75 kilometers away from Yu'an City.
The Zhongmiao Shelter.
The smoke of war had just begun to dissipate.
The buildings ablaze within the shelter were gradually extinguished by the neatly organized robots that had entered.
He Chen cautiously mingled among the crowd, secretly observing these uninvited guests.
The outbreak of war came without warning.
The process was so brief that it felt as if it had ended in the blink of an eye.
Accompanied only by a series of violent explosions and several minutes of gunfire.
Staying inside the shelter, He Chen hadn't even had the time to discern whether it was an earthquake or some other event.
He soon realized that the rulers of the shelter had been replaced by these outsiders, metal machines with a cold black sheen.
Then, the higher-ups of the shelter and their lackeys were all captured without exception.
Even the leader of the workgroup He Chen was part of couldn't escape.
All were taken in without a single exception.
After a brief interrogation and judgment that lasted only seconds.
Those who were to be executed were shot, and those to be imprisoned were imprisoned—
Though calling it imprisonment might be somewhat inaccurate.
In reality, after the robots made their judgments.
As long as the outcome wasn't immediate execution, they would be fitted with a leg chain that didn't hinder movement, and clearly informed that it contained a bomb.
Any attempt to escape would trigger an explosion.
After that, they would no longer be monitored.
It seemed that from that moment on, they were truly treated as ordinary people, just like everyone else.
"Our shelter has changed overnight."
He Chen's face still bore a hint of confusion at this point.
He couldn't process it.
In just a matter of minutes.
The mountain he once thought would weigh upon him for life, one he could never escape, had suddenly vanished.
Even that person who had once loudly proclaimed in public within the shelter that anyone who dared to upset him would be chopped up once he inherited his father's position, now lay on the ground, a cold corpse with a gaping hole in his head.
The stark contrast made He Chen almost believe he was dreaming.
But soon.
As a humanoid robot handed him a pair of small Bluetooth headphones and a metal bracelet.
Feeling the cold touch in his hand.
He Chen ultimately realized that all of this was real.
Then.
Following the instructions from the voice in the headphones.
He Chen obediently began to work alongside the crowd, performing various tasks.
Maintaining the normal operation of the shelter's equipment, inventorying supplies in the warehouse, categorizing and packing them, then transporting them to the underground level of the shelter.
These tasks were very tedious.
There were many underlying principles that He Chen only partially understood.
But according to the prompts from the voice in the Bluetooth headphones, the execution was surprisingly simple.
He didn't need to engage in any personal thought or judgment.
He just had to follow orders mindlessly.
Then, during a break.
He Chen had the most sumptuous meal he had since entering the shelter.
There was rice, meat, even tomatoes, and stewed tender radishes, among other things.
From those dishes, He Chen could barely discern that the tomatoes likely came from canned vegetables stored in the warehouse.
The meat was frozen pork and beef from before the apocalypse.
The radishes might have been freshly picked from the tightly secured greenhouse at the bottom of the shelter.
"Are they not planning to live anymore?"
"So extravagant."
He Chen couldn't help but feel a bit anxious.
Even while eating, he felt somewhat tasteless.
This meal was indeed lavish, but if it were to be his last meal in life.
That would be too tragic.
And soon, the actions of the invading robots intensified his concerns in this regard.
A long, seemingly endless, trackless train appeared at the entrance of the shelter.
The robots began loading the packed supplies from the shelter, box by box.
Eventually, even the finished steel products and household appliances that couldn't be packed were not spared, all transferred indiscriminately.
It looked like a scene of looting.
The residents of the shelter watching this scene began to stir.
Each person couldn't help but have thoughts similar to He Chen's.
But fearing the weapons in the robots' hands.
They could only seethe in anger without daring to speak out, unable to openly resist.
He Chen anxiously watched as the robots emptied more than half of the shelter.
However, what finally relieved him was that.
The robots did not touch the shelter's most critical life-support equipment and food reserves.
Even the fuel for power generation was largely left behind.
He Chen estimated that it would be enough for them to last several months.
This was good news.
It indicated that the robots did not intend to abandon them.
Because if they truly planned to give up, they would have left only a day or two's worth of supplies to demonstrate their mercy.
Not wastefully leaving several months' worth of survival supplies.
That night.
Accompanied by a massive helicopter landing again at the entrance of the shelter.
After taking away the valuable items packed separately.
He Chen learned from the voice in the Bluetooth headphones that had been directing their actions about their future arrangements.
"Undergo a month and three days of job training and militia training."
"Then board a train called the caravan to settle in Jianghe City."
He Chen was not unfamiliar with Jianghe City.
Although it was just an obscure third-tier city before the apocalypse.
In recent days, through the suddenly appearing network signals.
Many people in the shelter with phones learned that Jianghe City was a newly emerging super city with a population of millions.
It had a massive super shelter.
From the data alone, moving to Jianghe City didn't seem like a bad thing.
Because integrating into a society with a large population base would definitely make it easier to find work than it is now.
Resources would also be more abundant.
It wouldn't be easy to starve to death.
The only concern.
Was that Jianghe City was simply too far away.
It required crossing nearly 800 kilometers, traversing several provinces in between.
In this apocalypse, could they really reach there safely?
Taking advantage of his identity as a mover, He Chen quietly stood near the exit of the shelter.
He gazed at the massive helicopter gradually taking off under the gloomy sky.
His eyes filled with confusion about the future.
In this apocalypse.
As an ordinary person.
He had no room to resist, whether facing disaster or man-made calamity.
He could only go with the flow, following the arrangements of those in power.
The massive Twin-Winged Helicopter.
After taking off from the Zhongmiao Shelter, continued to gather more valuable resources from several nearby small and medium-sized shelters.
Until the entire cabin was filled, reaching the transport limit of 20 tons.
Then it turned towards Jianghe City.
The huge commotion it caused.
Not only caught the attention of the surrounding shelters, but also alarmed Yu'an City not far away.
Yu'an City.
External Defense Radar Monitoring Room.
A young supervisor looked at the aircraft boldly emitting signals on the screen.
His brows furrowed involuntarily.
"Are we just going to watch them plunder resources?"
"Shouldn't we give some warning?"
Those shelters.
At least nominally belonged to Yu'an City's jurisdiction.
It was somewhat hard to accept that they were being looted by outsiders without reason.
"Of course, we can't give a warning."
"You think they're making such a big move without the higher-ups knowing?"
A colleague of the young supervisor patted his shoulder.
Indicating for him to calm down.
"Just prepare a report and submit it."
"Don't worry about anything else."
"But—"
"Those resources are enough to elevate the living standards of many residents in Yu'an City."
"No matter the reason, this is too much."
The young supervisor still felt indignant.
"The quality of residents' lives has nothing to do with the higher-ups."
"You need to focus on the right direction."
The colleague shook his head and forwarded a message about Jianghe City posted on the internal network to the young supervisor.
Indicating for him to ponder it carefully.
The young supervisor opened it and took a glance.
He found it mentioned that the Bio Printer developed by Jianghe City could effectively treat terminal illnesses and extend life.
No one who could hold a supervisory position in an important department of a super city like Yu'an City was truly foolish.
Just a little thought, the young supervisor understood the implications behind this.
His expression froze.
He felt like a deflated balloon, left with nothing but helplessness.
"It seems the lives of the big shots above are still so precious."
Seven to eight hundred kilometers away.
In a farmhouse courtyard in Jianghe City.
In the underground control center.
Su Wu stood before a massive holographic projection map, observing the various dynamic information displayed.
His expression was calm yet deeply contemplative.
The recent commotion seemed to have stirred things up a bit too much.
With the completion of the super factory.
Su Wu's industrial productivity had received the largest boost in history.
Building snow transport vehicles no longer required final assembly in temporary surface factories.
Every step from part polishing to final shaping could now be completed directly in the super factory on the seventh underground level.
This high degree of automated production.
Allowed the output of snow transport vehicles to exceed five hundred units per day.
Moreover.
The super factory had the capacity to simultaneously undertake almost all other production tasks.
So much so that within just a few days after its completion.
The resources Su Wu had recently plundered from various shelters in the southeast region and the surrounding areas were completely consumed.
In exchange for an increase to 15 Twin-Winged Helicopters, over a thousand Azure Sky-Class Transport Drones, nearly 200,000 Spider Robots.
And most importantly, the number of caravans had doubled compared to last month, reaching eighty.
Such a scale of operation.
In one round of transport, could bring back nearly 500,000 tons of resources from outside.
It could also simultaneously deliver over 100,000 Spider Robots to various places around the southeast region and Yu'an City.
If in the past, moving mountains and seas was an exaggerated metaphor.
Now, it was a descriptor for Su Wu.
Su Wu truly had the ability, to some extent, to move mountains and fill seas.
Even if the mountains he moved were relatively small, and the area of the sea he filled was insignificant compared to the entire ocean.
It was still a tremendous power in the eyes of humanity.
"Next, the easiest place to obtain resources is only the area surrounding Yu'an City."
"That portion of resources."
"Cannot be squandered any longer."
"It needs to be accumulated for building Pioneer Class Destroyers and modifying base vehicles."
"And when technology breaks through again in the future."
"To carry out large-scale upgrades and replacements of existing equipment."
"And in this way."
"In the short term, it seems we will basically be unable to continue manufacturing Icebound-class Land Battleships."
"The output of snow transport vehicles may also need to be controlled to below 200 units per day."
After plundering the finished resources from the shelters.
The remaining relatively easy-to-obtain resource channels were only the urban ruins on the surface and various mines.
These required a significant investment of manpower and resources.
And time was needed to slowly convert them into the resources Su Wu needed.
As for those official shelters with owners.
For the time being.
Su Wu found it difficult to take them down.
Not every super city was as indifferent to the surrounding subordinate shelters as Yu'an City.
When Su Wu conducted large-scale sweeps of the notorious private shelters within the coverage area of the communication signal towers in the southeast region.
He had already received warnings from several super cities along the way.
Prohibiting him from further expanding his strike range.
Moreover, in addition to the warnings from super cities, even the federal government from the other side of the planet sent inquiries.
Demanding that he refrain from using force at will, or he would be regarded as a rebellious force.
Under these tangible and intangible pressures.
Unless Su Wu truly intended to take on the whole world, he had to restrain himself.
"The current development should have temporarily reached its limit."
"However, I can still try to expand the caravan's capacity."
"Changing each caravan from the original model of one Icebound-class Land Battleship leading 50 snow transport vehicles."
"To leading 100 snow transport vehicles."
"This way, the total transport capacity of the caravan can exceed 800,000 tons."
"In a short time, we can transport all the high-value resources around Yu'an City back."
"And then, we can truly begin relocating the population."
Once the population of thirty million ar
ound Yu'an City is relocated, along with some refugees from the southeast region.
Su Wu's farmhouse shelter.
Would welcome over half a billion people.
At that time, even without further expansion and resource plundering.
If managed well.
Su Wu would still be able to slowly build the most powerful force on the entire planet through technological advantages.