"I know, but Austin doesn't have our full info," Jing Shu said, her voice steady. "They only have an Asian identity flag and our appearance samples. Even if scans pick us up, it's only a 'suspected' match."
Yang Yang couldn't deny it. "The thing is, any suspected match has to be sent up so the slavers themselves can inspect them. The informants I planted got hauled in and then went silent. They're probably dead. Those bastards would rather miss than let anyone slip by."
A faint smile curled Jing Shu's mouth. "Then we just make the inspectors decide we're not the wanted targets."
Yang Yang raised an eyebrow, leaning forward. "You mean, bribe them? Threaten them?"
"Don't forget how Zero got caught," Jing Shu said.
Yang Yang's expression brightened. "Brilliant! I totally forgot you had that specialty. This mission just got a lot easier, thanks to you. If this works, you're the one who gets the credit."
As Jing Shu and Yang Yang traded cryptic glances, the others didn't quite follow. Even Monkey had no idea what was going on.
Jing Shu used to be a support, right? How had she suddenly gone off on her own for a month and come back like somebody who had opened up the gates of her body, and now everyone was treating her with respect?
It didn't take long for Jing Shu to show them what a true support role could do.
That night they slept in a run-down, drafty house outside Austin. Jing Shu's squad finally got a decent meal. Everyone wolfed down plate after plate of fluffy white rice, the steam rising in the cold air, and traded stories about the hard days they had just been through in the mountains.
Yang Yang handed out contribution points from the first job. They had gone all out, and the payoff was huge. The haul from the 23 freighters was divided by contribution, and basically everyone got about 10,000 contribution points. After subtracting the stuff people had grabbed on the black market and the points needed to ship those goods home, most people still had six to seven thousand left in their accounts.
They could make more on this second mission, then trade contribution points for shipping fees home. Coming to America looked like a one-way ticket to getting filthy rich.
That was, of course, only true for the third year after the apocalypse. From the fourth year the world slid into stagnation, and by the fifth year even America was running dry. So if you wanted to profit, you had to do it early.
"Cough, Mirror, you exchanged way too many supplies on the black market this time, tens of thousands of black market credits; and you used 15,000 contribution points to ship them home. You're still short 5,000 contribution points. I logged it down for you," Yang Yang said, tapping his screen.
Jing Shu nodded. So much stuff only cost 15,000 points. Shipping from America to China would eat fuel, but it wasn't a loss. Contribution points were really useful. Now her Cube Space could stash the valuable and the shady items, and the rest could be sent home on contribution points. This trip definitely wasn't wasted. She was probably going back richer than anyone.
Jing Shu patted Tank on the shoulder. "I think you guys still owe me some contribution points?"
Owe? It was worse than that.
Tank sheepishly brought out the squad's contribution ledger. "We used a lot of Mirror's supplies this trip; here is our list."
Yang Yang blinked in disbelief at the numbers. "One sack of salt is 50 contribution points? An egg is 50 contribution points? A meal is 100 contribution points? What the hell?"
Fifty points could have shipped hundreds of sacks of salt home. Still, in those barren mountains Jing Shu had saved the whole team, fed a squad for over ten days, and Tank said they got all kinds of good food, full to the brim. In the end it was thanks to Jing Shu that they made it out.
"You didn't lose out otherwise; at least everyone kept their life," Yang Yang said.
The final accounting showed Jing Shu earned 15,000 contribution points, enough to clear all her debts, and she still had 10,000 points left over.
"Looks like even in this absurdly rich place, with supplies piled like mountains, it's still not enough. I have got to figure out how to earn more contribution points," Jing Shu said.
She then asked, "Is there any other way to earn points on this second mission?"
Stealing the vegetable dehydration technology and the related equipment was the main job; that's the return ticket and it didn't bring extra contribution points.
Yang Yang thought for a moment. "To be honest, this trip is being funded by Qian Duoduo, so as long as you bring back stuff that helps Xingfu Shiyuan develop, you can follow his path and ship things home using his channels."
"Got it." Jing Shu hesitated a bit. If she brought things that helped Qian Duoduo develop Xingfu Shiyuan, would that speed the place toward ruin? But if she bred sheep into wolves, maybe the tyrant would think twice.
She didn't dwell on it. You had to take it step by step. Right now she was more worried about what to plant in the six new plots she just opened in her Cube Space.
Her spirit fields already held fruit, medicinal herbs, vegetables, cotton, and tobacco, each taking up six cubic meters. That ratio was just right, but surplus yield could cause waste, so she had a little left over. Over the year she had accumulated plenty of cotton and tobacco, both of which would be precious consumables later.
She wasn't planning on planting rice. For one thing, the rice they had grabbed in America wasn't easy to ship and was mediocre, but it could be used for other purposes. She had a lot of rice stored anyway.
What else could she plant? Maybe soybeans and peanuts for oil, though they had grabbed a lot of cooking oil from America this time.
"Maybe I can find some unexpected seeds in this city," Jing Shu thought with interest. Even if she didn't, she had long had a daring idea she wanted to try. With plans for the future buzzing in her head, she eventually fell asleep.
Austin's temperature had dropped to 3 degrees Celsius. After Jing Shu got out of the mountains and contacted her family, she learned Wu City was down to minus six or seven degrees, and quite a few people had frozen to death in the streets.
Thinking ahead to two years from now when Wu City might hit minus sixty degrees, Jing Shu had to hustle and gather all kinds of supplies. The apocalypse was getting harsher.
"Are you sure this is okay? We just stroll into the city like that? What if we are discovered and taken in for questioning?" Monkey sounded worried, his eyes darting toward the massive structure.
Jing Shu smiled without answering. She shouldered her bags and led everyone to the Austin Castle gate. The guards were strict. Nobody was allowed to bring weapons in, and they took all the group's luggage to the security check room, the metal detectors humming.
The lobby felt more like a modern bank than a fortress. The group stepped up to one of the counters, where a slightly portly man was hunched over a computer, breathing hard as he typed in data. The keyboard clicked rapidly in the quiet room.
The man looked up at them and asked, "What is your purpose for entering the Castle? To become Austin citizens? Or are you transient laborers? Oh, you're a group of Asians. If you aren't citizens, I'm obliged to call security and take you to the questioning room."
Tank's hand tightened by his side and the group held its breath.
Jing Shu smiled and said, "Sir, we're here to seek refuge in Austin; we want to enter the Castle and live here. We brought plenty of grain."