...
「In the game world.」
Lu Feng listened as the experts before him went on and on about economics and the international situation, and his head started to ache.
He didn’t understand any of it, let alone grasp the details.
He could only say, "Just tell me what to do in this situation. The fastest way!"
One of the economists immediately said, "Boss, the simplest way is to find the instigator and either eliminate them directly or capture them and bring them back to our country for trial."
"But someone capable of orchestrating this kind of economic activity must be incredibly powerful. Even if everyone knew what they did, there would be no evidence. The key problem is that capturing them and bringing them back to the country would be even more difficult."
Lu Feng nodded.
He naturally knew this. After all, when Soros had caused that huge economic crisis in their country, he wasn’t punished in the end, was he?
There was no direct evidence, he wasn’t caught in the act, and there was no way to bring him back to the country.
So, that method probably wouldn’t work.
Lu Feng immediately asked, "What other options are there?"
Another economist promptly replied, "The other option is economic warfare—fighting economy with economy. Besides the first option, this is the most direct."
"How?" Lu Feng asked.
The other economist said, "In this situation, it all depends on the country’s banking system. Banks play a crucial role in dealing with inflation. The other key factor is how much Gold the banks control."
"Gold has always been a powerful tool for stabilizing inflation. It’s also the universally recognized guardian and bulwark against inflation and other financial storms."
"Due to certain unique international conditions, Gold’s status as a hard currency is unchanging. As long as there’s enough Gold to back it up, the economy can be rock-solid."
"Likewise, having enough Gold to exchange for capital can also give the public sufficient confidence."
Lu Feng understood what this meant.
It was a simple principle. For example, in a country experiencing inflation, ten dollars could now only buy five dollars’ worth of goods.
But if there was enough Gold, and the domestic exchange rate for Gold remained the same as before, with a guaranteed exchange and sufficient quantity, it would be like giving the nation’s currency a special guarantee of value. The currency’s value would recover, and the inflation would be solved.
If the amount of Gold even exceeded a certain threshold, it could even increase the currency’s value and improve its international exchange rate.
Unfortunately, the amount of Gold on Earth was known to be finite, and every country’s reserves were limited.
Unless a new source of Gold could be found.
This was also why the state would crack down on small-scale private Gold trading—it was to uphold the legal system.
But when large quantities were involved, the higher-ups wouldn’t even interfere. They would even find someone like Master Kai to act as a middleman, because Gold was truly beneficial to the country.
That’s why when he had produced a ton of Gold, Master Kai’s side had resolved the matter immediately, with funds even being allocated to him directly from the main branch of the Industrial and Commercial Bank.
In other words, to resolve the Xuanfeng Alliance’s crisis, the best method right now was Gold.
Of course, other resources like oil would have a similar effect.
Unfortunately, the Xuanfeng Alliance had none of these things; it was still very poor.
Therefore, given the Xuanfeng Alliance’s situation, bringing out a few hundred tons of Gold would definitely stabilize it.
If someone was scheming behind the scenes, this could even trap their capital, making it impossible for them to pull out.
The key was still Gold.
Thinking of this, Lu Feng immediately summoned Lin Jiao and asked, "Lin Jiao, how much Gold do we have now?"
Lin Jiao quickly explained, "Boss, although we’ve had a team out searching for Gold this whole time, the amount in a single city is limited. So, right now, we’ve gathered about 25 tons of Gold."
Twenty-five tons of Gold. That was definitely not enough.
Besides, a city definitely had more than just that amount of Gold.
He had seen the scale of Celestial Sea City; it was definitely no smaller than the real-world Tianzhou City.
After all, Tianzhou City had over 700 tons of Gold reserves.
The game world’s Celestial Sea City must have a lot of Gold too.
He just didn’t know exactly where it was located.
Thinking of this, he gave another order to Lin Jiao, "Lin Jiao, go to the City East Alliance and announce that we’re collecting Gold. We’ll trade energy, Crystal Essence Value, food, or weapons for it. Especially food and weapons—as long as they have Gold, anything goes!"
In the real world, food wasn’t a problem at all. As for weapons, the arms dealer in Dalat Town could produce them.
That level of production might not trade for much Gold in the real world, but for the Gold in the game world, it could surely be exchanged for a great deal.
After all, Gold in the game world was practically worthless.
"Yes, Boss!" Hearing her boss’s orders, Lin Jiao nodded immediately, even though she didn’t know the reason, and went out to handle it.
Lu Feng didn’t know how much Gold he could get here in Celestial Sea City, so he immediately summoned Wang Cheng, Zheng Lin, and the others. "Do any of you know where I can find a large amount of Gold? A really large quantity!"
Wang Cheng shook his head decisively at the question.
He was a soldier—both before the apocalypse and as part of the Salvation Army after. He had never paid attention to such matters.
Zheng Lin, however, spoke up. "Mr. Lu, if you need a large amount of Gold, I happen to know a place that has a lot of it. Hundreds of tons, at least."
"Where?" Lu Feng’s eyes lit up.
If what Zheng Lin said was true, with those hundreds of tons of Gold, plus what Lin Jiao could trade for, the amount should be enough.
Zheng Lin immediately explained, "Mr. Lu, you should know that the City East Alliance’s Flame Emperor and several of the powerful nobles all came from the same military district, right?"
"The stuff is inside that military district. Back when the Flame Emperor first founded the City East Alliance, he led people back there to scavenge for all sorts of strategic materials. Among them was a shipment of Gold that was supposed to be transported to a secret laboratory before the apocalypse."
"No one knows where that lab is or what it was for, but it required a huge amount of Gold. Although restoring some technologies requires Gold, the City East Alliance’s current demand is limited."
"So, the Flame Emperor only took a small portion of the Gold at the time, leaving the rest behind. Besides, the location is bad—it’s surrounded by mountains and crawling with swarms of Mutant Beasts."
"So, after scavenging the strategic materials, the Flame Emperor never bothered with the place again. Since Mr. Lu needs Gold, you can go there to get it."
Of course, Lu Feng needed it. He immediately asked, "Do you have the coordinates? I need the location."
"Yes, I’ll go get the map right now." Zheng Lin nodded, turned, and left. Not long after, he returned with an information sphere in his hand and gave it to Lu Feng. "President Lu, the map coordinates are in this sphere."
Lu Feng immediately linked the information sphere to his holographic virtual computer and obtained the military district’s location.
...
A little later, Lu Feng left the hall and found Wang Cheng. "Come with me!"
"Okay!" Wang Cheng nodded and followed Lu Feng out of the East Suburb Fortress.
As it happened, the military district was located in the direction of the East Suburb, near a highway service area.
They could take the highway to get to that service area and then proceed to the military district.
Since it was the apocalypse, the highways were unregulated.
The military district wasn’t far. In about an hour, Lu Feng and Wang Cheng arrived, both already suited up in their Mecha.
The military district had been deserted for a long time and had fallen into ruin. The scene upon entering was one of utter decay.
"Boss, there might be a lot of Mutant Beasts here. There are tracks all around," Wang Cheng warned Lu Feng after they had walked a short distance.
"I know." Lu Feng nodded. The next moment, low snarls echoed from all around as several spotted Mutated Cheetahs surrounded them.
These cheetahs were much larger than their pre-apocalypse counterparts. The moment they appeared, they eyed the two men covetously before lunging at them.
Faced with this, the two didn’t hesitate. Panels on their Mecha slid open, revealing weapon ports that aimed at the cheetahs.
Almost instantly, beams of laser light shot toward the creatures.
The cheetahs practically threw themselves into the laser beams and were instantly pierced through and killed.
[Congratulations, you have killed two mutated spotted cheetahs and gained 280 experience!]
[Congratulations...]
These cheetahs were incredibly fast. An ordinary team with conventional weapons would likely be wiped out in an instant. They were no weaker than Slaying Dogs.
Slaying Dogs could even withstand single bullets.
Even one or two Ability Users caught in an ambush by these cheetahs would probably be toast.
However, against two Mecha firing a chaotic barrage of lasers, the cheetahs were just throwing their lives away.
The two men walked over, dug the Crystal Cores from the cheetahs’ heads, and deposited the Crystal Essence Points into an energy storage device.
You could say they had made a pure profit from this encounter with zero expenditure.
"Let’s go." The two continued forward, following the map’s directions toward the warehouse where the gold bars were stored.
They hadn’t gone far before they ran into two more waves of Mutated Cheetahs, which were essentially just delivering Crystal Cores to them.
Now they understood why the City East Alliance’s Flame Emperor had abandoned this military district. ’Did the Mutated Cheetahs build a den and have their young here?’
ROAR!~
An even louder beastly roar echoed out.
Before Lu Feng and Wang Cheng could even dig out the Crystal Cores, a much more formidable-looking Mutated Cheetah slowly walked out. Behind it followed a procession of smaller mutated cheetahs.
These smaller cheetahs moved in a disciplined, orderly fashion, as if commanded.
"A Beast King!" Wang Cheng exclaimed in surprise at the sight.
A Beast King was the ruler among Mutant Beasts. Rumor had it that the Flame Emperor had fought a decisive battle with a Beast King in the East Suburb Alliance during the early days of the City East Alliance’s founding.
It was precisely because he killed a Beast King there in the East Suburb Alliance that other Mutant Beasts didn’t dare approach.
He never expected there to be another Mutated Beast King here, and with so many smaller ones.
Without sufficient firepower or Mecha, even if everyone from Qingfeng Base came, they would be completely wiped out by these Mutant Beasts. They’d be done for.
ROAR!~
The Mutated Leopard King roared again and lunged at the two of them.
Wang Cheng immediately opened his palms, and the laser emitters in them instantly fired several laser beams.
To his surprise, the Mutated Leopard King actually dodged them, with only a single beam hitting its body.
The laser strike sent up puffs of scorched smoke from the Mutated Leopard King’s hide, leaving a gruesome wound.
But that single laser hadn’t caused any critical damage. On the contrary, the Beast King took the opportunity to pounce, its speed suddenly exploding to a level that shocked both Lu Feng and Wang Cheng.
Then, with that incredible speed, it bit down hard on Wang Cheng’s head, producing a sharp CRUNCHING sound.
Wang Cheng couldn’t even react in time. If not for the protection of his Mecha’s helmet, he would have been a dead man.
Two laser cannons emerged from Wang Cheng’s shoulders, instantly taking aim and firing at the Mutated Leopard King at point-blank range.
In that instant, the Mutated Leopard King shrieked in agony, its head thrown back. The impact sent it tumbling to the ground, revealing two gruesome gashes on its abdomen.
Seeing this, Lu Feng controlled his own Mecha. Two laser ports extended from his shoulders as well, and two laser cannons fired directly at the Mutated Leopard King, kill-stealing and finishing it off.
When the Mutated Leopard King was killed, another notification appeared in Lu Feng’s mind:
[Congratulations, you have killed a mutated spotted leopard king and gained 2,000 experience!]
A reward of 2,000 experience was clearly the most he had ever received for a single zombie or Mutant Beast kill.
2,000 experience. It was immensely more powerful than an ordinary mutated leopard, just as expected.
Without a doubt, if he and Wang Cheng hadn’t been wearing Mecha today, Wang Cheng would have at least died here.
Just as Lu Feng was marveling at the experience points, his gaze fell in surprise upon the Mutated Leopard King’s corpse. Several glowing lights were floating around it.
’It dropped a huge pile of loot!’
The crucial part was that among the curtains of light, there was clearly an egg, enveloped in a radiant glow.