An Order

Wang Jianguo sighed.

His steel shelter was neither too big nor too small. It consisted mainly of workers and their families from the original steel plant, totaling around 2,000 people. In the past, it had functioned much like a small town.

"By the way, I remember you mentioned before that your shelter uses a geothermal generator."

"Is that thing actually useful?"

"It's decent," Su Wu replied casually.

"It provides a stable 300 kilowatt-hours per hour, which is more than enough to sustain my shelter's operations."

This wasn't a secret, so he answered honestly.

His geothermal generator wasn't some cutting-edge classified tech—he had found the design schematics for free on the internet. Though he later upgraded it using survival points, making it more efficient and incorporating some black-box technology, the core principles remained unchanged.

Even if he openly shared the design, outsiders would only marvel at its efficiency, not suspect anything out of the ordinary.

"Three hundred kilowatt-hours per hour?"

"That's basically on par with a decent small hydropower station!"

Su Wu's response stunned Wang Jianguo, and soon, the entire chat group took notice.

A small hydropower station might not sound impressive in peacetime, but under the current circumstances, it was an incredible asset. With careful usage, that amount of power could sustain basic operations for hundreds of medium-sized shelters and support tens of thousands of people.

It was the ultimate status symbol in this post-apocalyptic world.

"Can I buy some electricity from you?"

A shelter owner named Heavy Knight spoke up.

His shelter was a small private one, much like Su Wu's, and housed only him and his family.

However, a smaller shelter meant lower fault tolerance.

His only diesel generator had broken down last night, throwing his entire shelter into a power crisis.

Fortunately, the toxic gases outside had mostly dispersed; otherwise, he might have been forced to evacuate to an official shelter.

"I don't mind trading," Su Wu replied.

"But we're too far apart. It's not like I can just run a power line to your place."

Despite his geothermal generator producing excess electricity daily, his current setup had no way to transmit power over long distances.

If there was a way to convert and store the surplus energy for trade, it would be a win-win situation.

But in a post-apocalyptic world, the hardest part of resource exchange wasn't acquiring the resources themselves—it was the process of making the exchange happen.

If this issue wasn't solved, no deal could be made, no matter how good the offer.

"That's fine."

"I have plenty of battery packs. As long as they can be charged, it'll work."

Heavy Knight responded quickly.

With the emergency power stored in those battery packs, he could last long enough to fix his generator.

As for how to get the batteries to Su Wu, he'd have to take the risk himself—driving through the scorching heat and the ever-present threat of deadly storms.

"Alright."

"Let's discuss the details in private."

Su Wu sensed an opportunity.

For Heavy Knight, personally delivering the battery packs was a life-threatening ordeal. But for Su Wu? Not at all.

He had an automated unmanned medium-sized truck and a construction robot to assist with deliveries.

Most importantly, his truck ran on electricity, not gasoline.

As long as the destination was within the Jianghe City region, the delivery cost was nearly zero.

That price difference alone was enough to turn a hefty profit.

After finalizing the deal with Heavy Knight, Su Wu waited for more offers.

But none came.

Many in the group coveted his abundant electricity, but unlike Heavy Knight, they lacked the necessary battery storage to make a deal feasible.

Plus, their situations weren't yet desperate.

In the apocalypse, survival came first—and without an immediate crisis, no one was willing to take unnecessary risks just for extra power.

After half an hour of group chat, gathering a mix of useful intel and pointless gossip, Su Wu was about to log off and play some games.

Then, a private message popped up.

It was from an unfamiliar group member: Ye Luoshuanghua.

"Are you selling geothermal generators?"

Su Wu's eyebrows lifted.

"You want to buy one?"

Now this was interesting.

His geothermal generator wasn't just some ordinary backup power source—it had been upgraded to the point where it rivaled a small hydropower station.

Even the Steel Shelter, with its 2,000 residents, wouldn't be able to afford one even if they sold everything they had.

"I checked the market. There are no manufacturers or second-hand sellers offering a geothermal generator like yours."

"You must have the original design schematics."

"I'm not just looking to buy the finished product—I also want the blueprints."

The request was direct and sincere.

"You want the schematics too?"

Su Wu was surprised.

This wasn't a simple purchase request.

Asking for the blueprints meant one thing:

The buyer had the capability to reverse-engineer and mass-produce the generator.

That meant they had engineers and industrial facilities—something only a handful of shelters could afford.

Ordinary doomsday survivors, even billionaire shelter owners, wouldn't have the infrastructure to manufacture high-tech equipment from scratch.

"I can sell you the finished product."

"But the schematics are useless to you."

"Many of the core components—before the world collapsed—were only produced by a handful of companies."

Su Wu refused.

The original design was just a free public blueprint he had found online.

Without system upgrades, even a perfect replica wouldn't match his generator's capabilities.

Selling the schematics wouldn't just be pointless—it would create a potential competitor.

"That's fine."

"Selling the finished product works."

"I need two units—installation included."

"If transportation is an issue, I can send a convoy to assist."

Ye Luoshuanghua responded without hesitation.

Clearly, they weren't just some random survivor looking for power.

Their confidence in handling logistics, combined with the scale of the purchase, hinted at a powerful and well-organized force.

"How many do you need?"

Su Wu typed back, intrigued.

This buyer wasn't short on cash—that much was obvious.

For the first time, he felt like he was staring at an opportunity to truly take off.