Chapter 144: Boiling South City!

When Lin Hai led that massive convoy of thirty heavy military trucks slowly into the underground entrance of the South City Refuge, the entire Command Center instantly fell into a deathly silence.

Everyone's eyes were fixed tightly on the real-time image on the main screen.

"Gulp."

Someone swallowed hard with difficulty, and in this Command Center where even a dropped pin could be heard, it sounded especially harsh.

"This… this fucking… is this a raid?"

Operations Department Chief Zhang Qishan, a middle-aged general known for his iron-blooded and tough demeanor, stared at the screen as truck after truck, crammed full of supplies to the point that even the tires were slightly deformed, his eyes nearly popping out of their sockets.

His voice was filled with incredulous shock.

If he was like this, let alone the other senior officials of the refuge present.

Especially those conservative officials who had vehemently opposed trading with Xuanwu City in the meeting, now each turned deathly pale, mouths open wide enough to fit an egg, yet unable to utter a word.

Their brains had completely crashed.

Thirty heavy trucks!

Supplies filling thirty heavy trucks!

What does this mean?

This is almost equivalent to the South City Refuge's entire year's worth of gathered supplies!

But now, they exchanged it for a mere hundred thousand of those Level‑1 Energy Crystals that they considered almost worthless trash?

What kind of international joke is this?!

"He… they… has Xuanwu City gone crazy?!"

A conservative deputy officer collapsed into his chair, muttering to himself.

He had originally been calculating that, if Lin Hai's trade this time failed and he returned empty‑handed, they could use this as an excuse to join forces and challenge Luo Tiancheng, seizing control of the refuge's supply distribution.

But now…

Looking at the supplies on the screen that could drive anyone mad, he felt only a bone‑chilling cold surge from his feet to the top of his head.

Seize power?

With what would we seize it?

He had no doubt that once Luo Tiancheng announced this batch of supplies, he would instantly gain the fervent adoration of the refuge's million survivors.

By then, forget seizing power—they, these so‑called 'senior leaders,' might not even know how they died!

At the head of the Command Center, Luo Tiancheng remained silent.

His posture remained straight, but his hands, gripping the armrests so tightly that the joints whitened from the strain, betrayed his inner unrest.

Even though he had long learned from the old leader Zhao Weiguo about Xuanwu City's marvels and had made ample mental preparations.

But when those thirty trucks' supplies truly appeared before his eyes, that visual impact still sent waves of palpitations through this iron‑blooded commander who had fought his way out of mountains of corpses and seas of blood.

He suddenly felt that his previous so‑called caution and deliberation were laughably shortsighted before the other side.

"Looks like I bet right."

Luo Tiancheng slowly exhaled a turbid breath, and his tense body finally relaxed.

His gaze swept over the conservative high‑rankers present, silent as cicadas in winter, and a fleeting, hardly perceptible sneer flashed in his eyes.

"Logistics Department! Immediately organize personnel to inventory and store all supplies!"

"Operations Department! Effective now, the refuge enters Level‑1 combat readiness! All squads sent out to gather supplies are to suspend missions and return at once!"

"Intelligence Department!"

He paused, his tone becoming exceedingly solemn.

"Immediately, through all our official channels, issue an announcement to the entire South City!"

"Just say… our South City Refuge has reached a strategic partnership with Xuanwu City!"

"From today onward, all survivors can exchange their Energy Crystals for food at the officially designated exchange points!"

……

That afternoon, a piece of news as shocking as heaven splitting apart spread rapidly through the entire South City Refuge via broadcast, flyers, and word of mouth.

"Have you heard? It seems our refuge has teamed up with a place called Xuanwu City!"

"Xuanwu City? What the heck is that? Can you eat it?"

"More than just edible! My cousin who works at the Command Center said this morning, a full thirty big trucks came back loaded to the brim with food!"

"Thirty trucks?! You're bullshitting, aren't you?"

"Me bullshitting? I'll stake my head on it! And the official notice is already posted! It says… it says we can trade Energy Crystals for food!"

"What?!"

"Use… use this broken thing?"

A middle‑aged man in ragged clothes, yellow‑skinned and thin‑bodied, tremblingly pulled a faintly glowing crystal from his pocket, his eyes full of disbelief.

In fact, when the news first broke, the vast majority of survivors in South City actually didn't believe it.

How could this be? How could those Energy Crystals that look nice but are otherwise useless be exchanged for food?

But when someone actually went to the officials and exchanged Energy Crystals for food, those who had doubted fell silent.

Families that had been gloomy from running out of stored grain now saw hope blossom on their faces again.

"One Level‑1 Energy Crystal can trade for a bag of rice… this is literally a pie falling from the sky!"

"We still have a few of these on hand! I never thought they'd actually be useful!"

"Hurry, hurry, don't just stand there—quickly go check the exchange point!"

"My two! Hurry up and go!"

"I still have three! Son, hurry! Let's go now!"

Inside the refuge, countless families were enacting the same scene.

The official exchange point instantly formed a long queue, and everyone in line wore expressions of unprecedented excitement and gratitude.

Each person held several of the originally useless first‑level Energy Crystals.

"I never thought these broken stones would actually have a day of use!!"

An old man with a wrinkled face, while wiping his tears, repeatedly rubbed those three crystals on his clothes as if they were treasures.

"Who says otherwise! Last month I still complained that this thing took up space and almost threw it away! Luckily my wife stopped me, saying to keep it for the child as a keepsake… but this… this isn't just a keepsake, it's lifesaving food!"

Beside him, a man slapped his own forehead hard, his face full of lingering fear and relief.

Similar conversations rose and fell throughout the long queue.

People asked each other how much they had in stock, sharing the "odd" origins of these Energy Crystals.

Some were picked up from rubble corners; some were simply pried from the corpses of dead mutant rats; and even more extraordinarily, a child dug one out from a crack in his own home's wall.

This tiny, faintly glowing crystal became the hard currency of the entire South City shelter at this moment.

Inside the Command Center, Luo Tiancheng quietly watched the exchange point's scene on the monitor, a relieved smile appearing on his face.

"City Lord Lin…"

He gazed at another large screen, which displayed exactly the Black Tortoise,

"What you need is Energy Crystal."

"What I need is the hope that can let these millions of people survive."

"This deal, it seems, we can keep doing for a long, long time…"