Chapter 166

In the capital, the commander who had orchestrated the Han City disaster was now the National Chief Commander, overseeing the evacuation and disaster response for Nan Province. Several people at the temporary meeting were from the original Han City task force, including the Mulan City Secretary and the Han City Secretary-General.

Others envied their promotions, but those who had lived through it knew this was no opportunity—it was a heavy burden.

"The monsters from Huang Haidong can't be wiped out," said a screen displaying photos of creatures contaminated by nuclear radiation, rotting yet incredibly ferocious. "We've relocated the nearby fishermen, and there have been no casualties so far, but this isn't a solution. Our soldiers are pouring bullets into them and can barely hold them back."

The Han City Secretary-General nodded. "The monsters in Han City were the same. Fortunately, a friend of ours found that electricity could restrain them, which helped us defend Han City."

"So this time, for Nan Province... based on past experience, we must be prepared for firearms to be ineffective."

At that, everyone's face darkened. As the saying goes, dignity exists only at the edge of a sword, and truth only within the range of a cannon. If their strongest weapons couldn't resist the disaster, they were as helpless as fish on a chopping block.

Imagining that scene, silence fell over the room.

"What about that friend?" someone asked.

Some present hadn't experienced the Han City disaster, so they'd only heard of a 'Messenger of God' who had secretly helped. At this question, they were skeptical—

"If the military can't solve it, can that person? They call them a Messenger of God, but they hide in the shadows—are you sure they're not a fraud?"

The others looked at him speechlessly. The Han City Secretary-General directly switched the projection to a live map and pointed at it. "This was given by them. If you don't trust them, then don't trust this map either."

"I just have a skeptical attitude toward everything..." the man muttered.

The Chief Commander sat at the head of the table, frowning slightly.

Just then, the Mulan City Secretary's phone rang. In a meeting where phones were supposed to be off, everyone stared at him. He quickly explained, "This is the dedicated phone for contacting the Messenger of God."

He took out the phone, and his face lit up. "Great news!"

He handed the phone to the Chief Commander, whose stern face finally broke into a smile after a long day—

"The Messenger has found a way to exchange for items!"

"What items?"

"I don't know, never heard of them. Sounds like something from a game?"

"They appeared in the Han City disaster. A soldier reportedly obtained an item that allowed him to summon a shield out of thin air, saving a civilian."

"That amazing?"

Everyone buzzed with discussion, but one thing was certain—they had finally found a breakthrough!

The entire nation mobilized quickly. That afternoon, before Lin Tu had even eaten dinner, she received a message from Zhou Yi.

Zhou Yi sent over a file several gigabytes in size, listing all the resources the country could currently mobilize.

Lin Tu: "..." Her phone didn't even have enough storage to download it; this was a bit too much.

Besides, it wasn't just a phone storage issue—Dong Huadan alone couldn't handle this much stuff. Even if they planned to expand cooperation later and bring in other black market players, they'd have to start small.

Lin Tu decided to act as a picky client. She sent the file back and asked the staff to categorize the items: bread, dry goods, and other easily stored food; instant noodles, instant rice, and other slightly pricier but tastier food; chili sauce, Laoganma, and other time-saving dish accompaniments; potato chips, ice crust bread, chocolate bars, and other high-calorie foods; and also cured meat, jerky, dried vegetables, and so on.

Apart from food, there were also clothes and shoes, toiletries like shower gel, sanitary products and other daily necessities, fuel, firearms, and so on. However, compared to food, these weren't essential for survival, and the price increase in Doomsday Town wasn't that high, so Lin Tu noted that the demand for the latter was low—because the profit margin was small.

The staff quickly sent back the reorganized list, including the approximate items they needed.

Lin Tu glanced at it and directly threw it to Dong Huadan.

Dong Huadan was very efficient, listing the items early and marking the exchange ratio.

Lin Tu roughly calculated the prices, and the numbers Dong Huadan set were quite reasonable—neither side would be at a disadvantage. So she forwarded the exchange price list directly to Zhou Yi.

Once they learned of Lin Tu's plan, the country didn't hesitate either.

Both sides quickly selected the items and food they needed. As the intermediary, Lin Tu had only one thing to do—be the mule.

She used a Single-Use Backpack to carry the food to Dong Huadan's shop, then carried a bag full of vouchers back to the real world. Since Zhou Yi had crafted a mascot identity for Lin Tu last time, she didn't hide her identity much this time.

The items were delivered. Zhou Yi had never seen so many items before and was dazzled. Afterward, she asked Lin Tu, "Did you get any kickback?" No one should work for free; with so many good things, she deserved a cut for her sister.

Lin Tu sent a "no" emoji, and Zhou Yi immediately got anxious.

She was about to launch into a long lecture when she saw Lin Tu send: "These items are too low-level for me right now." That immediately defused her anger.

Then Zhou Yi realized that if these were low-level, it meant her sister was about to enter even more dangerous disasters.

"Where's your next disaster? Icebergs, the sea?"

"Maybe... probably," Lin Tu touched her nose, "space."

Zhou Yi: "???"

"Have you ever been to space? And you're going to space? No!!! Why do you have to go to space!!!" Even from the text, her shock and anger were evident; the exclamation points almost poked through the phone screen.

Lin Tu was about to helplessly admit she had no choice when another message came through—

"No way. You've done so much for us, the country must help you. Wait, I'll contact someone for you."

With that, she left the chat.

Contact who... Lin Tu was still in a daze after finishing the work when her phone buzzed. A person named "Director of Astronaut Training Center" sent her a friend request.

Looking at the avatar of a drooling Pai Daxing, Lin Tu couldn't help but wonder: Is this a scam?

Pai Daxing was a young woman in her twenties. Lin Tu quickly arranged to set off two days later for the Astronaut Training Center in the capital for training. That training base's equipment was currently the most advanced in the country, including a simulated weightlessness water tank, a manned centrifuge, a manned spacecraft training simulator, blood redistribution training, impact training, and more. It mainly trained the vestibular function in a weightless environment, tolerance for dizziness and impacts, and the ability to move and control body posture in zero gravity.

Of course, in addition to that, the country had also specially assigned several teachers to Lin Tu to teach her the most basic principles of aircraft operation and maintenance methods.

She could delve deeper, but given the remaining time, there probably wasn't enough for a crash course.

Since she had to go to the capital for several days of training, Lin Tu needed to prepare the supplies for the next disaster in the coming days.

First, daily necessities. Lin Tu replenished food, toilet paper, and other items. Noticing she had been showing signs of mouth ulcers recently, she added bottled fresh corn juice, carrot juice, black bean milk, and prune juice to her stockpile.

Second, disaster essentials. After communicating with Pai Daxing, Lin Tu spent some money to purchase a large number of oxygen tanks, several EVA suits and IVA suits, and penguin suits from the Astronaut Training Center. The two types of suits had different functions: the former was like a wearable spaceship, worn during emergency rescue or extravehicular activities, while the latter was for daily wear to prevent muscle atrophy in zero gravity. Lin Tu bought dozens of each, just in case.

Pai Daxing was shocked by Lin Tu's hoarding scale. What she wanted wasn't even enough for the training center, so they had to negotiate to transfer some from elsewhere. When Lin Tu arrived in the capital, she would use her Single-Use Backpacks to carry them away.

Finally, there were the items.

During the fight against No. 51, most of Lin Tu's items had been thrown away or damaged. The equipment she had left was only her clothes and glasses; [A Pair of Light Shoes], [Thermal Vest], and others were all damaged. Other single-use items like [Zombie Nightmare], [Emergency Ambulance], [Cannibal Whistle], and even [Trust Candy] were all destroyed. She was like a poor wretch with empty pockets.

Fortunately, she had gained a lot from the last disaster.

She had earned four achievements from the four professions—Idiot, Serial Killer, Cannibal, and Cannibal Hunter—plus the main quest reward. Lin Tu obtained two single-use items: A-level [Movie Ticket], a group control skill that could create a screen out of thin air and hard-control any creature that saw it for two hours; and A-level [Jelly Bean Bomb], which contained ten jelly-bean-sized bombs.

Additionally, she had drawn an A-level skill [Homicidal Maniac] from maxing out the Serial Killer achievement. For each additional kill, the chance of a critical hit on the next attack increased (damage randomly doubled, tripled, quadrupled, or quintupled), up to a max of 30%.

There was also an energy-type item and a sum of points. The former Lin Tu threw into Dong Huadan's shop and it sold quickly; the latter, combined with her other points, brought her total points to an all-time high of over 18,000 points.

With her years of experience in buying low and selling high, Lin Tu was reluctant to buy items at this time. But she was about to enter an S-level disaster, so she had to buy.

So, with a heavy heart, Lin Tu bought seven control-type items, three shields, and five coatings from Dong Huadan's shop. The former two were for escaping danger, and the latter was for cutting through hard ship hulls—what if she got trapped in a dead end?

All the points were spent to stay alive. No loss, no loss, Lin Tu comforted herself as she watched her balance plummet to 9,900. Fortunately, four of the control items were one-time replicas made by Dong Huadan's [Super Replication] ability; otherwise, her balance would be even lower.

Finally, Lin Tu planned to buy a gun for self-defense.

The batch of guns she had scrounged up during her first disaster was now too low-quality; they were basically useless against slightly higher-level monsters. Dong Huadan's shop didn't have anything suitable, so in the end, thanks to Kang Lina's recommendation, she bought an S-level revolver from another shop for over 8,000 points. The shopkeeper threw in sixty rounds of self-made explosive bullets.

Lin Tu looked at the explosive bullets that would require spending a large amount of points to buy more, and clenched her fist.

No more. She had to find other ways to save money.