Chapter 998: Diamond Warehouse

He Yuzhu felt that everything that needed to be asked had been asked, and continuing to waste time with Musa was purely a waste of time; there was still a pile of matters back at the base waiting for him to return and make decisions.

He couldn't be bothered with more nonsense, raised his hand, and with a single palm strike, cleanly and neatly knocked Musa unconscious, then casually tucked the person into his space.

He rushed back to the base and headed straight for Bureau Chief Zhang's temporary office. Pushing the door open and entering, Bureau Chief Zhang was sitting behind a wooden desk with peeling paint, a cigarette clamped in his hand, the ash a long segment; it looked like he had some troubling matters on his mind.

"Factory Director He," Bureau Chief Zhang knit his brows, hesitating for a moment before speaking, "something has gone wrong."

"Has someone been kidnapped again?" He Yuzhu blurted out.

Bureau Chief Zhang nodded and pressed the cigarette butt into the ashtray: "But looking at the situation, it doesn't seem like they were specifically targeting us; it's more like they were unlucky and happened to run into the line of fire. What's even more dire is that the area is currently suffering from an epidemic."

"What epidemic?" He Yuzhu's throat tightened.

"Ebola." When Bureau Chief Zhang spat out these two words, his voice was much gloomier, "Human-to-human transmission, no vaccine; once infected, you're basically just waiting for death. Word came down from Deputy Minister Sun, saying they hope we can go—the ones trapped inside are the Vice President of the Chamber of Commerce and several other bigwigs of the Chamber of Commerce, and Boss Yu has also spoken up..."

He Yuzhu rubbed his face and caught his breath: "I captured that high-ranking Commander of the Islamic Party, so for the time being, no one will come to trouble us. Going to save a few people is nothing."

Bureau Chief Zhang looked up at him and paused: "This matter is voluntary on your part; if you want to go, go, and if you don't want to, I won't force you. After all, this isn't our duty."

"It's fine." He Yuzhu waved his hand and asked again, "Where is the location?"

"Over a hundred kilometers south of Mogadishu, that area has already had an Ebola outbreak... You must be extremely careful and don't let yourself get infected."

He Yuzhu nodded, and a thought suddenly flashed through his mind—that Merca Port seemed to be quite close to the epidemic area; perhaps he could go to that warehouse on the way and take a look to see what kind of good things the Black Stone Group had hidden.

"Don't worry, Bureau Chief Zhang, I will do my best to bring the people back safely." He patted his chest and gave his word.

In the middle of the night, He Yuzhu drove off into the darkness.

The road to Merca Port was not easy to travel—he had asked this from a black Bodyguard, but only when he actually drove the car onto that path did he learn what "not easy to travel" meant. That wasn't a road at all; some sections had ruts harder to traverse than field ridges.

Four hours after leaving the hotel, the mileage on his dashboard had barely jumped forty kilometers.

Day broke, and the sun arched out from below the horizon like a fireball, instantly baking the entire earth into a steamer.

Outside the car window, scorched yellow grass clung to the cracked red earth, and occasionally a baobab tree stood by the roadside, its bark stripped clean, revealing pale white wood, looking just like dead men's bones stuck there.

The shell craters on the highway were one after another; the large ones could swallow half a wheel, and the small ones were enough to make one's internal organs tumble in their abdomen.

The towns he passed had long since collapsed into ruins, the broken walls densely covered with pitch-black bullet holes, and some roofs still had half a flagpole burned to charcoal sticking out; when the wind blew, the filthy cloth strips swayed listlessly, much like a Soul-Calling Banner.

What made one's scalp tingle even more was that small-time bandits would pop out on the road from time to time.

Those people were so thin their chests stuck to their backs, their ribs poking out one by one from under their tattered clothes, yet their eyes glowed with a green light like hungry wolves.

They looked pitiful, but in fact, they were the most hateful. When the car came by, they didn't even greet him, just raised their hands and fired a burst of bullets.

When He Yuzhu had driven over sixty kilometers, big trouble arrived.

A group of people flashed out from behind a broken wall by the road, all of them holding AKs, the pitch-black muzzles aimed squarely at the windshield.

The leader, wrapped in a headscarf so dirty its original color was unrecognizable, roared something in a garbled mess, and after roaring, raised his hand and fired a burst. The bullets clattered against the bulletproof glass like hail hitting a tin roof, leaving a patch of white, spiderweb-like cracks.

"Youth Party." He Yuzhu narrowed his eyes and spat out the words coldly. After running around for these days, he could more or less distinguish the various factions.

This bunch didn't take human life seriously at all; seeing his car, they opened fire without even asking. Then He Yuzhu had no need to be soft-handed.

He lay back in his seat, poked the muzzle of his Submachine Gun out through the gap in the car door, and let out a burst of fire at the group blocking the road ahead.

Tongues of fire lashed out, and over a dozen Youth Party members immediately fell onto the red earth like wheat stubble mowed by a sickle. Blood seeped into the cracked mud, quickly staining that patch of earth a dark brown.

But unexpectedly, this poked a hornet's nest. In the rearview mirror, dust billowed as pickup trucks chased after him one after another from afar, the bullets from Heavy Machine Guns and Rockets occasionally grazing the roof of the car, the whistling sound they brought piercing his eardrums with pain.

If it weren't for his ability to collect high-speed projectiles after his space upgraded, this car would have long since been riddled with holes like a sieve.

He Yuzhu was so angry his teeth itched, so he simply moved all the Landmines stored in his space out, burying one every so often; it was only after scattering over three thousand Landmines along the way that he managed to blast back the group of pursuers who were like mad dogs.

He slammed on the accelerator, dragging a long dragon of dust behind the car, and dashed forward for his life.

After running another thirty-some kilometers, the scene by the roadside completely changed in flavor.

Corpses lay helter-skelter in the road ditches; some were face down, the clothes on their backs rotted into rags, revealing blackened spines; some had been gnawed by wild dogs until only a stark white skeleton remained, ribs sticking out one by one; others were being torn apart by a few mad dogs, their intestines dragged all over the ground.

Flies buzzed into a black fog, and one could hear that cloying sound from far away.

He Yuzhu's stomach suddenly churned, and acid surged up toward his throat.

He suddenly saw a child squatting by the road, looking like a skeleton, the ribs clearly countable, yet the belly was hugely distended, two hollow, empty eyes staring fixedly at his car.

He really couldn't bear to look anymore, rolled down the window, and threw out a few cans and a few bottles of water.

The cans and water rolled on the red earth, and the child was stunned for a long while before lunging over to grab them.

Further ahead was a three-way intersection.

The road on the left led to the epidemic area, and the road on the right led to the pier.

He Yuzhu turned the steering wheel and headed straight for the pier.

He wanted to collect some things from the pier to take back to the epidemic area, and incidentally sneak into that diamond warehouse of the Black Stone Group to see what was hidden inside.

After driving another ten-some kilometers, the outline of the port gradually revealed itself.

The road here was much smoother; at least one could see that someone was maintaining it, as they had filled the potholes with crushed stone.

Large trucks entered and exited the port with a chugging sound from time to time.

Occasionally, one could also see vehicles of the International Red Cross, painted with the white background and red logo, driving out from the direction of the port and disappearing into the depths of the wilderness.

He Yuzhu turned the car behind a pile of rusty shipping containers, killed the engine, and casually took the car back into his space.

Seeing that the soldiers patrolling back and forth on the pier were all wearing Youth Party uniforms, he found a set of Youth Party military uniforms from his space, put them on, and wrapped his headscarf tightly, leaving only his eyes exposed.

He mingled into the pier and brushed shoulders with those patrolling soldiers.

The other party glanced at him, and seeing he was dressed exactly like them, didn't ask any more questions, just puffed on a cigarette butt and swayed past.

He Yuzhu strolled inside and soon saw a few black soldiers also wearing military uniforms interrogating a truck.

He quietly crept over and tilted his ear to listen.

The truck driver rolled down the window and shouted arrogantly at those soldiers: "What are you asking for? You dare to stop General Kumar's cargo?"

The few black soldiers looked at each other, and the one in the lead swallowed his saliva and said with a stiff upper lip: "We just received news that someone attacked our troops, and we're afraid that person might have come toward the port."

The truck driver was full of impatience and slowly pulled out a pass.

Those few people leaned in to look, and seeing it was a document from the Black Stone Group, they immediately lost their nerve and hurriedly waved to let him pass: "Sorry about that, just routine business, you go ahead, you go ahead."

Taking advantage of the moment they lowered their heads to check the documents, He Yuzhu ducked and crawled under the truck's chassis.

He gripped the scorching hot frame beam tightly with both hands; even though the iron was so hot his palms felt like they were smoking, he gritted his teeth and endured it.

The truck roared to life and drove all the way into the warehouse.

Honestly, this warehouse was built quite well; not only did it have an independent power supply system, but some storage areas even had air conditioning.

Once the truck came to a complete stop, He Yuzhu took advantage of the driver's inattention and hid directly behind a large crate.

With a loud boom, the main gate closed, and the warehouse fell silent.

He Yuzhu immediately activated the Scanning System, his gaze sweeping inch by inch over the wooden crates stacked neatly in rows.

Crates of all sizes filled half the warehouse, and the Scanning results clearly showed that the hundreds upon thousands of stacked crates were all filled with unpolished raw diamonds.

He licked his dry lips, and the corners of his mouth curled up slightly.