Chapter 39: The Pier's Supplies Are Truly Abundant

Standing in the shadow of a ten-thousand-ton freighter, the tiny Liu Mu finally saw an inconspicuous symbol on the bow—a black triangle with a circle at each corner, and nothing else.

At first glance, this mark always made one feel it was the logo of some chemical plant, carrying the implication of warning people not to come forward and throw their lives away.

Liu Mu had always been one to listen to warnings, so she silently shrank back; mainly because the cargo over there seemed to have finished unloading, and the convoy's security perimeter had expanded, looking just like an illicit transaction by a criminal syndicate at a pier.

If this were a police-and-thief movie, there would be a mole selling out information right now, the police would be raiding the pier, and it would eventually develop into a fierce shootout.

Unfortunately, Liu Mu had no inside contact, and she was certainly not a police officer; she just fished a mobile phone known for its high-pixel camera—which had scratches on the back—out of her Recovery Space and silently recorded a few videos, thinking she might be able to trade them for some benefits from Yang Shuo later.

The convoy left first, and then that freighter, like a midnight ghost, slowly left the port and disappeared into the black sea area with almost no lights on.

Fearing the other party might have left people behind, Liu Mu found an open, empty Container, took out her sleeping bag, and slept directly inside.

At five in the morning, she woke up before dawn, packed her things feeling refreshed, and then went to check the area where the freighter had unloaded last night. There was no one, and nothing had been left behind, except for many messy footprints and tire tracks in the dust on the ground; everything from last night felt like a dream.

After confirming there was no one, Liu Mu began her own business.

She used a crowbar to pry open the small door of Warehouse No. 1, and before she even went in, she smelled a heavy odor of melted plastic. This indicated that the cargo in this warehouse had been ruined by high temperatures; it was impossible for her alone to finish sorting it, but she didn't give up just like that.

After the apocalypse began, various industries stopped one after another; besides energy, the only thing that could compete with steel in terms of utility was probably plastic.

Before Liu Mu decided to hoard steel, Heitao A had already analyzed the prospects of plastic goods, so these two common materials became her current targets.

The goods couldn't be sorted, but she could directly recover everything, and then give the system some materials later to decompose these plastics, just like decomposing steel.

No sooner said than done, Liu Mu put on her protective suit and went straight into the warehouse. As her palm brushed over the shelves one by one, the goods on them were directly recovered.

This time there was an unexpected harvest; as the plastic goods recovery exceeded the limit, Heitao A actually ushered in its third upgrade, and the storage capacity for recovery doubled accordingly. Liu Mu was satisfied with the system's plan of doubling the warehouse capacity on the original foundation upon upgrade; this was exponential growth, after all. Just imagine how terrifying the size of the space would become after upgrading a few more times in the future.

With the space upgraded as it was now, all the inventory and scrap machinery from the Steel Rolling Mill took up less than a quarter. Now that she had collected two warehouses of things like Raincoats and rain boots, half of the space was consumed by the system upgrade, and what remained was just a pile.

Of the five warehouses, except for the first two which were more than half full, the remaining three had things in them, but not many; they were mainly umbrellas, tarpaulins, and some "small hills" that had melted into a lump, the original nature of which was unknown.

After searching everything, Liu Mu tapped her finger on Heitao A's storage data: 45%. She started eyeing other things.

Thus, she wandered around the vicinity and this time saw several names, all of which were big companies whose advertisements she often saw on her phone.

Dismantling Containers was just like opening blind boxes; Liu Mu quickly gained experience. Those with burn marks on the outside definitely contained flammable items, most likely having started burning internally, and they had no value even if opened.

Those with only peeling paint could be opened. But what could be opened, well, it was hard to say... rotten seafood, zombie meat, and so on...

She didn't know if it was because they were sealed too well, but she didn't actually smell any stench from the outside of several boxes.

However, there were also very useful things. In another area, Liu Mu discovered a warehouse of imported iron ore. Haicheng had no Steel Mill, but there was one in Fucheng, an inland city further north, and it was likely always transported from here.

Touching the stones with their beautiful luster, Liu Mu sighed; such good things, but she couldn't use them for the time being.

Heitao A could decompose scrap, but it could not extract substances from ore. "If it could extract them, it would be too heaven-defying."

After marking an inconspicuous spot in the warehouse, Liu Mu looked at the endless Containers left to open and suddenly had a thought:

Instead of using steel to trade for benefits from others, why not set up her own Steel Factory?

As soon as this bold idea popped up, Liu Mu almost slapped herself; it was wishful thinking, simply too wishful.

Not to mention how difficult it was to build a factory, she couldn't even find workers, let alone the fact that steelmaking required a large amount of fuel; where would she find a coal supply in this current "Burning"?

There was indeed a prefecture-level city in the province that produced coal, but the output was not high, and it had always been monopolized by several large enterprises in the province. Moreover, she had heard a piece of news in her previous life: the "Seven-Day Burning" had ignited the coal seams in the mining area, which supposedly burned for a full fifteen or sixteen years, only gradually extinguishing after the great floods and ice age that lasted for several years afterward.

Liu Mu remembered that it would start raining in a few days; this rain lasted for three months and caused quite a large flood, though it was not enough to compete with the great flood that saw the sea level rise by five meters.

Gradually, she also distinguished which area was food, which was daily necessities, and which was industrial raw materials.

After searching for a day, she really did find quite a lot of waterproof and fireproof tarpaulins; they had a coating on the surface and were stored in a coastal area, so they hadn't suffered much loss.

Liu Mu's mouth was about to split from smiling; she didn't even need to destroy them herself, she could put them directly into the Recovery Space.

The boxes containing them were mostly severely deformed, so they could barely count as scrap recovery.

After this day, the hardworking scavenger had filled her space to four-fifths. Thinking about how many good things these could be exchanged for, she was so excited that she didn't feel a hint of fatigue.

Of course, this might also be because Evolution had improved her physical strength.

In the evening, after Liu Mu put the Truck into the space, she found a small hill nearby that had been burned bare to hide.

After eating plenty of food to replenish her strength and sleeping for three or four hours, she was woken up by the commotion at the pier.

She glanced at the time; it was exactly 11:30 at night, and another convoy had come to pick up cargo. The freighter, which she didn't know where it had gone during the day, appeared on the sea surface again, and after a few flashes of light, it docked.

Through the binoculars, Liu Mu saw several figures just like yesterday, confirming it was still those same people.

It was already the apocalypse, yet these people were still so cautious; if there was no conspiracy, Liu Mu wouldn't believe it even if her hair stood on end.

It was the same kind of boxes; this time she was very patient, watching from beginning to end, and the convoy transported away a full sixty-eight boxes. After the unloading was finished, the people on the freighter shouted something downward, but it was too far away, and even with Liu Mu's hearing, she couldn't hear it clearly.

But looking at the deck of the freighter, it was still piled up like a small hill.

After that, it was just like yesterday; the freighter left, and the convoy drove toward the north. As luck would have it, that direction was exactly the small town where they had gone to look for the "Giant Sun" two days ago, though it was uncertain what the destination was.

Liu Mu did not follow; at a time like this, even if she were riding a motorcycle, she would definitely attract attention.

After thinking for a while, she took out the Truck and headed toward the rescue Base.

Halfway there, she took out some of the tarpaulins and Rain Gear from her space, loaded half of the Truck's cargo bed, and then drove to the county Base.