Chapter 124: Her Ambition

The ship set sail once more, and Tiankuishe 18 Hao—a base Liu Mu had not even known had a designation—officially vanished.

Compared to failing to extract any useful intelligence from Red Flower, Li Gang was more worried about Liu Mu's state.

After boarding the ship, the Boss stood alone at the bow, facing the wind and rain, her silhouette as solitary and proud as black rock.

Her raincoat was whipped upward, unable to block out a shred of the dampness.

Confirming the ship had entered the correct course, Li Gang left the simply repaired bridge and strode across the forward deck until he stood behind Liu Mu.

"Boss, there are some things I want to say," he said, not offering words of comfort directly; this operation could not even be called a success, and as the leader of the operation and the one who formulated the plan, Liu Mu bore inescapable responsibility.

But the crux was the matter of stance: after this incident, would Liu Mu still maintain her status independent of the Haicheng Barrier, or would she accept the Barrier's organization?

The former could protect her, and the price paid would be relatively much smaller, even if, emotionally speaking, it felt more like an escape.

If she chose to enter the game, those who already had opinions about her would surely seize the opportunity to suppress her, squeeze more benefits out of her, or even send her to a military court.

Li Gang spoke his insights bluntly, and Liu Mu had clearly considered them too. "Two paths; how do you think I should choose?"

"Remain independent of the Barrier," Li Gang said decisively. "Once you are accused in a military court, everything is over. Only by not acknowledging that you accept the Barrier's control can you avoid having to abide by their laws. Given the Barrier's current situation, they will not expend the manpower and resources to forcibly deal with us."

"The Scrap Station, the coal mine, and this ship," Liu Mu was glad to have someone at this moment who could consider things from the perspective of her interests, her expression gradually relaxing. "These were all won with our lives; we will not let them go to anyone. This matter requires a more secure way to be handled. The Barrier is right there; we cannot bypass it in the future."

"Yang Shuo's attitude is very important."

Her decision was already very clear.

Li Gang felt some admiration; Liu Mu had not even considered incorporating the Shengli Group's forces into the Barrier, even if that could provide maximum protection.

One had to know that when facing the apocalypse, people's first choice was usually the official forces; after all, they had lived in a society governed by law for too long, and the freedom of being independent of the system was, to them, no different from heresy.

"I can go see him first and provide some intelligence regarding Tiankuishe in exchange for reducing the penalties for this operation," Li Gang was, of course, not naive enough to think the Barrier would have no reaction to the entire special operations team being wiped out.

Once the news traveled back, it would not just be the high-level officials of the Barrier; I fear those old fogies at the mysterious General Command would also be unable to sit still.

By then, it would not just be Liu Mu; the Barrier leadership with Yang Shuo at the core would all have to bear responsibility. As for whether they would hand Liu Mu over as a scapegoat... even if Yang Shuo stood on their side, his influence would not be very great.

Liu Mu, however, was not overly worried about the aftermath of the incident; of the three paths Tan Ziyan had offered, she would choose none.

Or rather, from the very beginning, she had never thought of relying on anyone's protection, nor would she flee, and she certainly would not trade away her own interests to gain the forgiveness of a group of bureaucrats.

The existence of the Haicheng Barrier would only serve as the official 'window' in the local area, not a stumbling block to her developing power; otherwise, there would be no need for it to exist.

"I'll go instead; you cannot be dragged into this." She pulled at her raincoat. "Alright, tell me about their New World Plan."

"The New World Plan?" Asked so suddenly, Li Gang was first puzzled as to how Liu Mu knew about this, but he quickly realized she must have interrogated Red Flower, and so it was not strange.

"You know about this?"

"I remember you mentioning to me that the unit you were in before was of no lower rank than the special operations team, and you had fought Tiankuishe many times. You should be equally familiar with this organization, right?"

"Yes, after Tiankuishe went into hiding, the task of tracking and exterminating them fell to our unit. But I'm sorry, I still cannot tell you the designation of my unit, but I can speak about the intelligence on Tiankuishe."

"It's fine, tell me about the New World Plan first."

"I'm not too clear on the reason for the plan, but from the mouths of those we captured several times, I learned that Tiankuishe had been selecting talent from all over the world for many years, concentrating them in some region undetectable by satellites for secret training. Once the world order collapsed, these people would establish a brand-new New World from the chaos, one not controlled by any national power, belonging only to the top-tier humans."

"The most important point in this New World Plan is to abandon all the weak. It can be inferred that if such a day truly comes, how they will treat those judged to be weak... Boss, you can guess their methods, right?"

"If resources are to be completely concentrated in the hands of a few, the excess people have no need to exist." Liu Mu naturally understood this point; she had no profound academic theories to prove it, it was simply a fact she had summarized after living two lifetimes.

"Correct. The first step of the New World is to cultivate talent, the second step is to establish the New World, and the third step is to eliminate all the weak."

"At the very least, ninety percent or more of humanity. The Ten-Day Burning helped them, and now it is their turn to take the stage. What I don't understand is why they must complete this matter in China."

"You mean their so-called New World is on our own soil? No, they might have already secretly established such a place."

"There is more than one such place. Tiankuishe prides itself on being the top tier of humanity; they might even have their people in every country and important industry. Just thinking about it makes my scalp tingle; a bunch of lunatics stepping on their own kind—it wouldn't be strange for them to do anything insane."

Talking about this with their current strength was simply overestimating their capabilities; Li Gang roughly understood what Liu Mu had been thinking about during her silence along the way.

"Red Flower is a problem, Boss. Should we hand him over to the Barrier?"

"No, he has great use," Liu Mu was still trusting of her own people, and she briefly mentioned the matter of establishing a human mutation laboratory. "Don't worry about him losing control; I will have Zhuo Qing be the one in actual control."

Mentioning Zhuo Qing, the two could not help but think again of the recently sacrificed Tan Ziyan; they felt more than a little guilty toward this Captain.

Li Gang followed the train of thought, "If we are to set up a laboratory, the Scrap Station will need to undergo major modifications, right?"

"Mm, the design plans existed before the disaster. Now that supplies and resources are still relatively sufficient, we can start modifications based on the original foundation."

Starting with the three-story building of the Scrap Station and extending all the way to the large Duiduichang by the sea, it was actually a 'foundation'.

The true blueprint was only now about to unfold; the architectural design plans based on the Duiduichang had long been perfected with the help of Heitao A. In the coming years, whether above ground or below, comprehensive modifications would be carried out.

The Victory Resource Recycling Group would be the foundation and the beginning of Liu Mu's dominance over the region.

In the wind and rain, Li Gang was conquered by Liu Mu's undisguised ambition.

The woman before him no longer possessed the mercenary pettiness of their first meeting; she simply hadn't easily revealed her calculations until now.