Chapter 55: Grow Bigger and Stronger

Chapter 55: Growing Stronger

Chen Jian, together with the other six members of his squad, unsealed every packing crate, laid out the contents neatly on the floor, then hauled the boxes into the corridor; only after everything was sorted did he return to the first level of the fortification to inspect them one by one.

Unlike the second and third levels, the supplies stockpiled on the first level of the fortification were essentially “consumable” goods.

At a glance, it was all manner of weapons, ammunition, everyday tools, medicines, and so on.

Chen Jian examined each item in turn, his face a mixture of joy and worry.

The pleasure lay in the abundance—there was enough to handle virtually any situation.

The worry stemmed from the fact that, after three hundred years, much of it was likely unusable.

He let out a soft breath and gave the order:

“Shen Yue, first sort out the medicines, see what we have and whether any of it is still usable.”

“Understood.”

Shen Yue sprang into action at once, beginning to tally the medicines spread on the ground, reporting as he counted:

“Temperature‑sealed epinephrine, 120 vials.”

“But the insulated box has completely failed, its seal broken, so we can pretty much assume it’s useless.”

“Large quantities of naloxone hydrochloride and methylprednisolone—emergency drugs for multi‑organ failure—are obviously unusable without even looking.”

“Anti‑radiation drugs such as nilestriol, N‑acetylcysteine, and indoleamine—all hormones or amines—are also unusable.”

“Still, there’s a small amount of sulfur‑containing metal chelating agents; I think they might work, though we probably won’t need them.”

“After all, we haven’t yet detected any excess radiation.”

“Most of the rest are ordinary medicines—antibiotics, anti‑inflammatories, vitamins, trace‑element supplements—only a little might still work, but I suspect the powdered antibiotics could be of use.”

“Still, it’s best not to gamble—they left us a backup plan.”

“Here we have a complete set of vancomycin synthesis guidelines, paper‑based, complete with fermenters, chromatography purification units, and dryers; the only snag is the lack of raw material, though the guide also explains how to isolate Streptomyces orientalis from the soil.”

“The procedure is demanding, but not impossible.”

“If conditions are limited, it’s simpler to rustle up some oranges and make penicillin.”

“That’s about it—mainly disinfectants for wounds and various surgical and dressing tools, which are still usable.”

“That will suffice.”

Chen Jian nodded and continued:

“The problem we’re most likely to face now is trauma; if we can treat wounds, everything else can be worked out gradually.”

“Yeah, I don’t think it’s too big an issue.”

Shen Yue set down the bandage in his hand, pondering:

“Still, the selection of these medicines shows a clear bias—they were probably highly suspicious of radiation and gave comparatively little thought to viruses.”

“Lei Jie, have you finished looking through the computer files? What does the data uploaded from Huaxi say?”

Hearing him, Lei Jie, who had been studying the various data retained on the terminal nearby, shook his head disappointedly:

“The uploads from Huaxi are mostly fairly routine reports; the detail is there, but I can’t see any problem.”

“Even if we wanted to read it, it’s beyond our level to make sense of; trying to tease out a clue is too hard.”

“And most importantly, it notes that although the patients suffered multi‑organ failure, no obvious skin lesions were observed, no signs of muscle breakdown, and no internal bone irradiation damage.”

“That’s strange—could it not be radiation after all?”

“Or perhaps they died so quickly there was no time for analysis.”

Chen Jian added a remark, then said:

“Let’s the leave that for now and go straight to the weapons.”

“What do we have?”

As soon as those words left his mouth, He Shuo, in charge of sorting the arms, perked up.

“There’s quite a lot!”

“Four PBP‑201 mortars, the same model we found before, but they come with built‑in electro‑optic sights and are still functional.”

“Forty‑eight rounds, in eight boxes.”

“A sniper grenade launcher, model QLU‑193, lighter than the QLU‑131, still with a folding stock, but with a larger calibre.”

“One hundred and twenty rounds, in five boxes.”

“This ammo‑shortage paranoia is really late‑stage—twenty years have passed and it’s still not cured?”

“It’d be weird if it were cured.”

Chen Jian waved a hand, crouching to have a look, when Zeng Yi, standing nearby, suddenly asked:

“Is this the gun you used to take down that mother‑beast in Chuan Sha Cheng?”

Chen Jian nodded and replied:

“Same class, but not the exact same weapon.”

“Got it—a formidable piece, stronger than some of the cannons of the Machine God Sect.”

“A cannon?”

Chen Jian burst out laughing.

“Calling that thing a cannon is a stretch—if we ever find a 155‑mm howitzer or the like, you’ll learn what a true god of war really is.”

“155‑mm howitzer.”

Zeng Yi nodded thoughtfully, said nothing more, merely committing the name to memory.

And after mentioning the 155‑mm howitzer, Chen Jian, as if suddenly recalling something, went on:

“What about heavy weapons? Surely it’s not all just individual‑gear?”

“We have heavy weapons.”

He Shuo rose to his feet, pointing at the crates behind him:

“These two crates hold disassembled QJZ‑301 machine guns, 12.7×108 mm calibre, with 4,000 rounds of ammunition.”

“This crate contains a QJG‑22 heavy machine gun, titanium‑alloy! 14.5 mm calibre, loaded with 8,000 rounds.”

“.The larger the calibre, the more ammo—what kind of logic is that?”

Chen Jian made a sarcastic remark, and He Shuo replied with a laugh:

“If you fire the heavy machine gun from the hip, 8,000 rounds actually isn’t enough to hold it down—don’t think taking down that bullfrog was simple; it’s really not safe.”

“Now that we have these two suppressing fires, even if the bullets don’t kill it, we can pin it in place.”

“It’s impossible that they wouldn’t pierce it.”

Chen Jian shook his head and said:

“Given the strength of a tier‑three monster, a single burst from a 14.5 mm heavy machine gun would practically reduce it to powder.” “Still, the ammo is limited—if we let it rip, we’d probably only manage five or six of them.”

“That’s a bit extravagant—there are still tubes, you can fire with the tubes.”

“DZJ19, same model as the one you used before, 24 rounds.”

He Shuo bared his teeth and continued:

“Hauling all this gear, honestly, it takes up enough space for an infantry fighting vehicle; make a little room and you could fit a Type 99A.”

“I don’t know why they’d configure the weapons like this.”

Chen Jian hadn’t answered yet when Xie Liu behind him suddenly spoke:

“Maybe those ancients from the old era didn’t know monsters would appear?”

“Or maybe they thought, leaving these things behind, later people might not necessarily use them?”

As soon as those words left her mouth, Chen Jian froze.

“That’s certainly a consideration, but do you know what the Type 99A is?”

“You mentioned it when we entered Han Shui City; I remembered.”

“So that wasn’t a holy elephant, it was an infantry fighting vehicle?”

Xie Liu asked tentatively.

“No, the Type 99A is a tank; the infantry fighting vehicle is something else.”

Chen Jian answered offhand, and Xie Liu looked enlightened.

She felt that from the moment she stepped into this underground space, she had entered a completely different world.

The glory of the old era had solidified into these weapons, gear, and medicines she couldn’t name, making her unable to help wondering just how mighty that age must have been.

Perhaps, if not for that sudden great catastrophe, even if monsters appeared, they would be mere ants beneath the feet of humans as mighty as gods.

—

No, the Chosen Ones said they don’t believe in gods.

They believe only in themselves.

It’s precisely because they believe only in themselves that they could create such a world?

Xie Liu felt she had drawn a little closer to the Chosen Ones, but she couldn’t say exactly why.

Meanwhile, Chen Jian hadn’t noticed her subtle change; he had followed He Shuo to the largest pile of weapons.

“Here there are two automatic grenade launchers, QLZ‑24, 35mm caliber; looking at the mount below, they’re probably meant to be mounted on the cat‑car, with 480 rounds of ammunition.”

“This is an 82mm PBW024 recoilless gun, with 24 rounds of ammo—8 armor‑piercing, 8 assault, 8 high‑explosive; altogether it’s decent.”

“The rest are all rifles, all the 7.62mm Type 191 version, plus four 201 machine guns, also 7.62mm. The ammo count is off the charts—estimated at over twenty thousand rounds; at a glance there are twenty crates.”

“In the short term, at least we won’t run out of small‑arms ammunition.”

“But as for heavy firepower, it’s damn scarce.”

“If we consider safety, using the third‑level monsters we’ve previously killed as a benchmark, we could probably take down about twenty of them.”

“If we ran into a second‑level monster, maybe we could only manage a few?”

“That’s not how it works.”

Hearing He Shuo’s speculation, Zeng Yi interjected from the side:

“If you think these weapons could kill twenty third‑level monsters, then against second‑level ones you might only manage to kill one or two—maybe not even one.”

“That sounds exaggerated?”

“Yes.”

Zeng Yi nodded and continued:

“Although third‑level monsters are already powerful, their numbers aren’t few—at least a thousand.”

“But most of the time they coexist peacefully with humans who haven’t invaded their territory.”

“Above second level, the monsters’ numbers drop sharply.”

“Based on our records, we estimate that the number of second‑level monsters in the whole south probably doesn’t exceed forty.”

“As for first‑level monsters, the Machine God Sect has seen them twice, the Holy Blood Hall recorded four incidents—two of which were the same creature—so we’ve only encountered five distinct ones.”

“That’s the situation.”

Chen Jian frowned, thought for a moment, then added:

“But the density feels off—if you go by the territory of that third‑level monster in Han Shui, the whole country couldn’t hold that many, let alone the barren zones; there wouldn’t be enough food, right?”

“It’s enough.”

Zeng Yi explained again:

“Not all monsters are huge; some second‑level ones are only a bit bigger than the praying mantis you’ve seen—about four or five meters tall.”

“But its combat power is very strong.”

“You’ve seen one?”

Chen Jian asked sharply.

“I have.”

Zeng Yi took a deep breath and replied:

“In Luling. Two years ago, a monster slaughtered over a thousand people in a single night, then retreated back into the mountains.”

“It hasn’t shown up again since.”

“We went on that occasion to scout, but to this day we still don’t know why it killed people, or why it left after the slaughter.”

“The only clue is the name the locals gave it: Shan Xiang.”

Chen Jian looked at Xie Liu and Li Shi; both nodded, confirming Zeng Yi’s words.

It seems this monster classification isn’t as precise as I thought; it’s purely based on whether humans can handle them.

But fortunately, the current environment is relatively stable; for now we don’t need to worry excessively.

Upon reaching this point, Chen Jian spoke:

“Basically, that’s all the gear we have; in terms of weaponry, we can truly call ourselves well‑off.”

“But before that, there are still two problems.”

“Food and shelter.”

“The fortifications’ emergency stores have only a little food; it won’t last long.”

“Next, we need to figure out how to secure enough food while building our living quarters.”

“We want to grow big and strong—we need both frontier construction and a Nanniwan.”

(End of chapter)