Lu Feng was, naturally, paying close attention to this team from the Salvation Army. They held the holographic virtual map that showed the location of three Mechas—something he desperately wanted.

In Qingfeng Base.

Wang Cheng sighed as he looked at the Salvation Army members before him.

He had a clear understanding of the boss and a good grasp of his situation.

Based on his observations, the man was very trustworthy.

But these men didn’t trust Qingfeng Base or its leader quite as much.

One of them spoke bluntly, "Captain Wang, are you sure you want to stay at this base? The survivors here are all in electronic shackles or have Pulse-rupture Chips implanted in them. These methods of control are completely at odds with our ideals."

Wang Cheng frowned at his words.

He had considered this problem at the beginning, too. But unlike them, he had joined before this base was captured, and its people hadn’t been put under control yet.

The people at this base were all left behind by the Gray Wolf Mercenary Corps, and these control measures were their creation as well.

It was arguably the fastest way to bring the situation under control. And although it clashed with the Salvation Army’s ideals, he found that he, surprisingly, understood the necessity.

Now, it was clear this team of his brothers was thinking of leaving.

He hoped they would stay with him and observe the situation a little longer.

"Come with me," Wang Cheng said to the team after a moment’s thought, then turned and walked away.

The Salvation Army team watched him in confusion but ultimately followed.

Wang Cheng led the Salvation Army team directly to two survivors wearing electronic shackles.

The two survivors were sweeping the ground. Upon seeing Wang Cheng, they immediately and respectfully stood aside.

Among the people Lu Feng had brought with him, Wang Cheng had the lowest profile. But to these survivor-slaves, Wang Cheng was still one of the base’s important figures.

Wang Cheng looked at the two survivors and asked, "If I were to take off the electronic shackles from your necks right now, grant you your freedom, and send you away from the base, would you be willing?"

His words, however, terrified the two survivors.

They were so scared they even dropped to their knees, their faces pale as they spoke:

"Sir, what did we do wrong?"

"We don’t want to leave the base!"

’Are you kidding me? Here at the base, we get three full meals a day, sometimes even extra portions, and there’s none of the abuse we suffered under the Gray Wolf Mercenary Corps.’

’Even though we’ve lost our freedom with these electronic shackles, the boss has never restricted us or forced us to do anything. We just trade our labor for food.’

’Most of the time, the boss isn’t even at the base.’

’Under these circumstances, with such treatment where we can eat our fill at every meal, how could we bear to leave the base?’

’If we go outside, we’ll have to struggle for food all over again, and we might even starve to death.’

The two survivors’ reaction, however, baffled the members of the Salvation Army.

One of them immediately asked, "Why are you unwilling to leave?"

Another added, "That’s right, you can be free again. Is there anything more important than freedom?"

"Filling our stomachs," one of the survivors retorted instantly.

His words left the Salvation Army members stunned for a moment.

The two survivors immediately started begging Wang Cheng again, pleading with him not to make them leave the base.

"Get back to your work," Wang Cheng told the two survivors. This reassured them, and they hurriedly resumed their tasks.

This scene, however, left the Salvation Army members completely dumbfounded.

It was completely outside their expectations.

They had been to more than one Survivor Base in the past, including some in the City East Alliance, where many survivors also wore electronic shackles on their necks.

Without exception, all of those people had wanted to remove the electronic shackles from their necks and regain their freedom.

That situation was completely different from what they were seeing here.

So, faced with this, they could only look at each other, and they seemed to sense that something was different here.

"Think about it some more. See for yourselves," Wang Cheng said before returning to his own area.

The members of the Salvation Army team exchanged glances and followed him. Perhaps they really should take a closer look at this base.

Lu Feng had been monitoring the game screen the whole time. He didn’t know what Wang Cheng had said to the men, so he entered the game world directly and appeared before the two survivors.

"Boss!"

"Boss!"

Seeing Lu Feng, the two survivors immediately greeted him with the utmost respect.

Lu Feng asked directly, "What did Wang Cheng say to you just now?"

The two survivors didn’t dare to hide anything and answered at once:

"That gentleman said he would unlock our electronic shackles, set us free, and let us leave the base."

"Boss, we don’t want to leave. We’ve been working hard."

Hearing this, a slight smile touched Lu Feng’s lips. Paired with the scene he had just witnessed, he could guess what had happened.

’This Wang Cheng is pretty interesting.’

Lu Feng then headed to one of the base’s storerooms. Inside, one could see stacks of gold bars and a good deal of jade.

These gold bars had been melted down from gold jewelry that the base’s personnel had gone out to find.

Furthermore, during this time, the base personnel had found quite a few gold shops. The total amount they collected was even greater than what he’d gotten from the bank vault last time, amounting to a full 1.5 tons.

Lu Feng immediately got to work, moving all this gold, piece by piece, into the living room of his villa.

As things stood, gold was his fastest way to make money. With Master Kai providing a secure channel, he could convert all the gold his base personnel found into liquid capital.

Later, when the people at the base came up with other technologies, he would have the capital to develop them quickly.

After bringing the 1.5 tons of gold out of the game, Lu Feng took out his phone and called Yang Ming and Chen Bo, telling them to bring boxes for the gold.

When Yang Ming and Chen Bo saw the 1.5 tons of gold, they couldn’t help but show their surprise.

After all, they had just sold one ton of gold not long ago. To have so much more so quickly was astonishing.

’Just how powerful must his channel be to have such a large supply?’

"Cousin, this time, you and Chen Bo will take this batch of gold to see Master Kai," Lu Feng instructed, seeing that the two had brought their men. At the same time, he picked up his phone and called Master Kai to inform him.

This was another test of his.

With 1.5 tons of gold, he believed his cousin wouldn’t cause any trouble, but he couldn’t be so sure about Chen Bo and his brothers.

So this was a test to see if any trouble would arise.

Besides, he had already weighed all the gold in the game.

As long as he could confirm that he could trust Chen Bo and his men, he didn’t plan on personally participating in these gold transactions anymore. In the future, whenever he had a shipment, he would just bring it out and let his cousin and Chen Bo handle it.

Yang Ming nodded at Lu Feng’s words and began to pack the gold bars into the boxes they had brought. Afterward, he and Chen Bo left the villa with their men.

Not long after, Lu Feng received a call from Master Kai. "President Lu, after deducting the intermediary fee, this batch of gold comes to a total of 525 million. I’ve already wired it to your account; it should arrive in about five minutes."

Just as Master Kai had said, in less than five minutes, another 525 million was deposited into Lu Feng’s account.

Of the previous 350 million, he had spent 70 million on the villa, and after other expenses and transferring money to Da Fei to purchase Tea City, he had 270 million left.

With this new deposit, his bank balance now reached 795 million.

With this much capital, it didn’t matter whether he sold gold in the short term. Still, he could have his people continue to collect and stockpile it, selling it whenever he was in the mood.

Next, Lu Feng took out his phone and called Chairman Cheng Long of the ICBC branch (Chapter 68), asking him to deliver 5 million in cash.

The payment from Master Kai had arrived smoothly, and the amount was roughly what he had calculated. This meant Chen Bo and his men hadn’t tried to pull anything. In the future, if he wanted to sell more gold, he could just let them handle the transaction with Master Kai. There was no need for him to be personally involved.

Before long, Yang Ming and Chen Bo returned with their men.

Lu Feng immediately said to them, "Cousin, Chen Bo, make some tea first."

As he spoke, he went and sat down at the tea table in the villa’s living room.

Since he now owned Tea City, he’d had Da Fei send over a proper tea table after buying the villa.

Yang Ming and Chen Bo immediately joined him at the tea table.

The tea table had limited seating, so the other brothers could only sit in the surrounding seats. After all, in a situation like this, not everyone was qualified to sit at the main table.

Soon, Lu Feng received a call. It was Chairman Cheng Long, who had arrived with an armored truck. Several security guards followed him inside, carrying a few leather briefcases.

Once the briefcases were set down, Cheng Long had the security guards wait outside.

"President Lu, I’ve brought the money you requested," Cheng Long said at once with a broad, very polite smile.

Ever since getting to know President Lu, he had been keeping a close eye on his account.

Just moments ago, another 525 million had been deposited into the account. This absolutely meant his branch wouldn’t have to worry about meeting its deposit targets for the day.

This sum would count toward his branch’s performance metrics.

Moreover, the funds had been transferred from their ICBC head office; it was fully vetted money, with no issues whatsoever.

So, after receiving the call and instructions, he had brought the 5 million in cash over at the first opportunity.

With that thought, he opened the briefcases, revealing the stacks of cash inside.

This made the eyes of Yang Ming’s and Chen Bo’s men light up. They all knew what their boss’s boss was about to do.

They had also received a cut last time.

Lu Feng then said to Yang Ming and Chen Bo, "Here’s 5 million. It’s a bonus for you this time. Your shares are included. Divide it among the brothers."

Yang Ming and Chen Bo nodded, their faces breaking into wide smiles as they began to distribute the money to their brothers.

Dividing up stacks of cash like this was a great feeling, no matter how many times they did it.

From this 5 million, each man would receive over 200,000.

Yang Ming and Chen Bo, of course, would get a little more.

This time, Yang Ming and Chen Bo didn’t get their 1% sales commission.

However, they were more than satisfied just to receive such a large bonus for a single trip.

Chen Bo, in particular, was more certain than ever that he had latched onto the right person.

As for the other brothers, they looked at Lu Feng with even greater respect. For people like them trying to make a living, the thing they hoped for most in this day and age was to find a powerful boss to follow.

After all, you couldn’t get by on just fighting and killing anymore.

And now, they had found a very powerful one indeed.

After Yang Ming and Chen Bo finished distributing the money, Cheng Long seized the opportunity to step forward. "Gentlemen, if you find carrying all this cash troublesome, I can process deposits for you right here on the spot and put the money into your accounts. That way I can just take the 5 million back with me."

That way, the 5 million would go into different accounts, once again becoming new deposit business that he had brought in.

A mosquito might be small, but it’s still meat.

Yang Ming, Chen Bo, and the others had no objections. Carrying cash was a hassle, and it saved them the trouble of going to the bank to deposit it themselves.

Cheng Long, naturally, was all smiles as he processed the deposit procedures for them, transferring the money into the accounts of Yang Ming and the others.

Just then, Lu Feng received another call. It was from Brother Lin.

As soon as the call connected, a look of delight appeared on Lu Feng’s face as he heard the news from the other end. "The acquisition price for the electronics company has been settled? We can sign the papers?"

Once the electronics company was acquired, he could begin production using the electromagnetic rice cooker technology from the game.

He had done his research. The most expensive rice cooker on the market cost nearly 10,000 yuan and was a product launched by Mitsubishi.

The Mitsubishi rice cooker had only been on the market for a short time, but it had already sold hundreds of thousands of units domestically, with sales revenue reaching into the billions.

And that number was still increasing.

’The crucial point is, just how low is the production cost of that rice cooker?’

Many people thought the appliance market was small, but when an industry is related to the basic necessities of life—food, clothing, shelter, and transportation—the market is never small.

The rice made by the electromagnetic rice cooker from the game had the effects of Deliciousness +1, Texture +1, and Soft & Sticky +1. It would definitely be superior to the Mitsubishi rice cooker.

With good marketing, it could become a huge industry.

Cheng Long, who was standing nearby, overheard Lu Feng’s phone call. His eyes instantly lit up, and he hurried forward with a beaming smile. "President Lu, are you planning to acquire a company? Our bank can offer you a loan. You don’t have to use your own money; you can use our bank’s money for the acquisition."

"???" Lu Feng was speechless.