Harem Legion: Queens of the Apocalypse-Chapter 182 36,000 Cans or Die Trying

Out of the 2,700 prisoners, 2,580 are still alive. Magnus released 500, leaving 2,080 - 583 Awakened, 1,497 non-Awakened. But Cliff didn’t know that. He still supplied goods based on 2,200 people.

For the Awakened, it was 2 people per crystal. Cliff only gave Fire Crystals, priced like they were for 5 people per piece - that was all he could afford.

Magnus found 115 Fire Crystals in those fifteen trucks. As for the non-Awakened, each was priced at 60 bullets or 10 canned goods. Cliff really played hardball - only 4,000 cans and 8,000 bullets for 1,600 of them. And all the bullets were handgun rounds.

Better than nothing.

It looked like a lot on paper, but with 4,000 cans, not even two for everyone in Ice Regiment. The 8,000 bullets didn’t spread far either - six each, if that.

Stingy, that Cliff.

Not that it mattered. Magnus never planned on giving the prisoners back anyway. 𝒇𝓻𝓮𝓮𝙬𝙚𝒃𝒏𝓸𝙫𝒆𝙡.𝓬𝓸𝒎

That night, the usual meeting. Megan, Amber, and Ashton came back with their teams. Megan and Amber didn’t find anything, but Ashton did - something big.

Standing in front of the group, Ashton reported, "We hit Clearbrook Village, 60 km west of the city. Found some old-fashioned steel plants there - no one alive. On the way back, we captured a few guys. Said there’s a group of over a hundred holding a canning plant near Heshui Town. Still over 10,000 boxes of canned goods there..."

"10,000 boxes?!"

Liana shot to her feet, eyes wide. "Did they say how many cans per box? And what kind of plant? Meat? Fruit?"

"Meat," Ashton replied, turning to face her. "Each box has 24 cans."

That made it 240,000 cans. At Ice Regiment’s current size, even if handed out one per person per day, it’d last over 200 days.

Liana looked like she couldn’t sit still. Charlotte frowned at her. "You thinking of taking it by force?"

Liana paused. She obviously hadn’t thought it through. Her face darkened. Then she looked at Sophia, who seemed torn. She huffed and muttered, "It wasn’t theirs to begin with."

Magnus stood up and waved Ashton into his seat. "Ashton, did they say who’s holding the place?"

She looked a bit stiff in his chair, but answered, "Two squads of rogue soldiers. Used to be Ridgebreak Battalion - same outfit as Evan. The rest are factory workers and their families. The two men we captured - they’re part of the rogue group. Armed."

Magnus thought for a moment, gaze sweeping over the others. They were all watching him, waiting for a decision. He nodded. "Liana, get a team. Prep five trucks of food and twenty empty ones. Charlotte, I need 300 people by morning. I’ll go and take a look. If they want to trade, we’ll offer food."

"And if they don’t?"

Sophia glanced at Magnus, waiting for an answer, but he avoided her gaze, turned away, and sat down on the armrest of the couch, dragging a deep puff from his cigarette.

The canned food factory wasn’t the same as grain from regular villagers. What the farmers had was theirs to begin with, and looting from them made you scum. But the canned goods? Those weren’t the property of those dozen or so rogue soldiers. They’d stolen them too. Taking from thieves didn’t weigh so heavy on the conscience.

Still, if it could be avoided, they wouldn’t rob anyone. If the people at the factory were willing to trade - be it food, crystals, or weapons - they could talk.

"I don’t get one thing," Emily spoke up. "A factory with ten thousand boxes of stock isn’t a small place. How come none of the big groups cleaned it out? Why is it just sitting there like we stumbled on a lucky break?"

Charlotte frowned thoughtfully. "Emily, you mean it might be a trap?"

"I asked about that," Ashton said, standing up rather than sitting in Magnus’s spot. "Those two said that when they got there, there were hundreds of locals hauling out the cans, trying to hide them..."

"Hundreds?" Emily cut in. "Didn’t you just tell us there were only a hundred or so people left? So which is it?"

Ashton froze, caught off guard by the inconsistency. She hadn’t noticed it until now. Magnus frowned slightly and muttered, "It’s possible both are true. When they first arrived, there were a few hundred. By now, that number’s dropped."

Silence fell over the group. They all understood what he meant. No point arguing further - tomorrow would give them the answers they needed.

The topic shifted. About a dozen squad captains had something to share - news they’d gathered from team leaders last night. Ideas for recruiting more female members. In a camp of over a thousand people, everyone was brainstorming, and while many ideas were far-fetched, the captains had filtered out the worst and were now sharing the more doable ones.

"One idea from our squad’s solid - stone villages up in the mountains. When the world went to hell, lots of folks fled up there thinking those beasts wouldn’t follow..."

"Some in our team came from Hanford City. Said there’re still survivors there, but they haven’t grouped up, just scattered. The city’s chaos. We think it’s worth a trip to look for recruits..."

"I second going to Hanford. There’s that finance college on the outskirts - Hanford Advanced Finance College. Most of the students there are girls. Odds are we’ll find plenty of potential recruits there."

The room was filled with voices throwing out plan after plan. Magnus didn’t say much, but he’d gotten the hint. Hanford wasn’t far from Ashbrook Town. That place used to be Evan’s responsibility before he turned traitor. Looked like they’d have to clean things up themselves now.

And heading to the finance college while they were at it? Smart move.

Emily and the other women didn’t have any better ideas. After some quick discussion, the team sorted out the plan. Tomorrow morning, they’d split into three groups: Sophia and Emily would take a squad to Hanford City; Chloe and Margaret would hit the village with the homemade steel operation; Magnus would lead a team to the canned food factory.

Each group chasing survival their own way.