Chapter 4: Is This Bottled Water a Strategic Resource?

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Upon seeing the number, Lorrie’s movements momentarily faltered. Among the sword bearers, the sequence number signified status, and the man before her had an ID sequence even higher than the matriarch’s. The ID card was not merely proof of identity; it also contained genetic information that the intelligent database parsed, making any falsification impossible.

Originally on high alert, Lorrie immediately straightened up, disregarding her wounds, and saluted Su Yi respectfully. “Lorrie, sequence 748,923, reporting to the officer.”

“Please forgive my earlier offense. According to the database, you are the pride of the sword bearers, having completed 1,357 high-risk missions without a single defeat—a legend, the greatest wasteland hunter in history, and the most respected...”

“Alright, alright.” Su Yi cut off the praise, embarrassed to the point of wanting to scratch the floor with his toes. He sighed softly. “The sequence has already reached 748,923? Incredible.”

He then picked up a syringe and injected it into Lorrie’s pale, soft neck. This time, the girl did not resist but obediently lowered her head until the medicine was fully administered.

According to Lorrie’s description, at least two hundred years had passed since Su Yi left the wasteland era, yet this sequence number was still valid, saving much trouble.

“Ah—” Lorrie, who had been calm, furrowed her brows slightly as the medicine took effect, causing her to moan softly.

Though this model of healing drug was powerful, the pain during treatment was magnified tenfold.

Su Yi, of course, did not know this at first; the initial experience left him crying out in agony with no preparation.

Yet the girl before him endured the severe pain without giving in, a commendable show of resilience.

Though painful, the medicine’s effect was remarkable. Lorrie’s green robe, which had been bleeding profusely, soon stopped, and her pale face regained a rosy hue.

“This single injection is worth at least 100,000 gold coins in the wasteland...” Su Yi’s careful, thrifty heart trembled slightly, feeling the sting.

His return from the wasteland was an accident, rushed and with hardly anything on him.

But he quickly came to terms with it. With his current physical condition, it was hard to get hurt on Blue Star, rendering such medicine nearly unnecessary.

“Find a place to sit and rest,” Su Yi said, rubbing his nose as he looked at the girl’s oil-stained, filthy green robe. “Take off that robe. I’ll turn on the heater later; it won’t be too cold.”

“Heater?”

“It’s a kind of heating device. You look frozen.”

Hearing this, Lorrie obediently removed the green robe and handed it over. Beneath it, the silver-white armor on her powered exoskeleton’s shoulders was crushed by Su Yi’s grip, though the rest still clung on, albeit battered and about to fall apart.

Lorrie stared unblinkingly at him. “Officer, is there any way I can return to the central base?”

“You probably can’t go back.”

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“Officer, I have important information to report to the matriarch. Please authorize my return.”

The silver-haired girl swayed as the armor on her other arm fell off with a clatter, the exoskeleton’s fixings broken as well.

Su Yi sighed deeply. “This isn’t about approval or denial. We simply can’t find the entrance to the wasteland.”

“Why is that?”

“Because it’s not the same world.”

At those words, a green light flashed in Lorrie’s eyes again, clearly running another database search, but her expression only grew more puzzled.

“Sorry, officer, I don’t understand what that means. Could you explain?”

“Hmm...” Su Yi paused, then picked up two walnuts from the fruit plate on the table, holding them up before the girl. “The Blue Star we’re on and the wasteland world are like two enclosed spaces. Normally, they don’t intersect, and no passages form between them.”

“Unless the two worlds collide violently.”

He lightly smashed the walnuts together, cracking their shells. “Only then can a passage briefly appear, but the location and timing are unpredictable.”

“One collision might happen months apart, or years, even centuries. Finding the rift’s location is incredibly difficult. Returning is almost impossible.”

Su Yi considered it a miracle he had crossed over twice; he couldn’t expect to encounter a collision every time.

“Moreover, time flows differently in the two worlds. You might return only to find that many years have passed there, making any intelligence you bring worthless.”

“Why is that...?”

“So, you should give up the idea of going back for now.”

Lorrie’s gaze suddenly fell, fixed on the two shattered walnuts. Her mind raced through calculations but found no answers.

Su Yi placed his hands behind his head and sighed. She looked as lost and bewildered as he had when he first arrived in the wasteland. Such a drastic change was hard to adapt to.

If he hadn’t landed in a stronghold, he might have died immediately, and Su Yi sympathized deeply with her.

Yet Lorrie was fortunate to have come to Blue Star, appearing in the safest country, Daxia.

“Gurgle—”

A faint, irregular sound came from Lorrie’s stomach, too soft to escape Su Yi’s enhanced hearing.

“So you’re only semi-mechanized. I thought soldiers didn’t need to eat.”

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Lorrie snapped out of her melancholy and hurriedly explained seriously, “Sorry, officer! I won’t waste supplies. I can also absorb nuclear waste to survive...”

“Ha ha ha.” Su Yi couldn’t help but laugh. “Good luck finding nuclear waste on Blue Star.”

“Ah~” Lorrie’s expression changed abruptly. She stood up, suddenly flustered, unsure of what to do.

In her experience, nuclear waste was the cheapest energy source. Though highly radioactive and shortening lifespan with overuse, it was everywhere and the soldiers’ lifeline.

“If... it’s too difficult for you, officer, I can initiate the scrapping program...”

Her head drooped as she spoke. The scrapping program was the sword bearers’ control method for soldiers; once activated, bodily functions would rapidly cease, ending in death without triggering a nuclear explosion.

Her mission had failed. Returning to base meant certain scrapping. Since she couldn’t send a signal back to the matriarch, wasting resources on her was pointless; better she scrap herself.

“That’s nonsense. If you scrap yourself, won’t my healing injection have been wasted?”

Su Yi shook his head helplessly.

“But... resources are insufficient...”

Before Lorrie could finish, he tossed a bottle of mineral water he’d just bought from the convenience store in front of her. “Have a drink first. Don’t worry about food.”

Looking at the bottle in his hand, Lorrie’s previously dim expression flickered with green light before she shouted out in surprise:

“Officer... this is water with 99% purity, a strategic reserve material!”

She held the bottle delicately, not daring to move for fear of damaging it.

Su Yi suddenly recalled that due to severe radiation and pollution in the wasteland, ordinary people couldn’t drink purified water; only high-level hunters like him had that privilege, and even then the water tasted dry and bitter.

But on water-rich Blue Star, it was no problem.

This bottle of Nongfu Spring was already one of the pricier brands, costing only two yuan.

“I approve,” Su Yi said.

Lorrie’s head immediately shook like a fluttering drum, her tone serious in refusal. “Even if you approve, I don’t have permission to be this extravagant.”

She glanced at a plastic bag with some cola nearby and whispered, pointing at it.

“I’ll just drink some No. 37 machine oil...”