3: Chapter 3: Grade A seed acquired! And while we were at it, we picked up a beautiful female scientist!

"Vroom, vroom, vroom!"

Amidst the wind and snow of the Pale Shoals, three armed snowmobiles of the Snow Shard Gang roared like mad.

"Hahaha! Run! Why don't you keep running?!"

A scarred-faced Raider in the lead shrieked. He wore goggles and waved a rusty serrated machete in his hand.

Ten meters ahead of them, the person who was about to freeze to death finally couldn't crawl any further and rolled over in despair.

It was a woman.

She wore ragged grey winter clothes, her cheeks were frozen purple, and her lips were devoid of color.

But her hands still tightly clutched that silver-white seed vault, her eyes so stubborn it made one's heart skip a beat.

Her name was Lin Wan, and she was once a Botanist from another Mobile City, the Black Rock City-State.

Due to internal power struggles in the city, she had escaped with the only remaining seed vault, only to encounter the most notorious Snow Shard Gang in this wasteland.

"Boss, this chick looks alright, but she's almost frozen solid," a lackey nearby said with a lewd grin.

"Cut the crap, snatch that metal box! That's a relic from the old civilization; it can be traded for plenty of good wine and women!"

Scarred-face gave a sinister laugh and twisted the throttle hard.

The snowmobile suddenly leaped up, and the serrated machete slashed directly at Lin Wan's arms clutching the box!

He intended to hack off her arms along with it!

Lin Wan closed her eyes in despair.

In this cruel, ultra-cold wasteland, there were no laws, no morals—only naked plunder. She could not protect these seeds that represented the hope of human recovery.

Just as the blade was about to touch Lin Wan.

"Vroom! Boom!!!"

An extremely violent roar of a mechanical engine drowned out the howling wind and snow!

Scarred-face was startled and instinctively turned his head to look.

A boxy black tracked vehicle had emerged from behind an ice mound at the side at some point.

Its speed was only twenty or thirty kilometers per hour.

But on this ice, the sense of oppression brought by that several-ton pig-iron body was that of a mobile steel fortress!

"Fuck! Where did this crappy car come from! How dare you meddle..."

Before Scarred-face could finish his sentence, his eyes widened.

Because he saw an impossibly thick brass pipe protruding from the firing port of that tracked vehicle.

"Sshhh!"

The shrill whistle of high-pressure steam pierced his eardrums.

"Boom!"

A solid steel crossbow bolt, kicking up a visible white sonic boom cloud, shot out of the barrel!

The terrifying kinetic energy didn't even give Scarred-face time to scream.

His upper body was hit by the bolt, instantly exploding into a mist of blood in mid-air!

His lower body remained in a riding position, following the out-of-control snowmobile as it crashed into an ice mound and erupted into a fireball.

"The boss is dead!!"

The other two lackeys were scared out of their wits.

In this backwater place, who had ever seen a weapon with such terrifying power?!

They scrambled to turn their vehicles around and fled for their lives.

But Lu Chen gave them no chance at all.

The tracks of the Polaris ground frantically over the ice, performing a drift and tail-flick that was completely uncharacteristic of its heavy body.

The vehicle body brutally crushed one of the snowmobiles and its rider beneath the tracks, turning them into a blur of flesh and blood.

Seeing this, the third lackey was so terrified that he rolled right off his motorcycle.

He knelt in the snow, snot and tears streaming down his face as he kowtowed frantically.

"Grandpa, have mercy! I don't know anything! Don't kill me!"

Lu Chen sat in the driver's seat, expressionless.

Leaving a survivor was equivalent to leaving an uncertain factor—a variable that would attract the entire Snow Shard Gang in the future.

For someone with OCD like him, any uncontrollable variable had to be eliminated.

"Boom!"

The third bolt was fired, leaving the wailing forever in the wind and snow.

In the wind and snow, no other sound could be heard.

Only the idling roar of the Polaris remained.

Lin Wan lay dazed in the snow, watching that steel monster, which exuded an aura of "keep away," slowly stop in front of her.

The heavy iron door was kicked open.

A young man jumped down.

He was only wearing a thin sweater, which seemed absolutely insane to Lin Wan.

Lin Wan's breath hitched: "It's over... I've fallen into the hands of an even more ruthless Raider."

How could someone with this kind of firepower and this kind of vehicle be a good person?

She clutched the box tightly, prepared to be killed.

Lu Chen strode up to her and glanced at the combination lockbox in her arms.

After confirming it was intact, he withdrew his scrutinizing gaze.

Then, he grabbed Lin Wan by the back of her collar with one hand, lifted her up, and incidentally looted the bodies of the Snow Shard Gang members. After muttering a complaint about them being "broke," he turned and dragged her toward the vehicle.

"Let go of me... *cough cough*..."

Lin Wan struggled weakly, but to no avail.

"Bang!"

The heavy iron door was shut by Lu Chen, completely sealing out the raging ultra-cold storm.

Lin Wan was thrown onto the floor of the cabin.

She thought she would face torture, but in the next second, she froze.

A gust of warm air brushed past, making her stiff body stop shivering.

The temperature caused a needle-like sting in her stiff skin, but more than that, it was a sense of comfort that made her want to cry.

Lin Wan opened her eyes, which widened uncontrollably.

She stared blankly at the cast-iron boiler in the center of the cabin, which was running steadily and emitting an orange-yellow glow.

The thermometer on the wall clearly pointed to a number she didn't even dare to dream of.

Eighteen degrees Celsius!

In this minus sixty-degree ultra-cold wasteland, inside a miniature tracked vehicle that looked like it was about to fall apart, there was actually a constant temperature as high as eighteen degrees?!

Even the core aristocratic districts of those large City-States where tens of thousands of people lived were probably no better than this!

What shocked her even more was yet to come.

She saw a composite material box emitting a purple light at the foot of the bed.

As a Botanist, her eyes instantly rounded, and her breathing became rapid.

"A... a Hydroponic Cultivation Box?! And it's a constant-temperature box with an independent micro-circulation system!"

Ignoring the stinging pain in her body, Lin Wan scrambled over.

Her hands trembled, yet she didn't dare to touch it.

She saw that in the layer of grayish-brown nutrient substrate, a seedling had already broken through the soil.

Two delicate green leaves stretched with vigorous vitality under the simulated sunlight!

It was green!

In this wasteland where there was no other color but grayish-white and blood-red, she actually saw such vibrant green!

"Have you seen enough?"

Lu Chen's steady voice came from above.

Lin Wan looked up and saw Lu Chen holding a battered aluminum pot.

Inside, the Icefield Wolf meat he had just cut off was stewing, bubbling with an enticing aroma.

Lu Chen took a sip of the hot soup and pointed at the box in her arms, stating his demand directly: "I saved you. According to the principle of equivalent exchange in the wasteland, this box belongs to me."

Lin Wan instinctively hugged the box tighter and looked at Lu Chen warily: "No! This is..."

"Looking at you, are you a Botanist?"

Lu Chen interrupted her, scooping out a steaming, tenderly cooked piece of wolf meat from the pot and dropping it into the battered bowl in front of her.

The rich aroma of the meat instantly crushed Lin Wan's psychological defenses.

She hadn't eaten anything hot for three days.

She stared intently at the piece of meat, her throat rolling involuntarily.

"Follow me, the conditions are simple."

Lu Chen held up three fingers and listed the specific conditions:

"First, room and board are provided. Second, twenty-four-hour constant warm heating. Third, I will provide all the equipment you need for your research."

"In exchange, both you and the seed vault you brought belong to the Polaris. You will be responsible for growing fresh vegetables for me."

"Deal or no deal?"

Lin Wan was stunned.

"Room and board? And twenty-four-hour heating?!"

In this cruel world, people would push their own relatives off a glacier for a piece of coal cinder.

Someone was actually offering this kind of treatment?!

This wasn't a Raider; this was simply a savior descended to earth!

"Deal! I'll do it! Lord City Lord! My name is Lin Wan, I'm a senior Botanist. As long as there are seeds and temperature, I can even grow watermelons for you!"

Lin Wan grabbed the scalding piece of wolf meat and stuffed it into her mouth.

Tears flowed from the heat, but she nodded frantically while mumbling incoherently, fearing Lu Chen would regret it in the next second.

Lu Chen put down the aluminum pot.

An excellent infrastructure system paired with a desperate technician.

This combination was perfect.