Chapter 16: Moving Out

Box, radiation, missile silo.

With these three elements combined, Chen Jian simply could not imagine what else could be inside.

At this moment, the other members of the Holy Blood squad gathered around as well. Upon discovering the enormous metal box, their expressions were filled with surprise and excitement.

“There must be something inside.”

Xu Lie leaned closer to the box, sniffing the air, and said, “I smell a familiar metallic scent, exactly like the shells used by the Mechanist Cult.”

“...The Mechanist Cult’s shells—could they be lead bullets?” Chen Jian shook his head in disbelief and said, “There’s probably something inside, but the danger level far exceeds what you can imagine.”

“This isn’t about whether to open it or not, but about whether we can survive if there’s danger inside after opening it.”

“What’s in there? A trap?” Xie Liu, standing nearby with crossed arms, said with a hint of nervousness.

“Whether we can survive.”

Those words weighed heavily, especially after witnessing a four-man squad manage to disable a level-four monster without finding its weak point, relying solely on their immense strength and firepower.

To be fair, even the elite of the Mechanist Cult would need to gather hundreds of their best troops, equipped with their proudest giant cannons, to achieve such a feat.

Yet these were just four ordinary people, carrying equipment they barely understood, and they pulled it off...

And now, their leader said opening the box might get them killed.

Perhaps, it really might.

She looked at Xu Lie and, before he could speak, warned sharply, “Don’t even think about messing with it!”

“Last time, it was your reckless opening of a box that nearly got us all killed in Jiang City!”

“...But didn’t I find this pistol too? In the end, it was worth it...” Xu Lie’s voice lowered. At this point, he dared not make any decisions and could only look hopefully at Chen Jian.

This feeling was unfamiliar to him. As a Holy Blood warrior, he was always dominant over ordinary people.

But now?

Even opening a box required careful consideration.

There was no choice—these people were stronger, and no matter how much he resisted, he had to hold back.

The problem was, he truly wanted to know what was inside...

While Xu Lie was torn with anxiety, Zeng Yi and Li Shi remained calm.

They had their own combat system and didn’t rely heavily on equipment or weapons, so their desire for new things was not as intense.

What they cared about most was one thing: whether the contents were valuable.

For a moment, the decision fell solely to Chen Jian.

Open it—the risk is too great.

Don’t open it...

Faced with a top-tier weapon in this world, could you bear not to open it?

He looked at the other squad members and asked, “What do you think?”

Lei Jie was the first to speak: “The box is too heavy. If we want to take it away, we have to open it. Just to take the contents—but I don’t recommend opening it.”

“If it contains nuclear fuel rods, then we’re done for.”

“Even if it’s a tactical nuclear warhead, we have no way to deliver it. Bringing it back would only serve as a deterrent, which isn’t very meaningful.”

“It’s better to just leave it here and dig it up when we need it.”

“But we have to find a way to bury it properly, so others don’t accidentally find and detonate it—that would be a disaster...”

“Agreed.”

“I support that too.”

Shen Yue and He Shuo nodded in agreement, and the opinions quickly unified.

Chen Jian stopped hesitating and decisively ordered, “Then let’s get to work. First, lift this thing and place it on flat ground.”

“Understood.”

The four of them grabbed each corner and struggled to lift the box.

But the lead box was extremely heavy, their gear bulky, and they couldn’t find a proper leverage point.

Li Shi, watching nearby, hesitated briefly before asking, “Need help?”

Chen Jian immediately nodded. Li Shi walked over, wrapped his arms around the box, and lifted it effortlessly.

Chen Jian was dumbfounded.

After a moment, he said, “No need to bury it.”

“We’ll... take this thing straight to Jinling! I’ll pay the shipping fees!”

...

An hour later, the two squads, eight people in total, left carrying their full haul.

The Holy Blood squad mostly collected items they deemed valuable equivalents—small pieces of gold and silver, well-preserved metal tools, batteries or battery-like items, as well as a mess of cables and miscellaneous scraps.

According to them, these things sold for good prices in the settlements, especially batteries. If functional, a single battery could be worth dozens of grams of gold.

This matched Chen Jian’s expectations. After all, these were things no longer produced in this world, so it made sense they were valuable.

However, Xu Lie returned with a pile of plastics, which puzzled Chen Jian.

He didn’t explain their specific use, only saying the Mechanist Cult collected them and the price was good.

Chen Jian could only assume they intended to recycle or reuse them—but did they have the technology for that?

He couldn’t figure it out.

Compared to the Holy Blood squad’s loot, Chen Jian’s team’s finds were more ordinary.

Besides magnets and coils essential for later power generation, they found a broken engine. Although the bearings inside were slightly rusted, they were still usable.

Xu Lie wasn’t wrong—the monsters’ lair was the richest resource spot in the entire area.

Most of the possessions of those killed by monsters, along with their carried resources, ended up there.

In a post-apocalyptic world, most people carried their valuables on them.

The logic was seamless...

Unfortunately, they found no usable weapons or ammunition.

Chen Jian guessed that any weapons were buried on the lowest levels.

The earlier someone was killed, the more weapons they had—a certainty.

To obtain those weapons, they would need large machinery or enough manpower to dig through the graves in the future...

Exiting the graveyard, the eight of them left the tunnel smoothly.

When they saw daylight again, the sun hung high in the sky.

At this moment, the sunlight was no different from what Chen Jian had seen in his own world. The star, with nearly five billion years of life left, silently gazed down on humanity, which appeared as tiny ants on the earth. Their lives and struggles were but fleeting moments in the star’s history.

Chen Jian lowered his head, somewhat regretting not bringing along the newly issued solar panels.

But now was not the time to dwell on that.

Their gear had no power, and their food was gone. He needed energy more than his equipment did.

So, he patted the stumbling Xu Lie on the shoulder and asked, “Got any food?”

Xu Lie nodded toward a nearby monster carcass and replied, “Yes.”

“Well then, that settles it.”