Chapter 416: Chapter 416

The most dangerous, the most exhausting, and the largest engineering tasks all fell to Jing Shu’s team. Although Jing Shu and Zhen Nantian had seemed leisurely these days, Zhen Nantian had been pushing his limits every day by basking in the Concentrating Stone. Now, as they were about to leave the castle, he proudly requested tens of kilograms of Concentrating Stone from Doctor B to carry on his back, planning to sleep close to it every night!

Thus, Jing Shu, along with others, had distanced themselves from Zhen Nantian, the team captain of the Imperial Capital.

Ahem, although Doctor B was reluctant to disclose the formula, Jing Shu had privately asked him for some Concentrating Stones. According to Doctor B, the Concentrating Stone would be the world’s greatest invention. Although it was still a semi-finished product, it fundamentally solved the problem of natural light. It had its flaws, but once the radiation harmful to the human body was removed, the Concentrating Stone would become extremely precious.

Not all radiation is bad; sunlight itself is a product of nuclear fusion, constantly emitting radiation. Before the apocalypse, humans were exposed to radiation every day.

So, the Concentrating Stone was still worth researching. Jing Shu had secretly stuffed quite a few into the Magic Cube Space. These will definitely be useful in the future. Fortunately, the Magic Cube Space was independent; otherwise, she really wouldn’t have dared to store them there.

Speaking of which, these days Jing Shu and Zhen Nantian were responsible for the overt, public-facing tasks, while the Imperial Capital team was responsible for digging tunnels and installing the conveyor belts unloaded from the freight ships.

Shedding the golden cicada skin is a classic Huaxia stratagem: even after successfully deceiving the enemy and obtaining the goods, one must still escape with their life. After all, Austin’s armed forces were very powerful, possessing planes, tanks, and even missiles. If they truly thought they could just run away openly, they probably wouldn’t get far before being utterly decimated.

But no one would have expected that by digging a downward slope eastward for about two kilometers, they would directly reach the Austin Grand Canal! Doctor B had chosen this location precisely because he had discovered this miraculous geographical feature. Of course, back then, it was just a narrow passage, and everything had to be carried manually.

Now, it had been transformed into a cargo tunnel. What was truly impressive was that the diligent and clever Huaxia people devised the method of installing conveyor belts. This allowed Doctor B’s original plan to transport 3,000,000 pounds of supplies to be directly increased to 8,000,000 pounds.

Using a right triangle as an analogy, if the diagonal tunnel dug by the Imperial Capital team is 2 kilometers long, then what is the straight-line distance from the entrance to the Grand Canal?

It wasn’t just about digging cargo tunnels. Yang Yang and a few others were responsible for contacting domestic cargo ships to come and transport the goods. Since Austin City had daily airplane patrols, large cargo ships couldn’t get too close. Therefore, a fleet of smaller cargo ships was needed to shuttle the goods back and forth stealthily.

Doctor B, naturally, wasn’t comfortable entrusting all the swindled supplies to Jing Shu’s team. So, he also had his own forces stationed at the docks to receive the goods.

Moreover, even if they managed to steal everything, escaping with such enormous quantities of supplies would take time and opportunity. Thus, the final cleanup had to be handled by Jing Shu and Zhen Nantian. They had to ensure that by the time the other party realized something was amiss and came to investigate, not only would all the supplies have vanished into thin air, but the people involved would also be gone without a trace. That was the most ideal outcome.

In other words, Doctor B and his people didn’t have to do anything; they could just lie back and wait to count their money, as all the dangerous tasks were undertaken by Jing Shu’s team. So, didn’t Jing Shu’s team deserve some reward? Coincidentally, Doctor B’s side wasn’t interested in the mineral resources.

Thus, both sides got what they wanted.

「The truly dangerous step was about to begin!」

The generators rumbled continuously within the crevice, and the experimental devices buzzed as they started operating. Initially, the bodyguards would glance down occasionally to check the situation below. However, it was too far and too dark; they could only vaguely make out movement and shadows in one section of the crevice.

The noisy buzzing of the machinery assured them that everything was fine. Although it was difficult to see clearly from such a distance, the sight of Doctor B’s white lab coat was reassurance enough.

Indeed, looking down from the exit, all one could see was a view of a narrow opening. This was a psychological suggestion orchestrated by Doctor B, intended to make those above believe everything below was normal and that there was no need to descend.

Meanwhile, Doctor B and Jing Shu’s teams had already begun unloading the crated supplies. After removing the items from their various packagings and boxes, leaving the empty containers behind, they placed the goods one by one onto the electric conveyor belts.

The conveyor belt wasn’t exceptionally long; it had been assembled from sections taken from several cargo ships, hence the need for a high-powered generator. Because it was inclined downward, the conveyor belt wasn’t overstrained. Although its speed was somewhat slow, it could continuously transport the goods placed upon it.

The people outside could never have imagined that the moment the oil-burning machines rumbled to life, it wasn’t for the mass production of the Water of Life. Instead, it signaled the start of the conveyor belts, which were deceptively transporting all their supplies and food from underground. These conveyor belts had been procured by Yang Yang, who had expended great effort and used his connections. Therefore, it was only fair that his side received a share of the mineral resources.

This was an exceptionally long and massive project. The empty boxes were put back into their original places one after another, giving the illusion that the supplies had not been moved at all.

As for Jing Shu and her team, after dividing the spoils, they began transporting the goods, having no time to rest.

A comprehensive and meticulous plan required an immense amount of detailed preparation! Follow current ɴᴏᴠᴇʟs on 𝘯𝘰𝘷𝘦𝘭•𝘧𝘪𝘳𝘦•𝘯𝘦𝘵

Although the plan had been running smoothly for over ten days and had reached this stage successfully, its success was, in fact, inseparable from everyone’s meticulous planning and deployment.

「Next, Jing Shu and Doctor B initiated the final phase of the plan.」

At that moment, Zhen Nantian also unleashed his unparalleled strength. He began to disperse the various strange creatures that Snake Spirit had been capturing outside for Bo these past few days. Then, he used stimulants, causing these animals and other never-before-seen creatures to go completely berserk.

The closer they got to the critical moment, the less they could afford to relax their vigilance. We have to keep the people above busy!

Otherwise, if those people had nothing to do, they would become bored. Boredom would lead to feelings of emptiness and loneliness, which could easily prompt them to stir up trouble, perhaps by coming down to investigate the situation. Therefore, it was foreseeable that for the next few days, those above would not have a moment of peace.

Of course, this had to be carefully balanced. It couldn’t be too lax, lest they feel unchallenged, nor too intense, lest they feel overwhelmed and unable to cope. If they call for backup, we’ll be in an even worse position!

Zhen Nantian clenched his fist and said, "I will take special care of those two A-team mercenaries."

Zhen Nantian had finally found something to do these days.

So, what was Jing Shu doing?

"SIGH..." Jing Shu heaved a long sigh. Given her specialty—her great strength—she had been assigned the task of excavating rock and planting explosives.