The value of minerals depends on whether they can serve the logic of survival.

As society regresses into pure survival competition, lithium mines have long surpassed a series of traditional precious metals in strategic importance in Happiness City.

For example, gold!

For gathering sites, small tribes, and wandering organizations scattered around Shelter City, a gold bar dug out from the city ruins cannot change their survival predicament.

However, a 10kwh battery produced in Happiness City can allow a hundred-person gathering place to escape darkness for a whole month.

And lithium, happens to be one of the core raw materials for manufacturing high-performance batteries.

"How many people on the other side? How did you win?"

Cheng Ye was not entangled in the authenticity and value of the mineral deposit, nor did he think about keeping this news to himself.

Early on, when the checkpoint was established, the top management of Happiness City had already considered this point.

If Inspectors could easily pocket the discoveries of scavengers as their own, no one would dare venture out of the city.

Submitting the location of the minerals, the Inner City has a very comprehensive inquiry mechanism and on-site inspection process.

It's basically impossible for anyone other than the discoverer to pass through this mechanism.

And once deemed to be fraudulent claims, there's only one outcome.

Public execution at the execution ground!

"A total of 27 scavengers, from the Hundred Ghosts Gang under the Big-headed Ghost in the ruins."

Cole grinned, revealing his molars, "That bunch regards us as two-legged sheep, trying to squeeze something out of us, but the four of us have been crawling and fighting in the ruins since we were young. We've seen such scenes many times, are accustomed to it, neither fear them, nor are unprepared."

He spoke with ease, but the words were filled with murderous intent.

Cheng Ye had never heard of the Hundred Ghosts Gang, nor did he know who the Big-headed Ghost was, but being able to break through a trap laid by 27 people, win the fight, and successfully return with samples.

As long as they weren't lying.

This combat capability was definitely much stronger than him, someone who had trained for only two months as a half-baked Inspector.

"Uh, so were they... shot?"

"Um..."

Cole's smile instantly froze, and he hastily shook his head, "No, sir, they all have scratch wounds."

"Scratch wounds?"

"It was done by a Mutant Beast!"

"We were battling the Hundred Ghosts Gang when a Mutant Beast suddenly intervened, allowing us to escape unscathed."

If they were gunshot wounds, with the lithium deposit as collateral, they naturally wouldn't have to worry about Cheng Ye detaining them.

But the nature of scratch wounds is entirely different; if Cheng Ye insisted on deeming them at risk of infection and put them in isolation, even if the high-ups from Happiness City came, they wouldn't have anything to say.

This is the iron rule of the checkpoint, an unshakeable principle.

"Sir, we are willing to offer an additional piece of meteorite received from the Green Stone Gathering Place on top of the six hundred coins..."

"Shut up!"

Cheng Ye interrupted Cole's unsaid bribe in a stern voice.

No matter how good something is, it needs a life to be spent.

Don't look at the greed of the Western Faction people within the checkpoint, as if they would let anyone through for money, but when it comes to screening Infected Bodies, nobody dares to be reckless.

Even the dumb brute in neighboring Zone B prefers to err on the side of caution rather than let anyone slip through.

Because of this, the reputation of Inspectors within the Buffer Zone has remained stable, never collapsing.

Whoever dares to break this rule is the enemy of all Inspectors, the public enemy of all residents in the Buffer Zone!

"You go out, let the one with the arm injury come in."

"Yes!"

Cole gritted his teeth, now only hoping that the Eastern People Inspector before him could see the true situation clearly.

Soon, two people swapped places.

The newcomer Westerner took off his clothes, and Cheng Ye saw a shocking scratch wound.

From shoulder to forearm, the scratch was at least thirty centimeters long, with flesh turned out, bone-deep!

"Name?"

"Lam Waters."

"Are you brothers?"

"Yes, sir, the four of us are biological brothers."

"Tell me, how did you get the injury, be specific and don't tell me a bedtime story for kids, my patience is limited."

"Understood... understood."

Lam's eyes were firm, and he immediately realized that his life was now held in his own hands.

"It was Ant Wolves, more than forty of them, all adult Ant Wolves."

The Ant Wolf, one of the most common Mutant Beasts within city ruins, is known for its reproductive abilities.

A flood of information flashed through Cheng Ye's mind, both standard descriptions from the Inspector's manual and scattered records from the Survival Library books.

Its life form is similar to the gray wolf, with adult individuals approximately 1.2 meters at the shoulder, bearing sharp fangs, capable of running at high speeds, and its fur covered by a carbonized keratin layer that can effectively resist physical attacks.

The prefix "Ant" before "Wolf" comes from its alienated reproductive system.

Female Ant Wolves go into heat once every six months, with their abdomen evolving into a giant breeding pouch similar to an ant queen, capable of laying 15-20 eggs at a time.

Egg-born wolf cubs reach maturity in just three months, and can become fully mature in a year.

As long as there is enough food and no natural enemies, just a few Ant Wolves can breed into a huge population within four or five years.

However, although the meat of the Ant Wolves is extremely poor in taste, it is non-toxic and edible, which also means that they are difficult to spread in the Wasteland World, especially within the borders of the East Continent.

This is because on the banquet tables of scavengers and wanderers during celebrations, there will always be a main dish of Ant Wolf meat.

"You know the value of lithium mines, sir. We don't believe that a wild lithium mine could be discovered by scavengers, and we just happen to find out. But aren't scavengers risking their lives just for the chance to get rich and make a name for themselves? We hesitated repeatedly yet decided to go have a look, but before going, we deliberately led a group of Ant Wolves to trail behind our car, thinking that even if there's an ambush, the Ant Wolves could disrupt their rhythm."

"It turns out our gamble was right!"

A hint of ruthlessness flashed in his eyes, "Under the open-air stripping layer of the small hill mentioned by the scavenger, there was indeed a pegmatite type lithium mine on the sunny side, and just as expected, there was also an ambush... but the Hundred Ghosts Gang never expected that we would drive the Ant Wolves right to their door. While they were crouching on the shaded side, the wolf pack rushed at them, and we seized the chance to attack from the sunny side, and it didn't take much effort to knock them all down..."

"However..."

Lam paused, a wry smile flashing across his face.

"We also miscalculated the appetite of the wolf cubs; twenty-seven people were far from enough to satisfy them, and they quickly turned on us as prey. These injuries were sustained during our fight to the death with the wolf pack."

Lam's narrative logic was not only clear but also very smooth, one could tell that it had been rehearsed repeatedly during the journey.

Cheng Ye nodded slightly, unlike other inspectors who would instinctively reject such an account.

He was also not like those depicted in films, who would equate "smoothness" with "lies" without any logic.

Before his graduate defense, he even simulated repeatedly in his dormitory for two days. Now, matters of life and death were at stake; if the four didn't organize their statements in advance to prevent someone from making a slip of the tongue, it would instead seem like they had something to hide.

"Four brothers with courage, means, and brains..."

"Only such people are worthy of discovering a lithium mine worth a fortune."

Cheng Ye sighed inwardly.

In this world, heroes are as common as schools of fish in the river. In the future, as one walks across the Wasteland, nobody can be underestimated.

After all, anyone who can crawl through the ruins of the city must be a fierce character licking blood from the edge of a knife.

"Report the numbers."

"37.7/133/22"

Lam responded in a deep voice, while his heart sank slightly, knowing these numbers were already at the edge of abnormal.

As long as the body temperature exceeded 38 degrees, the inspector before him needed no reason to throw them straight into the quarantine chamber.

"Bring in the man with the leg injury; the other two support him."

Cheng Ye spoke calmly, motioning unchanged towards the corner of the quarantine area, "You, stand in the corner, don't move around."

"Yes, sir."

The quarantine door slid open, and two people swiftly assisted the injured in, with Cole helping the man with the leg injury remove his clothes.

Goodness.

Compared to the wound on Lam's arm, this man's right leg wound was truly shocking.

From the calf to the base of the thigh, large bite marks revealed flesh and blood, and even immediate emergency treatment might not save him from amputation.

"Sir..."

"Name?"

"Helle Waters, Simo Waters."

"Report the numbers."

With no extra explanation given, Cole gritted his teeth and helped take the measurements.

"36.9/102/18"

"38.7/162/26"

Helle's data was still normal, but Simo's dangerous values would make even a dog shake its head.

"Sir..." Cole opened his mouth but didn't know where to start.

It would be as futile as asking Cheng Ye to disregard his principles as an inspector at this moment.

Although everyone understood that the abnormal data might very well be a bodily immune response to serious injuries.

"Sir, imprison me; my injuries are too severe, there's no hope for me..."

Simo bit his teeth tightly, blood foaming at the corner of his mouth, "I beg you, for the sake of the lithium mine, for the sake of us risking our lives for Happiness City, spare the other three!"

"Nonsense!"

Cole's expression changed drastically, grasping his shoulder, "The four of us brothers agreed to live and die together; now that we've finally made it to a turning point, no one gets left behind!"

"Simo, shut up. If someone needs to be locked up, let them lock me up..."

Alright then.

Looks like the judgment of these four brothers being brainy needs to be retracted.

Cheng Ye sighed quietly, internally acknowledging the saying that 'art comes from life.' Although he wasn't as dumb as the interrogators depicted in films, the foolishness of the interrogated was very much real.

The decision to detain someone indeed rested with the inspector, even if Simo's data was threefold abnormal, he retained the right not to isolate.

But if he detained just one and let the other three go, that would be blatant violation of rules.

Unless these four were Inner City proprietors with higher-level permissions to back them, if he dared to do so, he'd be suspended in the next second.

Bang.

After a gunshot to the sky, the world became much quieter.

The annoying sob story was forcibly interrupted, and the four brothers froze in place instantly, their minds buzzing with gunfire echoes.

Putting away the inspector's standard-issue pistol, Cheng Ye stood up and pointed his chin toward the corner:

"Leave him, the others go squat in the corner."

....

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