29: Chapter 29: Special Approval for 3,000 Mu of Land! And a Special Forces Company to Guard the Gate as a Sideline

Western Suburbs, Base No. 3.

Half a month ago, this place was still a desolate ruin filled only with wild dogs and weeds. But now, a steel fortress brimming with violent aesthetics and magical realism was rising from the ground.

The towering concrete wall reached five meters in height, topped with high-voltage barbed wire, and an omnidirectional surveillance tower stood every fifty meters. The beams of the searchlights crisscrossed in the night sky like an impenetrable net, tightly shrouding the 3,000 mu of land.

And on that blast-proof alloy gate, weighing tens of tons, hung a sign that looked completely out of place:

[Chenxing Agricultural Technology Co., Ltd.]

The characters were hot-stamped in gold—large and imposing.

However, standing beneath this sign, which was full of rustic charm, was not an elderly gatekeeper, but two rows of heavily armed special forces soldiers with eyes fiercer than wolves.

The Type 95 assault rifles in their hands gleamed with a cold, chilling light under the searchlights. Although the pitch-black muzzles were not raised, the sheer murderous aura was enough to make anyone with ill intentions wet their pants.

"Creak—"

A black Hongqi sedan slowly pulled to a stop at the gate.

Before the car had even come to a complete stop, an officer with a burly build, dressed in camouflage training gear, strode over.

"Clap!"

Company Commander Zhao Gang puffed out his chest and sucked in his stomach. With the crisp sound of his riot boots slamming into the ground, he rendered a standard, impeccable military salute.

His voice was as resonant as a bell, making the car windows vibrate:

"Report, Chief!"

"The 'Sweet Potato Protection Company' has finished assembling! 120 personnel expected, 120 personnel present!"

"Awaiting your orders!"

Jiang Chen lowered the car window and looked at this solemn-faced elite special forces soldier, who seemed ready to rush into battle at any second. His mouth couldn't help but twitch.

Sweet potato... protection company?

What in the hell is a Sweet Potato Protection Company!

Who came up with this name? General Qin Weiguo? This is just too embarrassing!

"Ahem, well... Company Commander Zhao, at ease."

Jiang Chen pushed the door open and stepped out, trying his best to look like a leader inspecting work rather than a bystander holding back laughter to the point of internal injury. "Thank you for your hard work. Recently... there haven't been any anomalies, right?"

"Report, Chief! Everything is normal!"

Zhao Gang stared straight ahead, his tone sonorous and powerful. "In the last few days, we have apprehended three 'wilderness adventure streamers' attempting to climb the wall, two illegally invading drones, and one lost wild boar!"

"The drones have been shot down! The wild boar has... entered the mess hall's pot!"

"As for those three streamers, they have been handed over to the national security department and are currently undergoing anti-espionage screening!"

Jiang Chen: "..."

This efficiency is just...

Those three streamers were unlucky; they probably just wanted to chase some clout, but almost ended up branded as foreign spies.

"Well done."

Jiang Chen patted Zhao Gang's shoulder, which felt as hard as granite. "Take me inside to have a look around and see our... warehouse."

Walking inside the base, that sense of incongruity became even stronger.

The fields originally planned for farming did exist, and crops had indeed been planted (some sweet potato seeds were casually scattered to keep up appearances), but most of the area was occupied by massive steel-structured warehouses.

Warehouse No. 1, the door wide open.

Inside, piled up like a mountain, were not weapons or high-tech equipment, but piles of white rice, flour, and boxes upon boxes of compressed biscuits and canned luncheon meat.

This was the 'granary' Jiang Chen had prepared for the Wasteland.

In this peaceful era, these items were of little value. But in that cannibalistic Wasteland world, this warehouse of food was worth enough to buy a city, and could even move that aloof empress to the point of offering herself on the spot.

"Chief, I don't understand."

Zhao Gang followed behind, looking at the mountains of rice and flour with furrowed brows, his eyes filled with confusion and vigilance. "Is this... really just ordinary food?"

As an experienced special forces soldier, his intuition told him that things were definitely not that simple.

The country had mobilized such a massive operation, even bringing in anti-aircraft missiles, just to guard a pile of rice that could be found in any supermarket?

This isn't scientific!

This doesn't make sense!

The only explanation is—

"This definitely isn't ordinary rice!"

Zhao Gang's mind raced as he filled in the blanks, his eyes gradually sharpening. "This must be the 'super individual ration' newly developed by Longke Academy! It might even be some kind of biochemical genetic weapon disguised as rice!"

Watching Zhao Gang's thoughtful expression as he spiraled into his own theories, Jiang Chen could only keep smiling without offering an explanation.

Sometimes, silence is the best cover.

The two continued to move forward and arrived at Warehouse No. 2, located in the deepest part of the base.

The security here was obviously tighter than outside; there were even two heavy machine guns mounted at the door.

"Open it," Jiang Chen ordered.

As the heavy hydraulic door slowly rose, the scent of stale engine oil and rusted metal rushed out to greet them.

The warehouse was cluttered with all kinds of strange-looking 'junk'.

There were broken mechanical arms, scorched power cores, metal discs of unknown purpose, and even the wreckage of an interstellar warship thruster riddled with bullet holes.

These were all the 'industrial waste' that Jiang Wanqiu had mobilized all the scavengers in the city to dig out from the Wasteland ruins during this period, all to please the Father God.

In her eyes, these pieces of scrap metal—which couldn't be eaten or drunk, and were even difficult to use as firewood—were a burden. But in Jiang Chen's eyes, they were all priceless treasures!

Take any single part out, and it could push Earth's technology tree forward by a notch!

"This..."

Zhao Gang looked at the pile of 'junk', his eyes wide.

He pointed to the wreckage of an electromagnetic railgun in the corner—damaged but still retaining a ferocious shape—his voice sounding a bit dry:

"Chief, is this... also used for farming?"

Jiang Chen walked over, patted the barrel as if he were petting a dog's head, and bluffed without changing his expression:

"Oh, this."

"This is a new type of high-efficiency soil tiller. Look at this barrel; if you start it up, one shot—ahem, one thrust into the ground—can turn over soil hundreds of meters deep. The efficiency is incredibly high."

He pointed to the turbine of an Anti-gravity Engine next to it:

"That is a powerful irrigation sprinkler. And that mechanical arm is an automatic harvesting assistant."

"Company Commander Zhao, you have to know that technology changes agriculture."

Zhao Gang stood where he was, looking at the 'soil tiller' with a 200-millimeter caliber, feeling his worldview undergoing an unprecedented impact.

Tilling soil?

With one shot of this thing, I'm afraid it could till the Earth's crust, couldn't it?!

And that harvester—those sharp alloy claws could grab tanks like they were tofu—you use that to pick sweet potatoes?

Do sweet potatoes not have any dignity?

But looking at Jiang Chen's calm expression—which said, 'This is reasonable, don't make a fuss'—Zhao Gang took a deep breath and forcibly suppressed the shock in his heart.

Worthy of being the Chief!

This camouflage is just too perfect!

To be able to explain away such terrifying future weapons as farm tools! This is the true master of strategic deception!

"Understood!"

Zhao Gang straightened his back, his eyes filled with admiration for Jiang Chen. "Chief, please rest assured! As long as I am here, these 'farm tools' won't lose a single screw! Whoever dares to come and steal our soil tiller, I'll use a heavy machine gun to help them till the soil!"

Jiang Chen nodded with satisfaction.

That was it.

As long as one's thinking doesn't slip, there are always more solutions than difficulties.

...

Meanwhile.

On the roof of a residential building five kilometers away from the base.

Several people in plain clothes, holding high-magnification binoculars, were lying behind the railing, nervously observing the 'agricultural base' shrouded in searchlights.

They were not spies.

They were just ordinary residents living nearby, along with a few internet bloggers who refused to give up.

"Did you see that? Did you see that?!"

A blogger was so excited his hands were shaking as he aimed his lens at the trucks covered with tarpaulins at the base entrance. "Even though they're covered with cloth, I dare to stake my reputation that they're definitely missile launchers! I recognize the outline!"

"Too scary..."

The middle-aged resident next to her looked terrified. "What do you think they're doing in there? They set off alarms in the middle of the night every day and keep transporting those weird iron lumps inside."

"I heard it's for biochemical experiments!"

Another person lowered his voice mysteriously. "I saw a wild boar run in two days ago, and the next day I smelled meat drifting downwind... it must have been taken for experiments!"

"What biochemical experiment? I think it's an alien base!"

The blogger spat, "Didn't you watch the analysis online? That Jiang Chen is an alien agent! There must be a flying saucer hidden inside!"

Just as everyone was chatting and speculating more and more outrageously,

several black off-road vehicles with police lights suddenly appeared downstairs.

Before they could react, a group of heavily armed men in black had rushed onto the rooftop.

"Don't move! National Security on official business!"

"Put down your phones! Delete all photos!"

"Come with us, have a cup of tea, and chat about the 'sweet potatoes' you saw."

...

It was late at night.

Jiang Chen returned to Yunding Villa.

Although the day's inspection work had been hard, looking at the impregnable base, he felt a sense of security. No matter what shocking things were dug out on the Wasteland side in the future, he now had a place to put them.

"These days are getting more and more promising."

Jiang Chen hummed a little tune and parked the car in the garage.

Just after getting out of the car, and before he could walk to his front door, the lights of the villa next door, which had been vacant, suddenly turned on.

A moving company truck was parked at the door, and several workers were moving furniture inside.

"Yo, new neighbors?"

Jiang Chen glanced over curiously.

With that glance, his gaze froze.

Under the dim halo of the street lamp, a woman was standing next to the truck, directing the workers.

She was wearing a tight black knit sweater and a pair of slender jeans, outlining the breathtaking curves of her waist and hips. A head of wavy curly hair was scattered casually on her shoulders, and she held a slender lady's cigarette in her hand, her posture lazy and charming.

She seemed to notice Jiang Chen's gaze.

The woman turned slowly.

It was an extremely aggressive, beautiful face, with the corners of her eyes slightly raised, carrying a kind of charm that seemed to be able to see through people's hearts.

When she saw Jiang Chen, she didn't smile or nod like an ordinary neighbor; instead, she exhaled a faint smoke ring, and a trace of imperceptible cold light flashed in her long, narrow eyes.

It was like a beautiful snake that had finally waited for its prey.

"Hello, neighbor."

The woman extinguished the cigarette butt and walked over in high heels, her voice hoarse and magnetic, carrying an indescribable temptation:

"My name is Zhang Li, I just moved in."

"I heard... you are the famous Mr. Jiang?"

Jiang Chen narrowed his eyes, looking at this woman who had 'I have a problem' written all over her, the smile on the corner of his mouth gradually turning playful.

"Zhang Li?"

He sneered in his heart.

This name was too perfunctory.

And...

The mobile phone in his pocket suddenly vibrated, very inappropriately, yet extremely accurately.

The early warning system specifically used to detect Wasteland danger sources actually popped up in the real world:

[Alert!]

[High-frequency eavesdropping signal source detected nearby!]

[Hostile faction biological magnetic field characteristics detected!]

[Target identity judgment: Level 1 threat target (suggest direct elimination or capture).]

Jiang Chen looked at the beautiful neighbor smiling like a flower before him and silently lit a candle for her in his heart.

Walking 500,000?

This wasn't 500,000.

This was clearly... free labor delivered to his doorstep.