After stocking up at the maximum level, all the handsome men in the apocalypse are looking for suppo

Chapter 188 Resource Inventory
Inside the main control room, the air was thick with the musty smell of something that had been accumulating for a long time.

Su Wanqing closed the notebook beside her and tucked the jade bracelet into her sleeve.

Xiao Ran glanced around, picked a few people, and said loudly, "Now everyone come over here. Everyone, divide into groups of three and count the food, water, and medicine."

"Give me everything, clearly labeled, and report back in half an hour." His voice wasn't loud, but every word carried an undeniable crispness.

The remaining dozen or so survivors stood up and divided into three groups. Xiao Ran handed paper and pens to the leaders of the three groups, saying, "Check the water supply room, kitchen, medicine cabinet, and industrial cold storage. The storage keys are with me; contact me anytime you need them."

Lin Che quietly settled Xiao Ling in and then got up to join the medical supplies team.

Su Wanqing stayed at the door, quietly counting how many people were left.

Lu Zhao sat to the side, a data cable plugged into the port under his sleeve, quietly watching a USB flash drive, occasionally typing a few lines of commands on his portable terminal.

Xiao Ran led the way to the warehouse. He pushed open the iron gate and counted each box of canned goods, bread, and nutritional supplements.

Each finger moved slowly and meticulously. Two followers beside him were making tally marks in their notebooks.

Some people couldn't help but wonder, "How long can these last in a completely sealed-off environment?"

“It’s calculated clearly.” Xiao Ran didn’t stop, squatting down to check the numbers. “The net consumption data is clearly written down—not only the number of people, but also how much recycled energy is used every day under the current barrier.”

Half an hour later, the three groups reported their data one after another. The water group, holding their notebooks, looked grim: "We only have enough drinking water for twenty-eight days, and we've already used up a third of the backup water tank and purification agent."

The kitchen staff laid out all kinds of dry food, cold chain and compressed rations, but it was 10% less than originally planned, and some insulated containers were leaking, "the openings may have been broken when they were moved before."

Everyone fell silent for a moment.

On the medical team's side, Lin Che finished calculating the list with his head down and said, "The quantity of basic antibiotics is sufficient, but the special emergency drugs and high fever antidotes are only enough for emergency situations, at most for three serious cases."

He pointed to the lines of clear pricing, "There's less than one box left of the loosening agent and intravenous maintenance fluid. It should have lasted two months, but now, in this high-consumption environment, it won't last even thirty days."

After listening, Xiao Ran closed his notebook and called all three groups to the control room.

Several men in the crowd looked uneasy and spoke to each other in hushed tones.

Once everyone had arrived, Xiao Ran took the main control terminal, where the power consumption curve of the fortress was displayed on the screen.

He got straight to the point: "I've reviewed all the data. There were supplies that Team Leader Su had stockpiled before, but inside this barrier, energy consumption has increased by nearly half. The newly added air circulation, power condensation, and main control barrier—all of these will consume more than double the original plan."

He tapped the clock on the panel, “Conclusion: at the current supply level, all resources can only last for twenty-eight to thirty-one days.”

Someone below grew anxious and asked in a male voice, "So you have no other options? What do you mean you can only hold out for this long? Didn't you say it was safe here and we could provide for ourselves?"

Xiao Ran glanced at him, then turned back and said in a low voice, "We're all in the same boat. The situation is special right now. If the energy supply can't be replenished and the shield shuts down, the military and those things outside will rush in together, and we'll all be finished."

A tense, almost frozen murmur filled the crowd. Suddenly, another person asked, "What's going on? How did we get stuck in this godforsaken place? Didn't they say the fortress was the safest place?"

Lin Che turned his head to look at Su Wanqing. Su Wanqing slightly tightened the jade bracelet in her hand, her voice a little hoarse: "The shield is a special device that can't be activated without our own people. We are now completely blocked and can't contact anyone."

A female survivor asked in a low voice, "What exactly is happening outside? What was that golden light?"

The air grew thicker. Xiao Ran turned and stared at everyone, saying in a deep voice, "Everyone is safe now mainly because of the main control equipment. This shield is our only line of defense. But that's also the reason—energy consumption is higher, and all the machines have to keep running. You have to understand that the rate at which resources are being consumed is not something that can be achieved by adding day and night together. Every day we survive is one less day we have left, and there's no room for complacency."

Zhou Ming, who had been silent in the group, stepped forward, his voice blazing: "I'm telling you, in the end, how did we end up like this? The few of us alone couldn't have held out for long. But shouldn't some people tell the truth—why were we able to escape from the army before? And that…monster girl—was it her who brought this misfortune upon us?"

He pointed at Lin Che and Xiao Ling on the sofa. Lin Che didn't say anything, but simply moved slightly closer to the sofa.

Su Wanqing raised an eyebrow slightly, but didn't say anything.

Zhou Ming's voice rose even higher: "Speak clearly, stop hiding things! If she really is the experimental subject the military is looking for, why should we risk our lives with these 'special' people? If she can attract zombies, then we might as well send her out now—to find a way to survive!"

Several people around began to respond in hushed tones. A short-haired man shook his head: "He makes sense. Many of us came along, and we shouldn't take the blame for others."

Someone chimed in, "Even if the barrier can keep out the outside world, what if we end up saving her only to starve and die of thirst ourselves?"

The atmosphere suddenly tensed. Xiao Ran narrowed his eyes, walked up to Zhou Ming, and poked the conference table with one finger: "If you say something like that again, do you think I have no manners? This is none of your business to stir things up. If zombies try to break in, do you think the military will care about your lives? If you want to go outside, fine, try opening the door now. If you want some peace and quiet, just say so anytime."

Zhou Ming slammed his hand on the table in a huff: "We're just telling the truth, it's not entirely your fault."

Xiao Ran stared at him for a moment, then turned to the other survivors, enunciating each word with exceptional clarity: "Anyone who incites trouble again will be the first to be dealt with. Inside the protective shield, we are all in the same boat, there is no distinction between you and me. Until we get out, everyone must follow my lead."

After a brief silence, the five or six people still had twitching lips, their eyes filled with hesitation and dissatisfaction. Su Wanqing gave Lin Che a low wink, and Lin Che nodded, quietly pulling Xiaoling to his side.

Xiao Ran glanced around, put away the list, and led everyone out of the group. Once everyone had left, he tapped the table with his knuckles, bent down close to Su Wanqing, and whispered, "There are a few things that don't match—half a box of dry rations is missing, there's a half-day gap in the cold chain area, and the fire extinguisher inventory is unclear. A water purification card and three tranquilizers aren't listed. Have you checked them?"

Su Wanqing quietly shook her head, tapping her notebook with her pen: "I only took the first-aid kit and the food rations; I didn't touch anything else. You suspect someone stole them?"

Xiao Ran lowered his voice: "It wasn't because they were starving, it was a coincidence that they missed something in the accounts. The items were all sold in wholesale quantities, but each time they were counted, only one or two items were missing. It's too much of a coincidence. It wasn't a spontaneous theft—we can't rule out the possibility that someone was planning to use an inside agent, maybe even someone sent by Li Ming."

Su Wanqing lowered her eyes, "Does Dawn still have anyone left by our side?"

"It's hard to say, people are in a state of panic right now." Xiao Ran rubbed his temples. "Especially with supplies being tight, every extra checkpoint has to be treated as a risk point. You keep a close eye on the duty roster. Critical goods should only be distributed from the command cabinet, and there should be daily checks. No one should be allowed to take them unless it's an emergency."

Su Wanqing nodded, slowly closed the notebook, and the jade bracelet beside her was slightly warm.

Lin Che walked over from the medical team, his voice low, "Do you need me to make a night patrol?"

Xiao Ran said, "It's necessary. Everyone has to stay hidden. We can't find anything out openly, so we can only start by looking at the number of times and who reported the clues first."

Lu Zhao chuckled softly in the corner of the control panel, inserted his USB drive into the terminal interface, and silently scrolled through a few lines of code.

He tried switching various encryption parameters, but the main interface would always pop up a hard encryption warning instantly: "Special privileges required, master key not read, logic lock not unlocked."

Xiao Ran looked at him: "How is it?"

With a toothpick dangling from his mouth, Lu Zhao flipped through the USB drive's directory tree with his fingers. "The encryption Han Xue left behind is extraordinary, even stricter than military-grade. Several logic sections inside don't have keys at all. Traditional decryption methods are useless; we need to use some kind of biological factor as the core verification."

Su Wanqing asked softly, "What useful information can you see?"

Lu Zhao did not answer directly, "There was a piece of data that was hidden and not fully loaded. When I was defractioning, I detected a faulty image file."

Lin Che stood behind him. "What are the specifics?"

Lu Zhao casually opened a window and clicked on the still frame that popped up. A completely white space vaguely appeared on the screen, with a surgical light on the table, and the profile of a child covered with a silver surgical drape, with a number written on his face.

There is a logo in the lower left corner of the image that reads "Project Orion".

The child's features were very similar to Xiaoling's now, but he was clearly younger.

Lu Zhao swallowed again. "The rest is all encrypted gibberish; the data isn't fully decrypted. This kind of encrypted string requires a lot of time and special algorithms; even supercomputing chips have to try it round after round."

A chill ran through Su Wanqing's heart. "Keep investigating. Find out as much as you can."

Strange noises could be heard from outside, and the light inside the fortress gradually dimmed. Xiao Ran stared at the record sheet in his hand, silently counting the consumption figures.

The creaking of the medicine room door reached my ears as the water crew moved the last bucket of clean water to the backup area.

Lin Che handed over the medical team's list. "Patients who lack fluids, pyrogens, or are susceptible to infection need to be given special attention."

Xiao Ran put the list into his pocket. "Tonight, focus our defenses on the warehouse. You two keep an eye on the experimental area. If anyone touches anything again, report to me immediately."

Su Wanqing nodded in agreement and turned to go to the main control panel. Lu Zhao, with the data cable plugged in, frowned at the lines of garbled text, occasionally switching algorithms, while permission error messages popped up on the screen one after another.

The data stream beside him was filled with randomly jumping numbers, and he almost unplugged the data cable several times, but there was not much progress.

Lin Che then checked on each room one by one. Xiao Ling sat to one side, wrapped in a blanket, lost in thought.

Su Wanqing went over, hugged her, and casually asked, "Are you feeling unwell today?"

Xiaoling shook her head, her voice very soft, "I don't feel hungry or not."

Lin Che helped her cover the blanket with the corners, and then checked each item on the booklet with his fingers.

Fill in each item slowly, avoiding the gaze of those around you.

The outer room gradually quieted down. In one corner of the conference room, a few people were still whispering among themselves.

Someone asked, "What if there's really nothing to eat in the future?"

"Why don't we surrender to the army outside while the barrier is still strong?"

Xiao Ran memorized all those sounds, without turning around, but silently made a mark in his mind.