Lao Gao gave a snort. "Yeah, sure, you're not wrong. But having more decent weapons is never a bad thing. Sister Lan, I've got more experience in this than you. Just listen to me."
"Fine." Lan Jin didn't argue. Having weapons was better than having none. "So, where are we going to get weapons?"
The black market was an option. And it certainly wasn't only in Capital city's J City. They could keep driving toward the next base, look for a black market along the way, and buy some weapons there.
But the price would not be cheap. And honestly, they weren't completely unarmed at the moment. Using too many supplies to trade for weapons… anyone would feel it wasn't worth it.
That was Lan Jin's thinking. But Lao Gao and Huang Jinghe didn't see it the same way.
Lao Gao said, "See, I can tell you didn't notice this. At the shopping center in J City Base—fifth floor—there's a counter selling weapons. It's empty, yeah, but the price tags are sky-high. I think this way of selling is smart. If it's from the base, the quality's guaranteed."
Lan Jin really hadn't noticed that. "The base sells weapons? Anyone can just buy them? And they're openly on display in the shopping center?"
It wasn't only Lan Jin who had missed it. Ling Jiang hadn't noticed either. Their attention had been entirely on the thermal clothing, and they hadn't even glanced that way.
But once Lan Jin thought about it, it didn't seem impossible. Why couldn't the base sell weapons? J City Base's rules even had a clause: if a fight broke out inside the base, once the guilty side was confirmed, they would be immediately expelled and banned for life.
Besides, with prices that high, normal people couldn't afford them. And those who could afford them were not normal people. If that was the case, why not sell?
Of course, there was one detail—there wasn't actually any stock.
Huang Jinghe added, "I asked back then. They said it was sold out and had been out of stock for a long time. As for why, it doesn't matter to us. The key point is, you can buy those things at the shopping center. If J City Base doesn't have any, what about other bases? We could try our luck."
"So, how much exactly? Could we afford it if we went all out?" Lan Jin asked curiously. With their current contribution points… if they really squeezed every last one, they could afford it.
Still, the better the weapon, the higher the price. With what they had now, they could only afford the most basic. Anything slightly better was out of reach.
But they had another solution—supplies. Back in that CEO's office, they had found luxury watches, diamonds, gold. All of it could be exchanged for contribution points, and the exchange rate was about the same as when they had been in the neighborhood earlier.
That was valuable information.
Ling Jiang said, "Why didn't you say so earlier? We could have traded more while we were still in J City Base and stored the points in our residence card. We're always going to need them."
"Doesn't matter where we exchange them. There weren't any weapons to buy there anyway, so what's the difference?" Lao Gao said casually. And as they drove toward the next base, he kept to his original plan—scouting office buildings far from residential areas along the way.
The odds of finding anything were low, sure, but… you never knew.
If they came across another CEO's office, it would pay for the fuel, wouldn't it?
Still, there were no office buildings nearby. But there were a few factories. Given they were so close to the base, the base would have already cleared out anything of value, so there was no real reason to go.
But Lao Gao figured, they were passing by anyway, and they weren't in a hurry. Why not take a look?
"What if, right?"
On this journey, there had been a lot of "what ifs." So what if there was another one?
The next day.
Holding on to that tiny chance of "what if," they not only headed toward the next base but also searched for remote factories and office buildings along the way.
The few factories closest to the base were completely bare—except for one empty building, there wasn't a trace of supplies. Whoever had cleared it had done a more thorough job than they ever could.
But maybe the route they'd chosen was just remote enough, because two days later, they actually found a small factory that hadn't been fully cleaned out.
Lan Jin stepped inside and frowned. "This place looks like some blackhearted workshop."
Ling Jiang opened the cabinet by the door and spotted meat sausages and canned goods inside. She grinned. "Blackhearted or not, as long as it doesn't kill us, it's food. Look—so many cans."
In another room, Huang Jinghe's voice came back, excited. "I've got a pile of sausages here. Checked the packaging—perfectly intact. Should all be fine to eat."
The factory was tiny—less than a hundred square meters in total, including the office and the workspace. The workspace was already scrubbed clean, nothing left at all. But in the office next door, they found scattered cans and sausages hidden in corners.
It didn't look like leftovers from a half-hearted cleanup. More like someone had deliberately stashed them in different spots.
Lan Jin kept pulling cardboard boxes from her storage space, packing sausages and cans, sorting them as she went. In the end, they counted twelve boxes of canned goods, each with fifty cans, plus five boxes of small sausages. Fifteen boxes in total.
It was quite a haul.
Still, it was strange. Why would a tiny workshop have so many canned meats and sausages? Were they even good? Could there be something wrong with them?
To be sure, Lao Gao tore open a sausage and popped it into his mouth. "Come on. Our bodies are already wrecked. Eating one more won't make a difference. If it's bad, I'll drink some spirit spring water. I'm not dying."
True enough, dying wasn't the problem—it was just annoying.
Ling Jiang looked ready to smack him with her slipper. "You're unbelievable."
But Lao Gao didn't have any reaction afterward, so the sausages seemed safe.
"If you don't want them, I'll eat them," Lao Gao said. "Or we can trade them for contribution points. I've already eaten one, so they're safe."
That proposal got everyone's approval. After all, with so much fresh meat in storage, none of them were exactly desperate for canned sausages.