Wasteland Commander-Chapter 411 - 102: Not Enough Money to Spend

Ye Fan put on the night vision goggles, and the surroundings changed.

The street was filled with stationary zombies; the rampant mutant rats had disappeared, and there were no mutated birds in the sky.

However, Ye Fan and the others were still extremely cautious. Tanya gripped her gun tightly and stayed right next to Ye Fan, ready to take down a swarm at a moment’s notice.

Yuri floated in the air, only about three to four meters high. If any advanced zombies discovered them, Yuri would immediately initiate mind control to protect the Commander-in-Chief.

Shen Ruihui and Zhuge Yunxue supported the engineer, slowly advancing through the wind and rain.

Even with the help of the storm, Ye Fan and the group still moved very slowly.

The wind and rain only masked the zombies’ senses; it didn’t kill them. If they really encountered some, it would still be very dangerous.

Especially when they reached the section in front of the bank, everyone was almost constantly watching the manhole covers of the sewers, worried that rats might suddenly pop out again.

It’s important to know that none of them had safety locks at this moment; the safety lock was with the engineer, Huang Jie. If danger occurred, it would be severe.

Yuri remained vigilant at all times; if anything happened, he could carry Ye Fan up to the seventh or eighth floor height.

But their concerns were unfounded; the ground was now flooded, and the sewers had lost their drainage function. The water on the street was almost knee-deep.

In this situation, the mutant rats couldn’t hear any sounds nor sense people approaching.

They stepped onto the bank’s steps, arriving under the half-collapsed archway.

"Sir, the bank door is locked."

The engineer wanted to examine the lock, but Ye Fan went over and simply pried it open with brute force.

"Mr. Huang, don’t be overly meticulous. The bank vault’s lock is where your skills are truly needed. The lock outside isn’t worth the effort."

Zhuge Yunxue walked ahead, gently pushed the door open.

A gust of choking dust swept over them; clearly, this door hadn’t been opened since the apocalypse.

But that lasted only an instant; as the storm surged inside, the indoor and outdoor temperature and air quality were immediately homogenized.

Inside, Ye Fan heard the zombies’ roars.

About twenty or thirty zombies were staggering towards them.

Zhuge Yunxue and Shen Ruihui stepped forward, easily taking out these ordinary zombies with their scouts’ unique silenced pistols.

With the corpses cleared, Ye Fan could see the interior of the room.

The outside was the lobby, separated by a bulletproof glass into the service area.

The lobby was cleared of zombies, but inside the bank’s counters, there were seven or eight zombies leaning against the bulletproof glass, howling at those outside.

There were no mutated zombies, only common ones.

Moreover, these zombies were wearing extremely tattered bank employee uniforms, the fabric moldy and decayed.

Seeing Ye Fan and the others enter, the zombies seemed suddenly enlivened, rushing to the counter, snarling and clawing outward, faces grotesque.

But separated by the counter and bulletproof glass, they could do nothing but howl.

At this scene, Ye Fan could almost deduce what had happened here.

During the apocalypse’s outbreak, screams rang out; there were clients conducting business.

In a crisis, the street outside was chaotic, prompting those inside to lock the door, preventing outsiders from entering.

And those inside the counters dared not come out, similarly locking the service area’s door.

The result was that everyone inside both the lobby and service area mutated, facing annihilation.

Fortunately, the locked doors prevented them from reaching the outside world, or else these zombies would have transformed.

No mutated zombies meant saving a lot of effort for Ye Fan’s side.

"Mr. Huang, it’s your turn. Open this service area door so we can go in."

The service area’s security door wasn’t hard to open; Huang Jie easily unlocked both doors.

The zombies inside hadn’t rushed out before Tanya effortlessly shot them down.

Dragging away the fallen zombies, Ye Fan and his team stepped into the service area.

The service area was also in turmoil, with scattered documents, even pre-apocalyptic cash strewn about.

However, those things were useless now; nobody even gave them a glance.

Approaching the end of the service area revealed the bank vault’s location.

Huang Jie pulled out a small lamp, directly attaching it to the vault door for illumination, then proceeded with the other two engineers to begin work.

The engineer’s toolbox seemed like a treasure chest, containing nearly every tool imaginable, specifically prepared for unlocking the bank vault.

One engineer rummaged through the room full of zombies and the service area, eventually finding two keys.

This type of vault required two keys and a password to open.

Keys were found, but the password remained unknown, requiring the engineers to decipher it.

The three engineers busied themselves while Zhuge Yunxue fetched a clean chair for Ye Fan to sit on.

Patiently waiting for about twenty minutes, they finally heard the vault door emit a clicking sound.

The engineers were overjoyed, promptly inserting the keys.

Soon, the heavy vault door was opened.

The old alarm system was already broken, or maybe it was out of power; no alarm sounded.

The engineers turned on their headlamps again and entered the vault.

Ye Fan followed them in; it was his first time entering a bank vault.

Once inside, Ye Fan knew he had come to the right place this time.

A city-level bank vault truly had the most gold hidden.

Many of the boxes here contained gold bars, gold bricks, and even coins with zodiac patterns.

There were also some commemorative coins for various holidays, which the bank offered to the public.

Plenty, but nothing beyond imagination.

However, Ye Fan was satisfied and immediately started collecting on the spot.

Box after box of gold was brought over, and Ye Fan converted them directly.

After busying himself for more than ten minutes, all the gold was converted.

He gained over 71 million in funds in total.

In fact, this amount of money was already a lot; over 70 million in funds, combined, weighing more than 30 tons.

Yet, Ye Fan wasn’t very satisfied because his funding gap was too large.

"Let’s take advantage of this rainy night and try to search around to see if any other banks have funds."

The team braved the wind and rain, leaving this bank to continue searching at the next possible location.

Fortunately, the wind and rain at night grew stronger, making walking extremely difficult, but it didn’t alert the zombies or mutant beasts.

By the next morning at seven, the sky was still pitch black, the storm showing no signs of stopping, and only then did Ye Fan and his team stop their actions.

The night’s harvest was considerable; besides the Empire Bank, they also found the head offices of the Industrial and Commercial Bank, Construction Bank, Agricultural Bank, and others.

After checking four or five vaults in succession, they made some gains, though none as much as the Empire Bank.

All banks combined, they obtained over 120 million in funds.

Gaining over a hundred million in one night was already a lot, and Ye Fan wasn’t greedy, knowing that Nantong City would no longer have large sums of money, he chose to leave with a few people.

Back at the base of the building they came from, they used ropes to climb back up.

On the rooftop, they didn’t immediately have the aircraft take off; the weather wasn’t suitable for flying.

They waited more than a day until the wind and rain calmed a bit, then the helicopter lifted off, bringing Ye Fan and his team back to Dawn Island.

Returning to the council building, Ye Fan rested a little, then spent a portion of the funds he obtained.

The funds in hand totaled about 130 million, not sufficient for Ye Fan to squander freely.

So he spent money selectively, first choosing to produce fighter jets.

In this confrontation, aerial combat is a crucial part, and to gain an advantage, Ye Fan made a hundred G-20 fighter jets.

At 300,000 each, a hundred jets cost 30 million.

Then Ye Fan opted to build a nuclear-powered aircraft carrier, costing 40 million, and made 110 G-35 carrier-based aircraft.

The cost of one aircraft carrier and the carrier-based planes amounted to 73 million.

Of the 130 million funds, only 27 million remained in no time.

"This money doesn’t last; I could easily spend a few more billion."

With the remaining 20 million, Ye Fan was hesitant to spend.

As this money would need to replenish the ammunition, relying solely on system-refreshed ammo wouldn’t suffice once war broke out.

He still desired funds, but had no avenues to get them.

Unless, shamelessly, he’d forcibly collect jewelry from the survivors within his territory, which might get him a couple of billion, but Ye Fan really didn’t want to do that.

"Let’s wait and see if Jiangzhou takes any action in the coming days."

"Unless absolutely necessary, I won’t do something self-destructive."

Although Ye Fan acquired over a billion in funds, he didn’t feel assured, seldom seeing any smiles in the council building for a day.

.....

"Sigh, Brother is worried about war matters again, yet as his sister, I can’t help him one bit."

Ye Luo chatted with her friend Qin Sibei in her room, speaking about Ye Fan with a worried face.

The war worried not only Ye Fan but also her, because if they failed, everyone would be in trouble.

Qin Sibei could sense Ye Luo’s distress and asked, "Does Brother Ye need that gold and silver? He seems to be collecting them all the time."

"Yes, Brother has always been doing that. While I don’t know why he’s collecting them, he seems to need them, yet funds are hard to come by now."

"Why is it hard?"

"It’s those bad people, they refuse to do business with my brother, it’s Zheng Jinnan’s coercion, those people are short-sighted, obeying his words, now Brother’s weapons can’t be sold."

Qin Sibei blinked and softly said, "The surrounding bases don’t come to buy anymore?"

"Yes, otherwise Brother wouldn’t be so troubled, having to work hard to gather funds himself."

Qin Sibei said no more, but in her obsidian-like eyes, it seemed she’d made a decision.