Wasteland Survivalist: A Scientific Guide to Post-Apocalyptic Survival

Gu Lang put down the drone remote control, picked up the walkie-talkie, and pressed the call button.

He didn't use the previously agreed-upon code name, but called out the name directly.

"Jiang Peng, it looks like some workers on deck are slacking off."

After waiting for a while, there was indeed no response from the walkie-talkie.

Gu Lang flew the drone to the port side of the oil tanker, where the three fishing boats remained lined up one after the other.

The cabin door of the fishing boat where Jiang Peng was located was tightly closed, and there were no lights on in the cabin windows.

He retrieved the drone, fully donned his weapons and armor, and entered a state of combat readiness.

As the diesel engine was started, the water jet propulsion system ran smoothly at its lowest speed, emitting a low hum.

Gu Lang did not turn on the navigation lights, and all the blackout curtains in the cockpit were drawn tightly, relying solely on the infrared night vision images from the electro-optical mast for navigation.

The speedboat moved silently toward the port side of the tanker at a minimum speed of five knots.

After the boat stopped and anchored, he flipped down the low-light night vision device that was fixed to his bulletproof helmet.

Four independent optical apertures are arranged horizontally in front of the eye, and the machine is automatically turned on when triggered.

On the left and right sides, a pair of adjacent eyepieces lit up rapidly.

By cutting and splicing the strings, the effect of image splicing is achieved.

This creates a green night vision image with a horizontal field of view of 97 degrees and a vertical field of view of 40 degrees.

Compared to traditional binocular night vision devices, the field of view is expanded to more than twice, resulting in a significant increase in the amount of information in the image.

Gu Lang slung his rifle behind his back and quickly climbed onto the oil tanker using a rope ladder.

With the faint light provided by the embers, the situation on the deck was clearly visible.

There was no one standing anymore, and the sound of indistinct voices could be heard intermittently.

A few strange laughs could be faintly heard from the stern of the ship in the distance, but they quickly stopped.

Everyone on the tanker was high, and there wasn't a single sober person in sight within a radius of hundreds of meters.

The combination of the post-apocalyptic environment and hard labor made it impossible for this group of people to resist the temptation of drugs.

He went directly to the temporary storage area where Jiang Peng's team stored finished oil products, where dozens of green diesel drums were neatly arranged.

Gu Lang laid the oil drum down, slowly rolled it to the side of the ship, lifted it again, and carefully moved it into the basket.

Then, by turning the handwheel, the winch was driven to control the pulley lifting device, and the oil drum was hoisted above the flight deck of the speedboat.

The deck was covered with blankets he had found in the crew compartment, which he had laid out in advance to cushion the oil drums from the impact.

Thirty seconds later, the oil drum landed gently on the cushioning pad with a muffled thud.

Gu Lang squatted in place for more than ten seconds, looking around, but the people on the oil tanker did not react.

He climbed back down the rope ladder and onto the flight deck.

Untie the ropes and carefully lower the oil drum from the basket.

For the next hour, Gulang repeated the same process.

He worked on the deck, pushing the drums, hoisting them down, and unloading them. By the time he got to the tenth oil drum, his back was soaked with sweat.

His muscles started to ache, but he didn't stop.

After all, people don't get tired when they're doing bad things.

Gu Lang looked back at the fishing boat behind him. The cabin door was still tightly closed, and Jiang Peng was probably fast asleep.

It felt like even if an explosion occurred on the tanker, it might not wake up the person who had just finished indulging in lust.

Just to be on the safe side, he sped up the moving process.

If someone who's had a high suddenly comes to their senses, their window of opportunity will be completely closed.

He removed the cumbersome rifle from his back, carrying only a pistol as a self-defense weapon in case of emergency.

By the time the nineteenth oil drum arrived on the speedboat, the flight deck was already very crowded.

Gu Lang made a mistake and accidentally bumped into the oil drum that had arrived first.

A crisp metallic clanging sound came from the deck.

The sound was loud in the quiet night, but fortunately it only elicited a few murmurs from the tanker.

At this point, Gu Lang couldn't care less about anything else.

He figured that if anyone on the tanker were to become alert because of this commotion, he would have been discovered long ago.

However, just as Gu was struggling to move the oil drum out of the basket and was preparing to climb the ladder again, an unexpected situation occurred.

Suddenly, a "whoosh" sound came from the fishing boat as the door opened.

In the night vision footage, a hatch on the starboard side of the fishing boat was pushed open.

A person slowly walked out, wearing a spaghetti strap nightgown, rubbing their eyes and yawning.

It turned out to be Jiang Peng's cousin, "Xiao Mi".

"Who is it? Could you please keep your voice down?"

Before the woman could finish speaking, Gu Lang leaped over.

After landing on the deck of the fishing boat, before the woman could react, he rushed over and subdued her.

He covered her mouth with his left hand and pulled out a pistol with his right hand, pressing it against her head.

"Stupid woman, of all times she had to come out at a time like this. She should have brought a knife with her."

Gu Lang sighed inwardly; he had just finished heavy physical labor.

Feeling completely exhausted, the series of actions I just performed while jumping onto the board had already pushed me to my limit.

The real world is not like movies and TV dramas, where the protagonist is omnipotent and can kill people with his bare hands in an instant.

When a person senses a threat, the muscles in their neck will instinctively contract to resist.

The torque required to snap a neck in one go far exceeds the limits that a human hand can generate.

As for strangling someone to death with bare hands, the real-life timeline is far longer and more intense than that depicted in movies and TV dramas.

According to forensic data, the process of strangulation to death is a process that is measured in "minutes".

It requires precise and simultaneous pressure on both sides of the neck with both hands, and the victim will lose consciousness within 30 seconds due to cerebral ischemia.

But falling into a coma is just the beginning; to cause death, pressure must be applied continuously.

Irreversible brain death can only occur if blood flow is blocked for 3 to 5 minutes.

These long few minutes are a huge test of the strength of the hands and arms of the person performing the action.

Victims will struggle violently out of their survival instinct, screaming, kicking, scratching, and biting desperately.

Maintaining a chokehold position is extremely difficult in such a fierce confrontation.

A trained fighter can indeed use techniques like the "rear-naked choke" to more effectively knock someone unconscious, but that's about it.

The scene will still be very chaotic; it will definitely not be "silent."

Therefore, Gu Lang decisively chose to draw his gun and subdue the other party.

"Don't move if you don't want to die!"

"Waaaaah...waaaah...waaaah..."

The woman shook her head in terror, making indistinct sounds from her covered mouth.

Her two large eyes widened in the green light of the night vision goggles, and her hands instinctively grabbed the hand that Gu Lang had placed over her mouth.

"I'm giving you a choice: either die here, or come with me."

Gu Lang lowered his voice to a whisper, his lips close to his ear, each word laced with murderous intent.

The woman was taken aback at first, then nodded slightly.

"I'm going to loosen my grip now. If you make any noise, I'll shoot. Think it over and nod."

The woman nodded vigorously, her body trembling uncontrollably.