DBMEP CH92

Chapter 92: Inventorying Supplies

Driving the truck from Gusu City back to Eternal City took Dongfang Qingdi three days and two nights.

Practice makes perfect. Having made the round trip a few times now, Dongfang Qingdi understood exactly where he could take shortcuts and which areas to avoid. The tragic incident of navigating by an outdated map and driving the truck into a ravine never happened again.

Recently, the number of vehicles traveling between Eternal City and Gusu City had noticeably increased; even the rugged mountain terrain had been somewhat flattened by the ruts.

There was another advantage to an Omnic driving: they didn’t need rest breaks.

Previously, out of consideration for his human passenger, Xiao Qing would stop every few hours to let Xiang Nanli walk around, preventing his non-renewable human body from rusting.

During these breaks, to cater to Xiang Nanli’s delicate stomach and picky palate, Xiao Qing would even scout the vicinity to see if he could find any fresh, non-toxic, and delicious ingredients.

Alpha could not get food poisoning.

The reason he knew certain bizarre things were edible was that he had previously observed people on the surface eating them. Alpha had launched many replicated sub-units to travel the world.

Actually, thinking about it carefully, Omnics were also capable of “eating.”

Gamma had once created an exceedingly boring mini-program called the “Gustatory Module.” Its purpose was to simulate different tastes based on the energy an Omnic ingested.

Diesel tasted like honey, electricity like meat, wind energy like mint, and nuclear energy like chocolate. Adjusting the voltage levels could even simulate different flavors.

Unfortunately, the gustatory senses of humans and Omnics were not compatible, so no one knew if the tastes Gamma simulated were accurate.

Tomorrow was the Harvest Festival. The gates of the Eternal City, which had always been tightly shut, were wide open.

Dongfang Qingdi had only been gone for a week, but it felt as though he hadn’t been home for a year. The muddy main road had surprisingly been paved with neat red bricks, and colorful flags hung from the streetlights lining both sides.

There were also some new faces in the city.

Out of safety concerns, Dongfang Qingdi had recorded the biometric data of everyone in Eternal City. He was certain these people were outsiders.

It seemed Xiang Nanli hadn’t been slacking off while he was away.

Calculating the time, Xiao Zhi should be developing a bit of a brain by now; it was time to absorb its data.

Dongfang Qingdi sent Xiang Nanli a message: “I’ve arrived. See you at the warehouse.”

The city warehouse was formerly the City Lord’s private museum.

It had one floor above ground and one below.

The security and environment were excellent, making it perfect for storing the junk Xiang Nanli picked up.

A section of the museum was even partitioned off to serve as Xiang Nanli’s studio. Currently, Xiao Fu also slept in the garage next to the warehouse.

Actually, Xiang Nanli found it very hard to understand why the City Lord would build a museum that absolutely no one looked at.

But in the era he lived in, some wealthy people also took pride in owning their own family museums. Thinking about it that way, it wasn’t completely incomprehensible.

Dongfang Qingdi parked the truck in front of the warehouse. He didn’t have to wait long before Xiang Nanli rushed over, leading several robot tools.

“Xiao Qing! You’re finally back. I missed you to death!”

His joy overflowed into words, delivering a massive, straightforward confession.

Only when Xiao Qing wasn’t around did Xiang Nanli realize how well he was usually taken care of. He didn’t need to worry about anything he wasn’t interested in, and many invisible administrative tasks were handled for him.

Without Dongfang Qingdi, he felt like a gear jammed by a small pebble. Although the mechanical device could still turn due to sheer inertia, the uncomfortable friction during operation was undeniable.

Xiang Nanli rushed up and gave Xiao Qing a passionate hug.

Struck dizzy by this massive curveball, Dongfang Qingdi’s mind involuntarily began reading through the romance novels he had seen recently. Within a mere 0.2 seconds, he reviewed every romance novel he had read over the past few months.

He replied affectionately: “I missed you… very much too.”

Halfway through his sentence, Xiao Qing’s voice involuntarily paused. Because after hugging him, Xiang Nanli didn’t wait for his response at all, turning directly around and walking toward the cargo bed.

Dongfang Qingdi felt that perhaps Xiang Nanli was the one who needed to brush up on romance novels even more than he did.

Directing the ‘Screw’ robots, Xiang Nanli opened the doors to the cargo bed.

During his “five-finger discount” shopping spree, Xiao Qing had subconsciously scanned dimensions and loaded data to meticulously plan the spatial arrangement.

Cargo boxes of varying sizes were packed tightly into the truck bed, fitting seamlessly together without wasting a single inch of space.

Xiang Nanli was as excited as a wife who had just received a 1,000-gram gold bar from her husband on their anniversary!

However, he quickly calmed down, looking suspiciously at Dongfang Qingdi: “But we didn’t buy this much.”

Yi Hengxing had approved a 1-million-credit poverty alleviation fund. Xiang Nanli had seen the shopping list; most of it consisted of laboratory consumables. Totaled up, the volume wasn’t very large.

If they didn’t literally lack any other empty vehicles at home, Xiang Nanli wouldn’t have had Xiao Qing take the large truck to haul it back.

Dongfang Qingdi gave an “Mm” and chose not to fool him, answering honestly: “The director of the Foundation was reselling poverty alleviation supplies. Rather than letting them be sold to reactionary forces, it’s better to use them for practical purposes. You can consider these supplies stolen. That director won’t dare expose this; he’ll find a way to smooth things over himself.”

Perhaps the supplies originally cost 100 million, but the director only sold them for 10 million.

This was, of course, a severely slashed price. But that 100 million was paid for by the Human Alliance, while the 10 million he earned from the sale, after paying off the necessary people, was solid cash grasped tightly in his own hands.

Such corrupt officials had existed since ancient times. And their operational model had never changed.

Xiang Nanli felt melancholic for a moment: “Why do Human Alliance officials have no sense of conviction whatsoever?”

But thinking of Yi Hengxing and the five robust college students he sent over, Xiang Nanli decided it was best not to generalize.

“The majority of people are neutral, like a drop of clear water; they take on the color of whatever dye vat they are dropped into.”

Xiang Nanli nodded: “True.”

With a single click, he implanted the pre-written programs into the robot tools.

One by one, the robots sprang into action, rapidly beginning to unload the cargo.

The robots opened the cargo boxes, inspected the items one by one, tagged them with electronic codes, and input them into the inventory database.

This inventory database was also a product of Xiang Nanli’s work during this period! The data would sync directly to his personal backend.

With this database, what the base lacked was clear at a glance, making it convenient for Xiang Nanli to make dynamic adjustments.

For example, the database recorded how many tons of grain were harvested this autumn. By estimating the amount the population needed to consume, Xiang Nanli would know exactly when to go begging to the Human Alliance for food.

However, Xiang Nanli didn’t actually understand the principles of economics all that well.

Fortunately, Alpha would consciously help correct any errors.

In fact, up until now, Alpha hadn’t discovered any glaring fallacies in Xiang Nanli’s decision-making. At most, he got a bit flustered due to unfamiliarity and couldn’t schedule things properly.

Xiang Nanli wasn’t even particularly interested in power. If he had been, he wouldn’t have handed Immortality Tech—the company he had painstakingly built from the ground up—over to Luo Yang back then.

Inside the cargo box, the supplies listed on Beichen’s manifest were picked out separately. Aside from those, there were also daily necessities Xiang Nanli thought might be useful. Like comic books, textbooks, and the like…

Doing experiments all the time, Beichen must get bored too!

Xiang Nanli handed the supplies to two employees from the patrol squad and dispatched two armed security robots to accompany them.

“These are supplies urgently needed by the base’s chief scientist. I should have delivered them personally, but I am truly tied up right now,” Xiang Nanli said seriously. “I have no choice but to entrust them to you. Conveniently, you are also among the first batch of official base members. Once you get there, you don’t need to come back immediately; listen to Beichen’s instructions. Can I trust you?”

The two Bio-Soldiers puffed out their chests: “We guarantee the completion of the mission. Please rest assured, My Lord!”

Xiang Nanli was very satisfied with their mental state.

Matter will be defeated by greater matter, but soaring morale will not.

Although the supplies hadn’t been fully inventoried yet, it was already time for Xiang Nanli to sleep.

He decided to take a quick nap in the studio next door.

Human bodies were such a hassle; they required meticulous care. Without sleep, thinking became sluggish, mental anguish ensued, and sudden death was a very real possibility.

After his initial high wore off, his voice became weak and listless: “Xiao Qing, I’m going to take a nap first. Wake me up at 7:00 AM. We have the diplomatic delegation from Radiance City arriving at 12:00 PM.”

Due to factors like distance and transportation conditions, the people from various settlements didn’t arrive all at once. Some arrived earlier, some later. There were also scattered individual travelers drawn in by the flyers. Wasteland hunters were especially numerous.

The Harvest Festival hadn’t even officially begun yet, but the patrol squad had already dealt with several cases of outside vagrants committing crimes.

Sometimes, being overly civilized and polite equated to being easy to bully. These people had all their electronic assets confiscated as a fine and were subsequently permanently exiled.

Dongfang Qingdi gave a slight nod, then, as if suddenly remembering something, spoke: “Wait.”

Xiao Qing opened the driver’s side door and pulled out several large paper bags, saying with feigned nonchalance: “When I passed by a clothing city in Gusu City this time, I saw these clothes and thought they suited you perfectly.”

Yes, he learned this move from a romance novel too.

Xiang Nanli—known as the Lord to people in the base and Commander Xiang to outsiders.

Since he stopped wearing a protective suit, his favorite daily outfit turned out to be a white old man’s tank top paired with cargo pants, plus a pair of walking boots.

Dressing like that normally wasn’t a problem, but formal occasions were fast approaching!

If Gospel recorded it, it might even go down in the annals of history.

“A Buddha relies on gold leaf; a man relies on his clothes.” This ancient proverb was very reasonable.

Of course, when Dongfang Qingdi passed by the clothing store, the very first thought that popped into his head was actually: Xiang Nanli would look amazing wearing this.

To an Omnic, “beautiful” was actually a very difficult concept to comprehend.

But they had a standardized numerical value for human faces. The closer a face adhered to those fixed data points, the more beautiful it would appear to human cognition.

Xiang Nanli accepted them with considerable surprise.

He opened the bags, glanced inside, and smiled: “Quite a complete set, thank you, Xiao Qing~ I’ll go sleep first then!”

There were three outfits. One was a suit, one was a casual everyday outfit, and the final one leaned towards a military uniform style—pure black, and likely very elegant.

I didn’t expect Xiao Qing to be into uniforms.

“Mm,” Dongfang Qingdi replied reservedly. “I will wake you up tomorrow.”

***

According to the navigation, they were half an hour away from arriving at Eternal City.

Over a decade ago, Fu Ming had also visited the Eternal City to import grain. His impression of the place was deeply polarized.

The outer city was filthy and chaotic, the serfs emaciated and sallow. The air reeked of feces, mixed with the sour stench of naturally fermenting rotten food.

But the inner city was like another world. Like an elegant medieval palace.

Not only did it boast a luxuriously expensive back garden, but also a library and a museum. And a colosseum—a structure rarely seen in the wasteland.

If there wasn’t some foreign power funding them from behind the scenes, Fu Ming wouldn’t believe it.

But what did that have to do with him? The Human Alliance didn’t care, so he certainly wasn’t going to stick his nose where it didn’t belong.

The grain trade back then failed; the City Lord claimed that even the landlord’s house had no surplus grain.

Fu Ming had no choice but to leave dejectedly.

In the end, relying on a minuscule amount of Human Alliance subsidies and grain purchased at exorbitant prices from Yinshan City, everyone survived that starving winter.

“Mayor. Does that Survivor Base really have electricity? Could they be tricking us into coming over just to kill us?” the elderly secretary worried.

Fu Ming said with righteous indignation: “But we have no better options right now. We can’t just let the citizens freeze to death. I’ve already told my son: if the kidnappers demand a ransom, ignore them. I don’t have money; they can only have my life!”

Despite saying this, as the city walls slowly appeared on the horizon, a trace of anxiety unconsciously crept into Fu Ming’s expression.

He hoped this transaction would be successful.

They yearned for fairness and order.

From hundreds of years ago until today, humanity had waited far too long.