Chapter 462: Chapter 462

"What, that’s it? That’s all?" Jing Shu ran around the empty storeroom; it contained only worthless handguns and some scattered weapons.

"This is just the corridor of the armory; we haven’t reached the actual weapon storage yet."

"Then let’s go, take me inside," Jing Shu urged.

Jun Jia looked at Jing Shu as if she were a fool. "This is confidential. You can’t just walk in. The directive states that decommissioned weapons are to be exchanged for supplies, and these are all that’s left. You can only choose from these. Even if you go to my brother-in-law and cause a scene, you’ll still only get things from here. Besides, to take it a step further, you wouldn’t be able to get a permit for items from the main armory anyway."

Jing Shu deflated like a punctured ball. She had hoped to score big, but she hadn’t expected the armory to be almost empty after several months of exchanges with over a dozen districts.

However, Jing Shu didn’t give up. She still hoped to find something overlooked here. But aside from an unwanted RPG, there was nothing else of value.

"You’ve used up a quota of five hundred thousand," Jun Jia said with schadenfreude. After all, Jing Shu hadn’t paid anything and was about to take weapons that would normally have been part of several exchanges. The critical point was that he had to use his own supplies for Jing Shu to take the weapons; this made the fatty even more upset.

"Otherwise, I could take some broken guns too. After all, we’ve managed to get quite a few weapons from the United States," Jing Shu pondered, almost ready to give up. Then, she suddenly noticed an entire wall of wooden crates! There were rows upon rows of them, in all sorts of sizes!

"This is the ammunition depot."

Jing Shu’s eyes suddenly lit up. Ammunition, now that was something incredibly hard to come by! She had plenty of weapons, but because ammunition was so precious, she had barely used any.

"How come there’s so much ammunition left if the weapons are gone? Weren’t we told that after the apocalypse, bullets wouldn’t be manufactured anymore and that each one was precious?"

Jun Jia huffed, looking at Jing Shu as if she were an idiot. "Before the apocalypse, Huaxia had over 60 billion rounds of ammunition, with tens of billions more in reserve. Even though we’ve stopped production now, there haven’t been any major events lately, so there’s still enough for ordinary use."

"In that case, I’ll exchange the rest of my quota for bullets," Jing Shu rubbed her hands together, thrilled. Since new species began invading in the fifth year of the apocalypse, Huaxia’s ammunition supplies had become tight. Later, due to material shortages, few bullets could be produced, making them increasingly valuable.

Having these logistical support bullets was essential for Jing Shu to keep her arsenal well-stocked; otherwise, her weapons would become useless without bullets.

Frowning, Jun Jia thought about how the decommissioned weapons had been traded to prompt people to barter with the Government for bullets. The real prize wasn’t the weapons but the ammunition. It’s like how a car needs gasoline to run; petroleum is a global strategic resource. Consumables are what’s truly valuable. Similarly, by controlling ammunition, these merchants couldn’t stir up trouble. The nation truly controlled the outflow rate of ammunition.

"No. First, bullets are too expensive; it’s not worth it. Second, it’s impossible to release that much ammunition for your quota all at once," Jun Jia said firmly, shaking his head.

"How much Virtual Coin per round? And how much do these crates hold?" Jing Shu asked curiously.

"Thirty Virtual Coin per bullet. These crates hold one thousand rounds each, making them worth 30,000 Virtual Coin."

Jing Shu’s mouth fell open. The price was indeed outrageously high. Before the apocalypse, a bullet cost only four cents to produce, but now 30 Virtual Coin could buy 10 steamed buns. Food prices had risen dozens of times in the apocalypse, and bullets were valued more than ten times higher than food. But this was a tactic to make merchants exchange bullets at high prices; to put it bluntly, it was still about collecting food and material reserves.

"If you don’t let me exchange for bullets, then even if I take all the weapons in this storeroom, it probably won’t meet my quota, right? Besides... Mrs. Jin has already told you about today’s incident, right? If things go smoothly, her husband might live a lot longer..."

Jun Jia remained silent, wiping the sweat from his forehead. What should he do? This girl was tough to handle, threatening not to leave without bullets and ready to go complain. He detested people who resorted to crying and complaining, just like her sister when she was young... Besides, the items in the storeroom truly weren’t enough for her quota... hmm...

"This is what we’ll do!" Jun Jia suddenly got an idea. "You can exchange for these bullets. Take as many as you can move today. However, the conditions are that you can only move them once, you can’t ask for help, and you must move them before the next shift change. Don’t say I’m being stingy. You can stack them, drag them with ropes, use leverage—any tools you currently have on you are fair game.

Now, you have thirty minutes to move them from here to the exit, which is about five hundred meters away. If you agree, you can start now. If you don’t, then I really can’t help you. Just take the other assorted weapons in the storeroom and leave."

Meaning, from now on, she could use any method she could think of to move the ammunition from its storage place to the exit in one go, and any bullets she got out would be hers.

Jing Shu raised an eyebrow and lifted one of the crates. It weighed about ten-odd kilograms and contained 1,000 bullets. Ten such crates stacked together would weigh over a hundred kilograms—impossible for an ordinary person to move, even with tools.

A thousand bullets, what good would that do? A machine gun could fire thousands of rounds a minute, and a rifle’s rate of fire was about 650 rounds per minute. Even with burst fire, a few hundred rounds would be gone in minutes.

Of course, this didn’t count someone like Jing Shu, who was so frugal she’d only used a few hundred rounds in total over the past one or two years, and only when absolutely necessary. After all, Jing Shu was planning for the future. Opportunities to use bullets in these past few years had been few, as she hadn’t encountered any particularly dangerous situations.

But things would be different later on. Plus, with bullets becoming scarcer... Jing Shu felt this was a rare opportunity; it would be best to stockpile as many bullets as possible in one go.

At the current market price, one crate was worth 30,000 Virtual Coin (an inflated price). If auctioned later, the price would only get higher. Her quota could get her 120 crates, which was 120,000 bullets. But judging by Jun Jia’s earlier expression, there was absolutely no way he’d let her take that many.

"Fine. So I can’t go out to call for people, nor can I find other tools; I can only use what I have on me, and I can only move them once. I agree. I’ll start now. Let me confirm one last time: no matter how much I can move by myself, it’s all mine?"

Jun Jia nodded. "That’s the idea."

"Alright, you better keep your word. I’m recording this."

Jun Jia chuckled. "Go ahead and record. Let’s see how much you can move." Check latest chapters at 𝕟𝕠𝕧𝕖𝕝✦𝘧𝙞𝙧𝙚✦𝕟𝕖𝕥