After putting on the Exoskeleton Armor, Han Zhendong followed the prompts and, along with a few others, arrived at the first floor of the shelter.
At this moment, a snow transport vehicle, which looked even larger than a double-decker bus, was already waiting there.
"This is the legendary ground-specific long-distance transport vehicle."
"It really looks big."
Han Zhendong was somewhat amazed.
It was his first time seeing a snow transport vehicle in real life.
For most residents of the shelter, such legendary vehicles could only be experienced by those who had moved from outside Jianghe City and had the fortune to ride one during their journey.
Others would never have the opportunity to come into contact with it.
"That's normal."
"With the surface being so dangerous now, if we can't load enough supplies, making a trip wouldn't be worth it."
A doctor nearby interjected.
Su Wu's television station often edited and broadcasted footage of dangers encountered by caravans.
Thus, even those who had never truly stepped outside the shelter after the apocalypse were well aware of the potential dangers they might face.
"Will we encounter danger this time?"
The doctor's words sparked concern in a nurse's eyes.
"There's definitely going to be danger."
"However, each of us has Exoskeleton Armor, and most of the time we will be sitting in the snow transport vehicle."
"And we will only be conducting rescues within the city limits."
"We won't be far from the shelter."
"There's really no need to worry too much."
Director Wang, the one Han Zhendong had greeted earlier, spoke up to reassure everyone.
As the most experienced and skilled person among them, Director Wang had been temporarily appointed as the captain of this rescue team and had received more relevant information in advance.
"Alright, everyone find a seat."
"It will take a little time on the road."
"Please familiarize yourselves with the patients' conditions and prepare yourselves."
Under Director Wang's organization, several doctors and nurses participating in the outdoor rescue held a remote consultation on the snow transport vehicle.
Meanwhile, the snow transport vehicle slowly started to leave the Jingyuan shelter as they began their work.
It sped through the already cleared and quite spacious city ruins.
After about ten minutes, the snow transport vehicle arrived at the location of Mi Xue and her father.
The doctors and nurses on the vehicle poured out in succession, following the pre-established plan to provide emergency aid to them.
They would then transfer them to the vehicle and transport them back to the Jingyuan shelter.
That evening, outside a special ward in the Jingyuan shelter, Han Zhendong, as the attending physician, stood nervously and awkwardly beside a girl, introducing her to the condition of Mi Xue and her father inside the ward.
The girl was not a real person but a holographic projection.
She appeared exceptionally young and beautiful, looking like an innocent girl who had just entered high school, well-protected and unaware of the world.
However, Han Zhendong did not dare to truly regard her as an ignorant innocent girl.
Because she was from the legendary core area of the central shelter, a high-ranking official with Artificial Intelligence management authority.
A big shot whose words could determine his fate, and even the fate of all the staff in his hospital.
At the same time, she was the one who developed the Bio Printer, possessing profound knowledge that would have made her a world-renowned top scientist before the apocalypse.
In front of such a person, age and appearance became irrelevant.
"This girl's condition is not serious."
"She just overexerted herself, and combined with malnutrition, she will recover after a few days of rest."
"However, the middle-aged man next to her is in very bad shape."
"When we arrived, his right leg was already completely necrotic, with no chance of saving it."
"His stomach also suffered severe trauma, making it impossible for him to eat normally."
There was a hint of pity in Han Zhendong's words.
Such severe injuries, even before the apocalypse, would be enough to bankrupt an ordinary family.
And even if treated, he would become a disabled person with only one leg, destined to live a miserable life for the rest of his days.
In the post-apocalyptic world, if he hadn't been fortunate enough to end up here, he would have had no chance of survival.
"Right leg and stomach."
"I'll take a look."
Chen Yue checked the terminal in the laboratory.
Everything was progressing smoothly.
"Uh, the gene analysis is complete."
"We can start printing those two organs."
"It is expected to reach optimal condition in 1 hour and 15 minutes."
Upon finding this out, Chen Yue looked at Han Zhendong through the projection.
"Get ready."
"In one hour, we will begin the organ transplant surgery."
"At that time, the Artificial Intelligence will record every detail of the surgery."
"It will serve as reference material."
Chen Yue's voice carried the softness and liveliness unique to a girl.
Even when she tried to appear serious, it was hard for others to feel a sense of awe.
Yet, the content of her words was weighty and could not be taken lightly.
Han Zhendong suppressed the odd feelings in his heart and replied with a serious expression.
"I'll notify them shortly."
"I guarantee there won't be any issues."
In the farmhouse's underground biological laboratory on the fifth floor, Chen Yue ended the projection call.
Her small face fell, and she let out a soft sigh.
For her, communicating with unfamiliar adults was quite stressful.
However, this was the first practical application of the Bio Printer since its inception.
And it involved human lives.
No matter what, she had to take responsibility personally.
"Hopefully, there won't be any accidents."
Facing the silver control panel in the laboratory, a hint of uncertainty flickered in the girl's pure eyes.
On December 23rd, in the underground control center of the farmhouse, Su Wu was having a remote conversation with Qiang Yiqiu, the highest authority of the Yu'an Shelter and a member of the Southeast Alliance.
"I heard that there has been quite a stir in Jianghe City recently."
"We've received quite a few complaints here."
Qiang Yiqiu said with a smile, her tone leisurely.
It was as if she were casually chatting with a friend over afternoon tea.
Although she was a woman in her fifties, at her level, gender was no longer important.
Her various skills and abilities were essentially on par with those of men.
The complaints she mentioned were not unfounded.
Su Wu was operating within a large area of land that, before the apocalypse, belonged to Yu'an City, within the coverage of a communication signal tower near the coastline.
Even now, many local shelters had not completely severed ties with Yu'an City.
In name, they still belonged to Yu'an City.
Su Wu was plundering resources on Yu'an City's territory.
If one were to take it seriously, it was not much different from provocation or declaration of war.
"We have no choice."
"We are building a super shelter, which requires a lot of resources."
"We can only rely on these means to fill the gap."
Su Wu's expression was calm, and he did not evade the issue.
Lying about such matters was pointless and would only make him seem less credible.
"I really envy you."
"At this time, you still have the ability to carry out large-scale construction."
"If it were us here, even if we were given resources for free, we wouldn't know where to put them."
Qiang Yiqiu's words carried a hint of sentiment.
She was not being sarcastic; she genuinely felt a bit envious.
Simply storing resources and effectively utilizing them were two entirely different matters.
Not every shelter had the capability to easily digest so many ordinary resources during construction like Su Wu did.
The scale of labor needed to mobilize was daunting, even for a super city.
"You just want to save more people."
"The external environment will only become more and more dire."
"Those ordinary shelters will find it hard to last until the end."
"Rather than watching them wait to die, it's better to gather their population and resources."
"Concentrate on building a stronger and safer shelter."
Su Wu revealed some of his limited intentions.
Building a super shelter was the best excuse.
A project capable of accommodating tens of millions of people required a lot of resources, which was entirely reasonable.
Of course, due to the existence of Rapid-setting Cement, the largest cost of building the super shelter had almost been eliminated.
The resources he plundered were more for enhancing industrial strength and weaponry.
Most of these could be hidden away.
As long as he didn't want to, outsiders would find it hard to notice.
"You young people are really brave."
"Someone like me, an old guy, is just satisfied with keeping Yu'an City somewhat intact."
Qiang Yiqiu's tone remained calm.
But the words she spoke revealed the brutal elimination rules of the post-apocalyptic environment.
She, like other high-ranking officials in the federation, was very clear that, given the protection levels of those civilian shelters, they could not possibly survive until the end.
Yet, they had never made any changes for this, and even indirectly encouraged the construction of civilian shelters.
The real purpose was simply to shed the burden.
Having too many people was not a good thing.
With the current level of technology in the federation, they could only ensure that a small portion of the elite would survive the predicted disaster.
As for the rest, no matter how many ordinary resources were provided for their protection, it would be hard to sustain them until the end.
Moreover, when the remaining people realized they had no hope of survival, there was a high probability of riots occurring, threatening the safety of the few elites themselves.
In such a situation, the best choice was to let them fend for themselves.
Allow nature to eliminate the excess population.
"However, no matter what, those shelters still nominally belong to Yu'an City's jurisdiction."
"They still need to provide an explanation."
Qiang Yiqiu made her stance clear.
"And what should that explanation be?"
Su Wu's expression was calm, showing no fear.
"Recently, didn't you research a new medical device called the Bio Printer?"
"I heard it can print any human organ."
"So, theoretically, it should be fine for treating some terminal illnesses and extending the lives of some elderly people."
Qiang Yiqiu spoke slowly, watching Su Wu remain unfazed, and understood in her heart.
She threw out the bait.
"I have some old friends who hope to go to you for treatment."
"In exchange, I can hand over all the civilian shelters under Yu'an City's jurisdiction to you."
"As for the official shelters, if you are willing to take in their population, you can also take away the resources there."
Yu'an City was a provincial capital.
The so-called jurisdiction, in the current post-apocalyptic environment, was essentially equivalent to the entire province behind it.
In terms of actual area, it was almost comparable to the coverage area of Su Wu's twelve communication signal towers.
It was an incredibly rich offer.
"How many people?"
"How long is the expected lifespan extension?"
Su Wu did not rush to agree but cautiously asked after pondering for a moment.
"Just about fifteen or sixteen people."
"Three of them are in the late stages of cancer, and the rest are around 90 years old on average."
"Extending their lives by 20 years would be enough."
"That should be sufficient for them to manage their family for another generation."
Qiang Yiqiu provided her request.
This request was not made casually.
It was the best result calculated by her advisory team based on the publicly available information about the Bio Printer.
Moreover, if the lifespan extension were less than 20 years, it wouldn't be worth such a high price.
No matter how much of a burden it was seen as, the population and resources of an entire province during the early to mid-apocalypse could still bring considerable benefits to Yu'an City.
"Extending their lives is not a problem."
"However, I need to conduct a comprehensive physical examination on them first."
"If their conditions meet the requirements, I can guarantee to limit the surgical mortality rate to below 10%."
Su Wu did not make any promises.
After all, he was dealing with a group of elderly people whose bodies had already deteriorated to the extreme.
The probability of accidents during major organ replacement surgeries was indeed very high.
"That's fine."
Qiang Yiqiu generously did not haggle.
These people were important, but not crucial; losing a few wouldn't affect her rule.
Moreover, even if they didn't receive treatment, they wouldn't live much longer.
Thus, in Yu'an City's jurisdiction, without the knowledge of the more than thirty million people in other shelters, they were sold to Su Wu.
Of course, the specific handover process would not be so obvious.
Apart from some that were still directly controlled by the official shelters, the remaining civilian shelters would require Su Wu to use force to conquer and occupy, just as he usually did.
But for both Yu'an City and Su Wu, this was inconsequential.
The costs incurred during the process didn't even qualify f
or separate discussion.
They were implicitly considered part of the deal.
After concluding the conversation with Qiang Yiqiu, Su Wu opened the map.
After nearly two weeks of rapid development with nearly unlimited resource supply, the number of active caravans in the southeastern region of the surface had reached 26.
In addition, at the farmhouse, there were four Icebound-class Land Battleships that were temporarily idle due to a lack of compatible snow transport vehicles.
(End of Chapter)