Chapter 263: It’s You! Old Devil Su!

A unit of wheat weighed more or less around 0.15 catties. It was not a constant value either.

This was one of the rules of the game panel’s calculation system. Some of the wheat had a higher moisture content, so less of it would be weighed. If the moisture content was lower, then more of it would be weighed.

However, in general, based on the ratio after the wheat was ground into flour, nine units of wheat would produce around a catty of flour. This was a sufficient amount of carbohydrates for an adult human’s daily activity in the wasteland.

To excavate one unit of iron, a mine was needed. People who were fast enough could excavate 14 units within an hour, whereas the slow ones could only manage 8 to 10 units.

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Therefore, as long as one excavated for six hours every day, by calculating based on an average of 10 units, one could obtain 60 units of iron.

With all this iron, based on the current 0.19 ratio, it was enough to obtain just over a day’s supply of food.

When calculated like this, it was obvious how outrageous the buying price was when the black marketeers were deliberately purchasing earlier.

“0.19 is enough, if it drops any lower, the ordinary miners won’t be able to make ends meet!”

Su Mo did not wait any longer after he looked at the market and noticed that the price of copper had fallen to 0.33. He began to transfer the crops into the trading space in batches, waiting to snap up the goods.

Currently, to build a level three mini destroyer, the maximum number of steel plates had to be maintained around 5000 pieces to be considered secure.

Calculating based on the fact that producing one steel plate would require 13 units of iron, and 65000 steel plates were needed, there were only just over 8000 units now in the base at most, excluding the ones that needed to be stored up. There were still 60000 units of iron that needed to be purchased.

The requirements for copper were much less. A mere 7500 units were needed, excluding the units in the base. Purchasing 6000 units would be enough!

In the currently collapsed market, even counting the purchased iron that needed to be cut into two, 12000 units of iron would still be needed to fulfill the requirements.

A volume of materials like this would naturally be a bulk order if the market were stable. However, given the situation now, even after Su Mo had finished buying all the materials for the mini destroyer and the shipyard, he did not stir up even a ripple in the market.

Across the world channel, there was always someone crazily spreading the good news when Su Mo came onto the market to buy purchase goods.

However, in the end..

It was like the boy who cried wolf—the first few small batches of purchases had completely exhausted the retailers’ enthusiasm for ripping others off.

Even though numerous black marketeers paid lip service, no one was willing to buy over these materials anymore.

Su Mo had only spent 26760 units of wheat—the equivalent of 4000 catties—in exchange for the materials needed to build the level three mini destroyer.

As for the materials to upgrade the shipyard, those were even cheaper—it took merely 1200 catties to obtain the necessary amount.

Once he pressed the collect button, it was as if a large hole had torn open in the sky. Iron rained down, piling up all around the shelter.

Fortunately, the game panel seemed to have obtained the positions of the iron and copper from the previous purchase. It still utilized the accumulation approach, piling the remaining iron evenly to one side.

The neat, tidy piles extended in an iron wall of one to two thousand meters long, glittering under the sun with a cold, metallic gleam.

The refugees clucked their tongues in wonder as they watched the scene from far away.

Of course, they were not surprised. After all, previously, the shelter had harvested several million catties of wheat, so this amount of materials purchased was still within believable range.

“Once I’ve finished with this round of trading for base materials, all that’s left is to collect the shipyard module in the world channel, and I’ll be done!”

Su Mo strolled along the dirt path left by the massive wall of iron and inspected all the materials with satisfaction before returning to the shelter. He then began making his last big purchase before the disaster.

There were more than a dozen types of shipyard modules, both big and small. Su Mo threw everything together regardless of whether or not they could be used at the moment.

The outcome was good. Not long after he sent his message, as private messages began coming in, the power module for three of the basic modules showed up first.

Once it was paired up with a type of materials card that was already on the market, he could start constructing it right away.

The longer he put it off, the more things could change.

After spending 510 disaster points for the delivery fee, and 860 catties of wheat as trading commodities, Su Mo successfully collected four of the ten types of modules.

These were the power module, test module, import module, and detailed carving module, respectively.

As for the previous materials input module that was for sale, the seller must have seen Su Mo’s identity and thus asked for an exorbitant price, obviously taking advantage of the fact that they were the only one who had this item.

Su Mo could not be bothered to reply to such people. Once he had ascertained that he could directly put in the materials manually, he blacklisted the idiot right away without hesitation.

There was a flash of light. Su Mo reluctantly paid the delivery fees and looked at the four large new items that appeared, then used the storage space to move them easily to the first-floor garage.

Clank..

Clang..

The modular technology was very stable; the furnace in the garage was still faithfully producing steel plates.

After examining the diesel generator and making sure that there were no problems with it, Su Mo closed the big iron gate of the shelter and walked out, his mind at ease.

As long as it was a sunny day in the wasteland, even if it was five o’clock in the afternoon, there was still no sign of it getting dark.

The entrance to the warehouse off to one side was also piled full of items.

Under Moore’s dutiful guidance, the convoy that was transporting the supplies had made three trips already.

For humans that had lived on the wasteland for only a month, they were frighteningly bold and daring.

Earth Tiger could originally transport only seven persons at a time, but after attaching two little carts behind, it could transport at least 20 people.

It only took them three trips to transport almost 80 cubic meters of goods back very efficiently.

When Su Mo walked out of the gate and locked it, the two militiamen standing at attention off to one side saluted him.

The salute seemed presentable enough, having been taught to them by the four prison guards, but to Su Mo—who was from a military family—it looked rather amusing.

Su Mo patted the militia man’s left shoulder. When he saw the flattered, excited look on the man’s dark face, Su Mo gave him a friendly smile.

“Ahem.. both of you don’t need to stand here on guard now. Go help them on the mountain!”

“But..”

“No buts, hurry!”

When it came to Chen Shen’s and Su Mo’s orders, the militia’s reactions were very real.

The first thing they thought of was the consequences of disobeying Chen Shen’s order, then the consequences of defying Su Mo’s order.

After pondering, both of them immediately shuddered, then saluted again, and jogged off in the direction of Iron Rock Mountain.

Under the setting sun, their shadows grew longer and longer. In this empty low-lying land, it brought Su Mo some solace.

“In the past, my way of thinking was very simple—I always wanted to spend the rest of my life with my family.

“Now that I’ve become more powerful, the burdens on my shoulder have gotten heavier!”

Human beings were all ambitious at heart.

If they had never experienced the authority and the feeling of being able to decide whether others lived or died, that was all to the good. Only a few could stand on their ground once they had tasted this power.

Su Mo shook his head, sighing at how much his mindset had changed. The corners of his mouth involuntarily turned up in a faint smile, and he followed along behind the shadows.

In the words of a famous Chinese poem, the sunset was beautiful but, alas, dusk was falling.

Iron Rock Mountain was solid and bulky; there was nothing around to obstruct it from view. The light was ideal; Su Mo could enjoy the feeling of being enveloped in sunlight.

During such good weather, in particular, he could appreciate the mountain’s magnificent beauty even more.

After around half a day’s hard work, a considerable amount of iron ore had been dug up and stacked on the ground at the foot of the mountain.

Even before he went up, Su Mo could hear the faint clanging noises coming from the platform on the mountain top.

The villagers of Candlelight Village were mining.

They were also rebuilding their homes on this unfamiliar “low-lying” land.

The villagers had “money”, so in terms of equipment and basic tools, there was nothing to worry about.

They were wielding good quality iron pickaxes, although it still took considerable effort to chip the iron out.

However, compared to the miners on Earth, this was still countless times easier. Even an urban white-collar worker could labor for half an hour without rest.

Along the twisting mountain road, Chen Shen had arranged for the militia to stand guard every two hundred meters or so.

After enjoying salutes one after the other, Su Mo had just arrived at the platform on the mountain top when he encountered his first “old friend’.

It was the lioness!

When he had first met the lioness, even though the lion clan could not be considered wealthy, the lioness had been the leader of the clan. Her fur had a glossy sheen, and there was a faint trace of pride in her eyes, absolutely comparable to the demeanor of any male lion.

Given her magic powers as well, Su Mo had been genuinely shocked during their first encounter.

The second time they met, the lion’s people base camp had been destroyed by enraged kobolds. All the lion people had fled and scattered.

On a windy night, the remaining lion people had attacked and set the kobold castle on fire. The lioness was wearing ragged clothes at the time, but when she stood in front of all the lion people and cast her magic spells, her sheer presence was even more powerful than in her first encounter with Su Mo.

Their third encounter occurred after the kobold castle was destroyed. On the way to Candlelight Village, Su Mo had killed off several lion people in a row. The remaining lion people all wore fearful expressions, including the lioness. The lion people’s confidence had been completely shattered; they looked as if they were utterly intimidated.

However, when Su Mo looked at the dull-eyed, practically “bald” lioness before him, her body covered with red welts and wounds, he shook his head slightly and approached her.

The lioness’s whole body had been securely tied and immobilized with vine-woven hemp rope that was thick as an arm, using the standard military-style tying method. Even though she was in her prime, it was impossible for her to escape.

Furthermore, this method of restraint meant that she was forced to look at the ground. Even if Su Mo came near her, she was still unable to lift her head to see who it was.

One step.. another step..

Su Mo kept going until he was in front of the lioness, then stopped.

The lioness was feeling a little dizzy after being under the hot sun all day, so she did not pay attention to the fact that something had suddenly blocked the setting sun’s rays. Head down, she continued staring aimlessly at the patterns of light and shadow on the ground.

She knew full well what her end would be as a captive, but she did not abandon her will to live. As an individual with religious beliefs, to meet her death now would result in her going to hell.

Therefore, she still believed that she had a chance to escape.

However, this small flicker of an idea was arrested when a familiar scent wafted to her nostrils.

“Who is it?”

It had been a long time since Su Mo had seen the lioness, and by now she was able to speak human language like the white-robed kobold.

Her tone of voice also betrayed the curiosity she felt.

The scent of the person in front of her was very familiar, yet very unfamiliar as well.

Remembering scents was not the lion people’s forte, so she was only able to identify that this might be..

An acquaintance?

Without giving the lioness much time to think, the person in front of her crouched down. He even took off his black mask at the same time, revealing the face that she had been “thinking about day and night”!

“It’s you!

“Old Devil Su!”