"What, that's it? It's all gone?" Jing Shu ran around the empty warehouse, only to see a bunch of worthless handguns and scattered weapons lying around.
"This is just the passageway," Jun Jia replied lazily. "We're not even inside the real armory yet."
"Then let's go in! What are we waiting for?" she urged.
Jun Jia looked at her like she'd lost her mind. "You kidding me? That's classified. You can't just walk in there. These are the weapons that were decommissioned for material exchange. What's left is what you see here. Even if you make a scene in front of my brother-in-law, the only stuff you can take is right here. And even if you somehow got access, you still couldn't get a legal possession permit."
Jing Shu deflated like a punctured balloon. She'd come ready to grab a big haul, but apparently after a few months of exchanges across a dozen districts, the armory was basically picked clean. Still, she wasn't about to give up. She searched the place anyway, hoping to find something valuable, but aside from a few RPGs no one wanted, there wasn't much left.
"Fine, I'll take twenty RPGs then."
"You just used up five hundred thousand worth of credits," Jun Jia said with a smug grin. He was clearly enjoying himself. Jing Shu hadn't paid anything but was walking off with weapons worth several rounds of exchange. Worse, he had to dip into his own material quota to let her take them. No wonder the guy was pissed.
"If it really can't be helped, I'll just take some old junk guns. I've already got plenty of weapons from America anyway." She sighed, about ready to give up, when she turned a corner and froze. Rows upon rows of wooden crates stacked against the walls caught her eye, stretching as far as she could see.
"What's this…"
"That's the ammo depot."
Jing Shu's eyes lit up instantly. Ammunition! That was the real treasure. She had plenty of weapons, but ammo was always too precious to use freely.
"If the weapons are gone, why's there still so much ammo? Didn't they stop making bullets after the apocalypse? I thought every bullet was supposed to be precious?"
Jun Jia shot her a pitying look. "Before the apocalypse, China's ammo reserves exceeded sixty billion rounds, with hundreds of billions more as backup. They might've stopped production now, but since there hasn't been any major conflict lately, the current supply's more than enough for daily needs."
"Then I'll trade the rest of my credits for bullets," Jing Shu said, rubbing her hands together. Jackpot. She knew from memory that by the fifth year of the apocalypse, new species began invading, causing a massive ammo shortage. Materials ran out, production stalled, and bullets became priceless.
With a secure supply of ammunition, her future survival would be guaranteed. Without bullets, even the best gun was just a paperweight.
Jun Jia frowned. The whole reason the government exchanged outdated weapons for materials was to guide people toward trading officially for ammunition later. Ammo, not weapons, was the true strategic asset. Like how cars needed gas, bullets were the real consumable resource that mattered. Whoever controlled them controlled power itself.
"The answer's no," Jun Jia said firmly. "First, bullets are way too expensive to make it worth it. Second, there's no way I can release that much ammo at once under your quota."
"How much are they per round? And what's in those crates?" she asked.
"Thirty virtual coins per bullet. Each crate holds a thousand rounds, worth thirty thousand virtual coins."
Her jaw dropped. That was insane. Before the apocalypse, a bullet cost four cents to make. Now thirty virtual coins could buy ten buns. Food prices had inflated dozens of times, and bullets were still ten times pricier than food. It was all a scheme to trick traders into exchanging food and resources for bullets.
"If you won't give me ammo, even if I take every weapon here, it still won't meet my quota. Besides," she smirked, "I'm sure Madam Jin already told you what happened today. If things go well, her husband's gonna live a lot longer."
Jun Jia wiped the sweat from his forehead, silent. Damn it, this girl was trouble. If she didn't get her ammo, she'd probably go straight to file a complaint, crying her way up the chain just like his sister used to do as a kid. And honestly, she wasn't wrong, the weapons left here weren't worth her quota anyway...
Then suddenly, an idea struck him.
"Alright," he said, snapping his fingers. "You can have the bullets. Whatever you can carry out today is yours. But only once. No helpers, no extra tools. You can use whatever you have on you, but you've got thirty minutes to move everything from here to the exit—about five hundred meters away. What you get out in time is yours to keep. If you don't agree, just grab some leftover weapons and get out."
So basically, whatever she could move out of the ammo depot to the exit in one trip would belong to her.
Jing Shu raised a brow and picked up one crate. It weighed more than ten kilos. A thousand bullets per box, ten boxes would weigh over a hundred kilos. No normal person could carry that, not even with leverage or tools.
A thousand rounds might sound like a lot, but with a machine gun firing thousands of bullets a minute or a rifle with a rate of 650 rounds per minute, even short bursts would eat through that in no time.
Still, she wasn't wasteful. Over the past two years, she'd only fired a few hundred bullets total, saving them for emergencies. But she knew the days ahead would be different. Ammo would only get scarcer. This was her chance to stock up.
At current prices, each crate was worth thirty thousand virtual coins. If she could take 120 crates, that'd be 120,000 rounds. But from the look on Jun Jia's face, there was no way he'd actually let her take that much.
"Alright," she said finally, smirking. "No helpers, no outside tools, and only one trip. I get it. I just wanna confirm one thing—no matter how much I manage to carry, it's all mine, right?"
Jun Jia nodded. "That's right."
She raised her wristband. "Good. You said it yourself. I'm recording this."
Jun Jia snorted. "Go ahead. Let's see how much you can actually move."