Chapter 45
The system's "Transaction Completed" notification was still echoing in her mind when the 1,000-kilogram gold block in Su Jing's palm was automatically stored in the space, turning into a golden light and sinking into the "Valuable Items Area".
She turned and strode into the villa's courtyard, where two silver-gray robots had already pushed the metal furnace to the open ground at the edge of the trench, as instructed earlier.
The furnace is entirely dark black, with a dark red preheating light emanating from the furnace opening. The temperature display on the right shows the number "1300℃", which is exactly the melting point of gold.
"First, remove the gold and melt it in batches to avoid overloading the furnace."
Su Jing issued commands to the robot's control panel, swiping her fingertip across the "manual operation" button on the screen.
The robotic arm on the left immediately extended into the space, precisely picked up a piece of gold weighing approximately 100 grams, and slowly placed it into the furnace.
The moment the golden metal block came into contact with the high temperature, fine bubbles appeared on its surface, emitting a slight "sizzling" sound. It quickly melted into flowing molten gold, which gathered at the bottom of the furnace into a dazzling spot of light, like a miniature sun.
The robot on the right then took out 20 graphite molds from its storage compartment and neatly arranged them next to the furnace.
Each mold is 100 grams in size, with the word "100g" clearly engraved on the inner wall, and the edges are polished smooth to prevent the gold bars from sticking together after forming.
Once the first piece of gold has completely melted, the robot on the right adjusts the angle of the furnace. The robotic arm remains as steady as a rock, and the molten gold is evenly poured into the first mold. The molten gold cools rapidly in the mold, solidifying from a flowing liquid to a solid within seconds. The surface has a cold, hard metallic luster, and the original golden yellow has faded slightly, turning into a matte reddish-gold.
Su Jing squatted beside the mold, watching the gold bars gradually cool down. She gently touched the outer wall of the mold with her fingertips—it was warm but not hot—and then signaled the robot to take out the gold bars.
The robotic arm carefully picked up the mold and placed it upside down on a metal tray lined with velvet. A 100-gram gold bar with sharp edges landed on the velvet with a "thud," and the "100g" markings on its surface were clearly visible.
She picked up the gold bar and scanned it with the system's built-in "purity detection" function. The panel immediately popped up a message saying "99.9% purity, no impurities, meets standard gold bar specifications," and only then did she feel reassured enough to let the robot continue operating.
Over the next half hour, the two robots worked in perfect harmony: the robot on the left was responsible for retrieving gold from space and sending it into the furnace, while the robot on the right was responsible for pouring liquid, demolding, and cooling. Soon, 200 gold bars, each weighing 100 grams, were neatly stacked on the tray, like a row of bricks gleaming with metallic luster.
After Su Jing inspected the last gold bar and confirmed that it was neither deformed nor had any purity issues, she had the robot store all the gold bars into the "Valuables Area" of her spatial storage.
"It's time to sell them on the black market; cash is the only way to quickly stockpile goods."
Su Jing stood up, dusted off her trousers, went into the villa to change into a dark hooded sweatshirt, put on a baseball cap and mask, and switched her phone to an anonymous SIM card (unregistered and only for black market transactions) before leaving with an empty black backpack.
The bag contained only an anonymous bank card reader for transferring money, to avoid attracting attention by carrying too many items.
When driving to Warehouse No. 12 in Area A of the suburban logistics park, Su Jing deliberately took three long detours: first, she drove for 20 minutes on a busy road in the city, then turned onto a country road in the suburbs, and finally drove along the outer perimeter of the logistics park. After confirming with her rearview mirror that no one was following her, she parked her car in a hidden parking space at the back door of the warehouse.
She had already connected the warehouse's surveillance system to her phone. In the live feed, the empty space had only a metal table for trading in the center, with no other people around.
As soon as she entered the warehouse, a middle-aged man wearing a black trench coat and sunglasses emerged from the shadows—
It was "Old Ghost," the black market middleman she had dealt with before. He was carrying a silver gold testing kit, and a gold appraiser wearing white gloves was following behind him.
"Miss Su, long time no see. Is the 'goods' ready this time?" Old Gui's voice was low and cautious as usual. His gaze swept over Su Jing's backpack, but he didn't ask any further questions.
Su Jing nodded and took out five gold bars from her spatial storage and placed them on the metal table: "Test these five first. They are 99.9% pure. The remaining 195 bars are in the car. We'll trade them after confirming they are all in good condition."
The gold appraiser immediately stepped forward and opened the gold testing kit—which contained tools such as a densitometer, a spectrometer, and a touchstone. He first ran the touchstone across the surface of the gold bar, leaving a reddish-gold mark, and then irradiated it with the spectrometer. The screen quickly displayed "Purity 99.92%, in line with the label".
"No problem, the price we agreed on before, 70 million, will be transferred to the anonymous account you provided."
Old Gui took out his phone and brought up the transfer interface. After Su Jing gave her account information, less than a minute later, her anonymous phone received a bank notification: "Your account ending in 6789 has received a transfer of 70,000,000.00 yuan. Remark: Metal scrap recycling payment" - the remark "metal scrap" concealed the true nature of the gold transaction and avoided the bank's risk control investigation.
After confirming that the funds had been received, Su Jing asked Lao Gui's men to retrieve the remaining 195 gold bars from the car. She then stood at the warehouse entrance, watching the entire transaction through her mobile phone monitor: Lao Gui's men put the gold bars into the gold testing box, the gold tester sampled and checked 3 bars, and after confirming that they were correct, both parties signed the transaction form (using pseudonyms). The transaction form was torn up and burned on the spot, leaving no paper trace.
"Come back to me next time you have stock, the price is negotiable."
Before leaving, Lao Gui handed her a black business card with only a phone number on it and no other information. Su Jing took the card and stuffed it into her hoodie pocket. She watched their car disappear through the logistics park exit before driving back to the warehouse and storing the empty cardboard boxes she had previously placed there into her spatial storage.
To avoid leaving any trace of "someone having been here," they then drove back to the villa.
When we returned to the villa, night had already fallen. The solar panels in the yard stopped generating electricity, and the two robots automatically switched to "night patrol mode," their red scanning eyes standing out conspicuously in the darkness.
Su Jing walked into the living room, opened her laptop (disconnected from the internet to avoid being monitored), and began making a stockpile list. Her fingers flew across the keyboard, and clear categories quickly appeared on the screen:
I. Energy-related (prioritizing power supply for generators, flying cars, and robots)
1. Diesel fuel: 100 tons (Contact the previous supplier, Mr. Wang, to deliver in 10 batches of 10 tons each, stored in the "Energy Zone" spare fuel tank).
2. Gasoline: 50 tons (delivered in the same batch as diesel, with priority given to flying cars and gasoline generators)
3. Anthracite: 200 tons (for winter heating reserve; choose high-calorific-value coal, 50 kg per bag for easy robot handling)
4. Spare batteries: 100 pieces (10000mAh high-capacity, for small devices such as mobile phones, flashlights, and infrared alarms)
II. Livelihood-related (ensuring food, drinking water, and warmth, while also considering the space requirements for aquaculture).
1. Staple foods: 50 tons of rice, 30 tons of flour, and 20 tons of corn flour (all vacuum-packed with a shelf life of more than 2 years);
100,000 packs of compressed biscuits (military grade, 500g per pack, high in energy);
50,000 boxes of instant noodles (in buckets, convenient for emergency consumption)
2. Drinking water: 50,000 bottles of bottled purified water (550ml/bottle);
100 large water storage tanks (100 liters each) for storing water from the space's freshwater lake for emergency use.
3. Warmth: 500 down jackets (both men's and women's styles available, choose the thicker version suitable for temperatures as low as -40°C);
1 million heat packs (patch type, for keeping warm in extremely low temperatures);
200 electric blankets (low-power model, can be powered by a generator)
4. Livestock feed: 10 tons (mixed type, including corn and soybean meal, for feeding 100 chicks and 20 lambs in the feeding area).
500 doses of veterinary vaccines (chicken plague vaccine, sheep pox vaccine, to prevent disease in live animals).
III. Defensive measures (fortifying villas, increasing vigilance, and dealing with possible monsters or external threats)
1. Reinforcement materials: 1000 square meters of reinforcing steel plates (10mm thick, used to cover villa doors and windows and the outside of trenches);
500 meters of barbed wire (2 meters high, to be erected around the perimeter of the villa);
200 precast concrete slabs (used to reinforce the bottom of trenches and prevent collapse).
2. Warning equipment: 100 infrared alarms (installed within a 50-meter radius around the villa, automatically triggering an alarm when a person or animal approaches);
50 surveillance cameras (night vision models, replacing old equipment to achieve complete coverage without blind spots);
100 high-powered flashlights (with stun function, for emergency self-defense).
IV. Medicines (Supplementing medical supplies, covering common illnesses and trauma treatment)
1. Cold medicine: 2000 boxes of compound acetaminophen and amantadine capsules (shelf life 3 years, for use in influenza and the common cold)
2. Antibiotics: 1000 boxes of amoxicillin capsules, 500 boxes of cefixime dispersible tablets, and 500 boxes of levofloxacin tablets (broad-spectrum antibacterial, for bacterial infections).
3. Trauma supplies: 1000 bottles of iodine solution, 500 rolls of gauze, 1000 tourniquets, and 2000 first-aid kits (including bandages, sterile cotton, and analgesics for treating external injuries).
4. Chronic disease medications: 500 boxes of antihypertensive medication and 300 boxes of hypoglycemic medication (for backup, in case of encountering chronic disease patients).
After completing the list, Su Jing immediately contacted each supplier using an anonymous phone—all of whom she had worked with multiple times before and knew her need for "bulk purchases without asking about the intended use," making communication exceptionally smooth.
Mr. Wang's diesel and gasoline were confirmed to arrive within 3 days, and the staple food supplier promised to deliver in 5 batches of 20 tons each, starting next week. The suppliers of defensive materials and medicines also replied one after another that they had stock and could deliver to the designated warehouse in batches as required.
She leaned back in her chair, staring at the dense array of order confirmation messages on her computer screen, her fingertips swiping across the system panel—
The global chat channel is flashing notifications, and the red "Hunter (US)" Jack is spamming the chat: "Anyone have extra laser guns and energy crystals? I'll buy them at a high price! If you don't have enough points, you can exchange them for resources!"
Su Jing smirked, turned off the channel, and had already devised a plan to deal with Jack's subsequent requests—for non-Chinese users, the price must be doubled, and only hard currency or urgently needed supplies will be accepted; she would not let him succeed easily.
As night deepened outside the window, the robots in the villa's yard continued their regular patrols, their red scanning eyes sweeping over the gasoline drums in the trenches, emitting soft "beep" sounds.
Su Jing stood up, walked to the window, and looked at the faint shadows of trees in the distant mountains. She knew in her heart that the 70 million yuan was just the beginning. The next step of stockpiling goods had to be done as quickly as possible. Only with enough supplies could they stand firm in the coming apocalypse.
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