65: Chapter 65 Shopping Mall

[Successfully survived one day. Calculating today's monster points.]

...

[Low-tier Aberration: Vine Spider Nurse +6 monster points]

[Today's total calculation: 31 monster points]

The daily point calculation for the Vine Spider Nurse was one point higher than that of the Vine Skull. This brought Wang Ting's daily monster points calculation to 31 points.

"At this rate of point accumulation, it will only take about 10 days to redeem the Vine Spider Spine."

Wang Ting silently calculated the rate at which he accumulated monster points.

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At present, his physique was strong enough. Although he didn't have many skills or weapons, his shortcomings had been addressed, so fighting monsters was no longer a weak point for him.

If he could further improve his self-healing ability and gain some special means, even fewer people or monsters would be able to pose a threat to him.

At this moment, inside the entire cafeteria building, kerosene lamps illuminated every corner of the rooms where monster corpses lay piled up on the floor.

Feng Bo, Xiang Nan, Huang Han, and the ten laborers they had just brought over from Outpost Camp were all holding machetes or daggers, dismantling the monster corpses.

"Captain, in the administration building, you killed a total of 135 Vine Parasite Corpses and Parasitic Fungus Vines, plus 1 Vine Skull. Including the monsters killed in the main Hospital building, we've killed over 300 monsters in Hall Hospital alone, yielding 51 pieces of Extraordinary Materials and 1 Extraordinary Core."

Feng Bo listed their harvest of Extraordinary Materials one by one, knowing every item like the back of his hand.

Hearing these gains, Wang Ting asked, "Adding the Extraordinary Materials accumulated in our camp, roughly how much do we have in total?"

"Most of the Extraordinary Materials back at camp were collected from clearing the forest and residential areas, slightly less than here, but adding up to 43 pieces."

He had agreed with Zhao Kun to split the Extraordinary Materials 50-50. Out of the 94 total pieces currently, Outpost Camp's own share was 47 pieces.

The Extraordinary Core was Wang Ting's personal trophy. One Extraordinary Core was worth 30 Extraordinary Materials, and its market price usually carried a premium. Factoring that in, the resources he could mobilize were not insignificant.

"What about supplies?"

Calculating 47 pieces of Extraordinary Materials at roughly 300 to 400 bullets per piece, their value equaled 13,000 rounds of ammunition or nearly 30,000 energy blocks.

Aside from Extraordinary Materials, harvested supplies were another major source for trading goods.

Wanting to know exactly how much resource he had at his disposal, Wang Ting continued, "Besides the supplies that need to be shared with Scarecrow Town, how many supplies do we personally control?"

"47 boxes of various medications, including antibiotics, painkillers, disinfectants, and so on. Also some first aid supplies, like bandages, hemostatic forceps, splints, and fixation equipment for fractures. Additionally, vehicle parts and food. Boss Zhao and his people made no demands regarding general parts and food, so what we share with the town is mostly medicine. After deducting their share, the supplies we have available for trade are worth about 10,000 rounds of bullets."

Counting from when Wang Ting first stationed here, the land-clearing effort in Vine Town had only lasted around fifteen to twenty days at most.

In just fifteen to twenty days, they had earned the equivalent of twenty to thirty thousand bullets. Converted into energy blocks, that was nearly fifty to sixty thousand blocks—enough to cover two to three months of expenses for the camp's three hundred people.

Many Shelters might not even be able to match this speed of accumulation.

Feng Bo couldn't help showing a look of admiration; this wasn't just because the Infinite Building of Vine Town was sufficiently rich in resources.

It was because Wang Ting fought so ferociously. The total low-tier Aberrations he killed across three areas—the forest, residential zone, and Hospital—was close to a thousand.

Had it been anyone else, let alone a captain-level person like Wei Dong, even if Fan Da came, they wouldn't be able to achieve this.

However, looking at the harvested goods before him, Wang Ting still felt slightly unsatisfied.

Although this harvesting speed was seemingly much faster than Scarecrow Town's, it was still far short of his expectations.

Especially Extraordinary Materials; even including the Extraordinary Core, he could only mobilize about 100 pieces worth. This amount was far from enough to exchange for extraordinary potions coming out of the black market.

Moreover, besides extraordinary potions, Outpost Camp's ammunition consumption was also quite high.

Whenever the exploration teams encountered combat while searching the residential areas and surroundings, they would expend bullets. In large-scale battles like this, if Wang Ting hadn't personally intervened, the ammo consumption would have been even greater.

Out of the second batch of 3,000 bullets, five to six hundred had already been consumed in just ten-plus days. Once Wang Ting fought less often and routine exploration increased, consumption would only escalate.

Aside from standard rifles, powerful heavy weapons were what they lacked most right now. To trade for those, they would have to pay extra on the black market.

"Feng Bo, do you think if we take down this town's Machinery Factory, we could manufacture our own bullets?"

Feng Bo froze, then smiled wryly. "Captain, I'm afraid it's not that simple. Producing bullets requires more than just machinery. In fact, steps like stamping and polishing can be done manually. The biggest hurdle is raw materials. Shell casings require copper and lead, while ammunition needs gunpowder. Even the simplest black powder requires saltpeter and sulfur. Smokeless powder is even harder; it requires concentrated sulfuric acid and concentrated nitric acid, which is virtually impossible for us."

Wang Ting frowned as he listened. A single bullet might not seem worth much, but manufacturing one was no easy task.

A simple bullet encapsulated the mature technologies of a modern industrial system.

Shell stamping and polishing went without saying; although manual labor could substitute, its precision and speed fell far short of machines.

As for gunpowder, if it were smokeless powder, preparing the raw materials alone required an extremely demanding chemical production environment as well as technical talent, something a small Shelter simply could not achieve.

"How did Bullet Town manage to do it?"

Wang Ting turned an inquiring gaze toward Feng Bo.

Bullet Town was also just a Shelter on the wasteland. They were not a leviathan like a Shelter City and couldn't possibly possess such complete industrial power.

Knowing Wang Ting was genuinely curious about Bullet Town's manufacturing process, Feng Bo answered immediately, "Bullet Town can't manufacture concentrated nitric or sulfuric acid either. However, inside the Infinite Building they control, there's a monster called the Sandstone Ant. The acid inside that monster's body is almost identical to concentrated sulfuric acid and nitric acid. They use that stuff to prepare guncotton."

Listening to Feng Bo's explanation, Wang Ting fell silent, feeling all the more amazed by the oddities of this world.

Indeed, human civilization's ability to endure for centuries in an apocalyptic environment was not to be underestimated.

Beyond the oldest and most traditional black powder and smokeless powder formulations, materials from monsters inside Infinite Buildings provided even more possibilities for new processes.

"Producing bullets long-term on our own is tricky, but if we buy enough raw materials from the black market or other Shelters, we could manufacture the bullets and rifles we need. A few mechanics in the Supplies Group came from Jumu City, so they know something about the processes."

The black market again...

They had accumulated plenty of supplies, and most of what he needed was in the black market. Going to the black market had become an absolute necessity.

"Call ten more people over to help dismantle monster corpses and haul back what needs hauling. Tomorrow I'll check out the supermarket and Industrial Zone. Who knows how many factories are in this town's Industrial Zone?"

They had only seen the Industrial Zone from afar with binoculars, but it was hard to say what factories a small town actually had.

It would be best if there was a fertilizer plant, as that would give them a massive supply of saltpeter, enough to make black powder at least.

"Understood. I'll call over a few youngsters from the Supplies Group as well. A processing plant would be ideal; even if we can't make bullets, we can manufacture other things."

The night passed—

Following Wang Ting's order, Feng Bo brought more labor from the camp and had Ren Chuan assign a few people to continuously transport back to the Outpost any monster corpses inside the cafeteria building stronghold that couldn't be processed in time. Hauling part back by vehicle while dismantling part in the cafeteria building was already the fastest solution.

After Wang Ting cleared out the Hospital, scattered Parasitic Fungus Vines still roamed within the Hospital premises.

But these monsters no longer posed a major threat. Feng Bo led a team on patrol to eliminate them one by one, while keeping a close eye on changes in the main Hospital building, especially supply spots like the pharmacy and nurse stations.

Meanwhile, Wang Ting, holding the vine skull tyrant blade in hand, headed northeast from the Hospital.

He moved swiftly toward the vine-strewn town center.

Instead of taking back alleys, he followed the main road, clearing vines as he hurried toward the supermarket and Industrial Zone.

Everywhere he went, tall buildings lined the area with vines draped over them like a giant net. Vines covered the streetlights and road, as if threatening to engulf everything in a sea of green.

His steps were light, yet they still made faint sounds.

Many Parasitic Fungus Vines spotted him and lunged to attack.

Unhurried, Wang Ting remained as calm as a black panther, continuously swinging the vine skull tyrant blade in his hand.

The Parasitic Fungus Vines charged for a brief moment before all being slashed down by him.

After slaying seven or eight of them, Wang Ting shook off the Parasitic Fungus Vines, chopped through the vines on the road, and continued northeast.

After walking about seven to eight hundred meters, a tall, spacious building with a red canopy appeared before Wang Ting.

The building was only one story tall, but covered a vast area. Although its huge sign was covered in vines, the characters "Jiafule Shopping Center" could still faintly be made out.