in the food business so obviously not interested in the small profit. This batch of firearms, it is going to be used to equip an army?”
Jiang Chen glanced at him as the tense Hu Youde immediately rushed to explain, “Ahem, don’t be mistaken, I have no intention in collecting information.”
“Then your intention is?” Jiang Chen asked him dubiously.
“I just want to know if Mr. Jiang is interested in people,” Hu Youde said with a flattering look.
“People?”
“To put it simply, slaves. Ones who are already trained with the electronic collar around their necks so you only need to push them forward during the war.”
Jiang Chen was flabbergasted. “You are not only in the firearm business, but you also do slave trade?”
When Hu Youde heard that Jiang Chen seemed to be interested, he immediately became more energetic as he started to explain to Jiang Chen, “Slave is a specialty to Su City. The mine pit at Su City has over seventy thousand slaves registered for sale. Although I don’t have stock on hand, if Mr. Jiang is interested, I will immediately go back and haul you a batch.”
Jiang Chen was astonished. “Seventy thousand? What kind of damn place is the mine pit.”
Seventy thousand? Including the shadow population and nearby survivors, the Sixth Street only has fifty thousand people. Slaves registered for sale alone were over seventy thousand, that was insane!
Although Hu Youde was a bit confused when he heard Jiang Chen didn’t know what the mine pit was, he thought that it might be because Jiang Chen had never left Wanghai City and without second guessing it, he began to explain the origin of the mine pit.
The reason why it was called the mine pit was not necessarily because it was actually a mine pit, but because there was a crystal mine pit worth one hundred thousand crystals or above there! Jiang Chen had heard about crystal mines from Sun Jiao a long time, but he had never seen one. Based on Hu Youde’s description, it was a biological mine bed attached to the rock surface and it was in diced meat shape with similar behavior to moss. Although it looked disgusting, crystals could be produced from those diced meat.
The slaves at the mine pit had to wear protective suits to walk into the mine and pick up the sand-sized crystals from the disgusting and corrosive diced meat.
Because the owner possessed a huge “gold mine,” he hired a bunch of raiders specializing in slave capture as he formed a force of four thousand to become a strong survivor force in Su city. Because they had a special relationship with the raiders nearby, other than outputting crystals, the mine pit also conducted slavery trade.
The dead parts of the diced meat could be cut and used as a prime ingredient for nutrient supply. Therefore the cost to feed slaves was not high. Hence the slave’s population naturally increased.
Jiang Chen thought for a moment. “How many can you haul?”
“That depends on the type Mr. Jiang wants.” Hu Youde smiled. “Right now it is the tail of the winter, it is not too dangerous on the road. The cheapest kind of slave, I can haul you more than one thousand, but that kind can only be used to boost the number without much use. The type with good body conditions, I can also haul you around one hundred. Then it would be the more expensive kind, because of the limited supplies, I’ll have to go back before I can give you an accurate response.”
“The expensive kind? What expensive kind?” Jiang Chen asked curiously.
“For example, powerful lone travelers, special talents. Of course, the most expensive is the ice coffin.” Hu Youde mysteriously smiled.
The smile looked perverted.
“What on earth is an ice coffin?”
“It is a great thing. Mr. Jiang has heard of hibernation chambers before right?”
“I have.” Jiang Chen nodded.
The ultra-low temperature technology allowed humans to pass through an extended period of time with the body’s functionality reduced to a minimum. For the people who are using it, fifty years would be the difference of a blink of an eye. Some fallout shelters were even made entirely of hibernation chambers, for example, Yao Yao came out of this type of fallout shelter.
“Imagine this, to have been a top celebrity, or princess before the war, you’ll get to enjoy them crying, screaming, and shouting for security and begging for mercy while you tell them the world is hopeless, and then watch their whimpering face turn into despair-”
“That’s enough,” Jiang Chen interrupted his psychotic words.
It was a waste of talent for him to not write erotics with such vivid description.
Seeing Jiang Chen didn’t look pleased, Hu Youde immediately shut his mouth.
After a brief pause, Jiang Chen spoke again, “The type of slave with a healthy body, how much would they cost.”
“Twenty crystals for one.”
“Okay, I need one thousand, can you do that?”
When Jiang Chen stated he needed that much, Hu Youde was overjoyed as he immediately agreed.
“Of course, of course, I can do it, just leave this to me!”
The slave trade was a lucrative industry. By simply making 10 crystals per slave, it was much more profitable than the firearms business. He didn’t even negotiate the price of the firearms as he sold it to Jiang Chen at the eighty thousand crystals cost.
After finally getting rid of the firearms burden, he couldn’t wait as he headed back to Su city immediately. He wanted to transport the slaves before the hibernation of the mutants ended as it would save a lot of costs. March was prime time for trade and it only comes once a year!
But before he left, he mysteriously stuffed a small wooden box in Jiang Chen’s hands, saying it was a gift to the general from the merchant.
When Jiang Chen asked what it was, he grinned and lowered his voice, “Do you know the secret behind how the mine pit trains female slaves?”