In the apocalypse, on the West Coast of North America.
Ragged laborers pushed carts, under the command of supervisors, through the construction site full of steel bars, and delivered cement and concrete bricks to the hands of construction workers. Huge engineering vehicles plowed back and forth between the concrete walls, and a giant fortress began to take shape.
According to the NAC military government's plan here, this fortress would be the first phase of the colony. The second and third phases of the project would center on this fortress and expand to include residential areas, commercial areas, industrial areas, logistics transmission and distribution centers, ports, and even entertainment facilities.
As the governor of this colony, Zhou Guoping was proud of his success.
Recalling the conversation he had with Jiang Chen in Shangjing, he was now extremely grateful for his original decision to not choose to return to the prosperous Wanghai for retirement, but to come to this undeveloped virgin land. Instead of spending the rest of his life in the shadow of Chu Nan and always worrying about possible retaliation, how could it compare to being the king of the distant North American continent?
Zhou Guoping converted the funds allocated by the logistics department and all the credits he had into tools and raw materials needed for construction. With the letter of appointment personally signed by the General, he boarded the transport ship produced by the NAC shipyard, crossed the safe sea route of the Bering Strait, and arrived on the West Coast of North America with the reinforcements.
Not long after he arrived, he skillfully implemented NAC's colonial policy, fully exerted the advantages of localized management, united some of the survivors with interests, and then drove these vested interests to help them enslave other survivors.
At present, there were already 20,000 laborers working on the construction site, adding bricks and tiles to NAC's North American colony. And the price they paid was only a hundred boxes of canned food, two trucks of instant noodles, and tens of thousands of fruit-flavored high-calorie nutrient supplies.
It wouldn't take long for this place to become a paradise that all North American survivors yearned for. As the governor of this colony, he would also become an existence above all others. And all of this was something he didn't even dare to think about in the past …
Outside the construction site, a pair of poorly equipped mercenaries were patrolling.
Half a month ago, their name was Blood Axe Mercenaries. Although their name was still Blood Axe, they had been hired by NAC as a long-term partner. Their usual task was basically to patrol and occasionally solve some problems for NAC that didn't seem like a problem to them.
As the leader of the mercenary group, Blood Axe was very satisfied with his current life.
Not only because of the compensation offered by NAC, but also because he and his brothers had all walked out of the precarious days and lived a carefree life.
Holding a brand new rifle, Blood Axe patrolled the edge of the concrete fortress with his men as usual. From time to time, he picked up his binoculars and looked into the distance.
Not far away, a cloud of dust rose.
After confirming that a convoy was approaching, Blood Axe took out the walkie-talkie to inform the colony as usual, and then led his men to greet them.
"Stop right there! In front of us is NAC's territory, please state your purpose! "
The convoy stopped, and the mercenaries on the trucks jumped down one after another.
Blood Axe gestured to the men behind him, opened the safety of the rifle in his hand, and carefully watched the mercenaries with unknown intentions.
"We're the Black Skull of Nevada." Ten meters in front of Blood Axe, the black brawny man in the lead gestured to the mercenaries behind him to put away their weapons, indicating to Blood Axe and the others that these people had no malicious intent. After completing these actions, he then looked at Blood Axe and grinned. "We have no malicious intent, we just came to talk business with you."
Black Skull.
It was a name that struck fear in the heart of Nevada.
Relying on the all-terrain assault vehicles that had been modified with heavy firepower, they moved like the wind in the endless sea of sand like a sandstorm. Because of their fierce combat style, they became an eternal nightmare for the merchant fleets traveling between California and Nevada.
In addition to plundering caravans, attacking double-headed cattle herds, and occasionally fighting with mutated human tribes, they occasionally engaged in slave trading. Especially in recent months, the profits of slave trading were getting larger and larger, and they even had the tendency to change their business. They put the cart before the horse and turned slave trading into their main business. They rarely touched the caravans that were difficult to deal with.
Speaking of the increasingly heated slave trade, it was also related to these outsiders on the West Coast.
NAC's large-scale construction required a large amount of labor. In particular, their attitude of not rejecting anyone made California's slave market, which was originally in low demand, suddenly become in short supply.
In the desert of Nevada, there were hundreds of public or private shelters of various sizes.
Originally, the residents of these shelters were the cheapest slaves on the North American wasteland. Because they not only had poor survival skills, but also couldn't do any heavy work, few survivor forces were willing to pay for them. However, after the arrival of this group of outsiders, this situation changed dramatically.
The extravagant Asian forces seemed to have a special fondness for survivors who came out of the shelters. Especially for engineers or scientific researchers with advanced skills in a certain field, the highest price offered by NAC was even a box of canned fresh meat.
That was canned fresh meat!
In any survivor force, a box of canned fresh meat with the NAC anti-counterfeiting label could be exchanged for a rifle bullet of the same weight. And it was a high-quality standard bullet, far superior to the inferior bullets circulating in the black market!
Now even the capital survivors on the East Coast had heard of the name NAC. It was conceivable how shocking the impact NAC brought to the North American survivors was.
"Five hundred slaves, all from the fallout shelters." The black brawny man pointed to the group of emaciated slaves on the truck, grinned at the NAC officer, and rubbed his hands eagerly. "Let me see your goods."
"After we evaluate them, you will naturally see what belongs to you." The officer in kinetic skeleton said expressionlessly, then gestured to the soldiers behind him. Two medics, escorted by four soldiers, walked to the side of the truck.
The mercenaries standing around the truck made way for the NAC people.
According to the practice, before the transaction, NAC medical personnel would conduct a comprehensive assessment of the quality of the slaves. From health status to various physical attributes, as well as a simple inquiry and assessment of professional knowledge and skills.
After an anxious wait, the black brawny man finally saw his batch of goods – twenty boxes of canned fresh meat, ten tons of rice, and a box of high-quality cigarettes. If these things were transported to Liberty City controlled by the Minutemen 100 kilometers away, they could easily be sold for 400,000 bottle caps. If they were transported further away to Texas, they could even sell for a sky-high price of 600,000 bottle caps.
They happily ordered people to load the goods onto the truck, climbed back on the truck, turned around, and left.
From the beginning to the end, Blood Axe watched expressionlessly from the side, but in his heart, a storm was set off.
As a Californian, although his range of activities did not include the desert in the east, any survivor walking in California would not be unfamiliar with the reputation of the Black Skull.
Whether it was the California National Guard or the militia organization "Minutemen", these bandits wearing skull headscarves never took them seriously. However, at this moment, in front of NAC, they behaved like businessmen and began to do serious business.
It was like the sun rose from the west!
Perhaps these outsiders could bring order to the chaotic state of California.
With this idea that even he felt was unrealistic, Blood Axe greeted the NAC officer and took his men to the other side of the colony …
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