Industrial Cthulhu doesn't believe in the end times.

Chapter 36 At worst, I'll erect a monument for you.
September 28, 2*30.

Countdown: Day 18.

Weather, cloudy.

Guangxi Province, Fangcheng.

Compared to the north, it was already quite hot here, but Liu Han was covered up quite tightly, holding a cane in one hand and a knife in the other, clearing a path through the dense forest.

From afar they look like refugees, up close they look like beggars, but upon closer inspection—hey, where did these savages come from, and why are they carrying geological hammers?
But in reality, the group was indeed engaged in geological exploration.

He carried not only a geological hammer, but also a lot of surveying equipment and supplies of food and water.

The jungle was teeming with poisonous insects and swarms of snakes and ants. Even though it was unbearably hot, everyone had to tighten their collars and cuffs to prevent being bitten.

If you get infected here, in a place with no signal, you probably won't make it to the hospital.

"What kind of godforsaken place is this? Why did the boss send us here?"

Liu Han stopped to catch his breath: "Looking for a gold mine, didn't I tell you? Are you dizzy from the heat?"

"I'm not heat-induced dizziness, but I'm afraid the boss might have let the air conditioning make me dizzy." The teammate wiped his sweat: "I don't know how he knew there was a gold mine here while sitting in his office, and even had the coordinates. Did he dream about it?"

Liu Han knew his teammates were quite resentful, so he said helplessly, "Let's say less. Our boss is usually very good to us. Maybe he has some new information that we don't know about."

"And we're doing alright too. The second team was sent by the leaders to the plateau to look for uranium."

"That's nonsense. There's no uranium mine on the plateau." After all, they were both geologists, and his teammates were even more dismissive of the question: "Guangdong and Guangxi, along with Hunan and Jiangxi, account for more than 70% of the country's uranium mines. If there is any, it has to be here."

He wiped away his sweat again and complained, "It's not as good as going to the plateau, at least it's drier there."

"You wouldn't want to go even if I asked you to."

Liu Han initially didn't want to pay attention to this chatterbox, but advised, "Take a closer look. There's something to it about the geological conditions around here; it might actually be there."

Although the nearby rock types and geological conditions met the requirements for vein formation, the exploration team made no discoveries along the way.

"Don't rush, the coordinates the boss gave us are just ahead. Let's go take a look. If it were that easy to find, we would have found it already."

As we approached our destination, the terrain of the mountains changed.

"Almost there. Tsk, could this be a secondary fault zone? Maybe there's something there."

The usually talkative teammate stopped chattering and, after noticing some clues, became the most proactive, busily digging for rock samples everywhere.

Ultimately, complaining is just complaining; everyone knows what their responsibilities are.

"Can't find it? Look again."

"arrive."

Finally, they arrived at a mountain wall. The surrounding area was relatively open, and there was a clean stream not far away. Liu Han unbuttoned his collar to let in some fresh air.

Seeing his teammates heading towards the river, Liu Han couldn't help but warn them, "Watch out for leeches."

"Okay, I'll go get my shoes ready."

This thing just stepped into the mud. The mud in the dense forest has a rather complex composition, so it doesn't look very good.

While still observing his surroundings, Liu Han suddenly heard him shout, "Holy crap, gold!"

A group of teammates immediately surrounded him.

"Amazing! How did the boss know?"

"Who knows, maybe he wasn't reborn?"

"You're such a fool, you've been reading too many novels." "Hey, you know what, I've been watching that blogger talk about a lot of things, he's pretty hardcore, and it's true."

"Mental disability".

Liu Han pushed past his teammates who were gradually going off-topic and saw the piece of ore that had been pulled from the river; the golden spots on the brown rock shone brightly.

"Altered rock? Goodness, there must be at least 500 grams of gold in this ton of ore?"

Looking to the side along the river, although no other gold-bearing ore could be seen, similar rocks were scattered all over the mountain.

"Good grief, we've stepped on a big one! Where's the satellite phone? Report to the boss right now!"

……

……

The discovery in Fangcheng was quickly relayed to the Daily Office at the coastal base.

Su Xun was not surprised by this result. The mine there was quite famous among the surrounding survivor bases. As an elemental ability user, Su Xun had not only dealt with it there when he was at the eighth level, but he had even gotten along quite well with it.

Yes, this mine has become sentient, and it likes to trade gold for steel with human survivors.

It lurked deep in the mountains and forests, posing no threat to the survivor bases, so it maintained good relations with the surrounding bases. As a result, it could even act as a guarantor for transactions. When Su Xun reached the ninth level, it was even rumored that it had started a bank.

Unfortunately, he was eventually strangled by Mashihai, who then fed him with several mountain-sized metal-type zombie kings.

“Now we can use the gold to exchange for what we need.” Su Xun looked at Shao Xuezhen: “Aren’t there some foreign tycoons exchanging national treasures for gold? I think we can do that, and maybe even recruit a few foreign potential superhumans.”

Due to the nature of spiritual power, some ancient and significant things, having inherited the thoughts of many people, gradually developed strange characteristics in the apocalypse.

The underlying reasons are not yet clear. It seems to involve some fundamental nature of spiritual power, but in reality, most antiques don't have much effect.

It won't emit a dazzling light, nor will it contain any hidden space. It won't make you invincible once you get it. At most, it will allow you to unleash some abilities similar to superpowers, and most of them still have high requirements for the holder.

However, some can serve as a medium for entering certain secret realms—history and mythology are intertwined, sometimes history is mythology, and mythology is history.

However, even if it's not very useful, why not let the national treasure return home?

They can even take other people's national treasures back to their own homes.

It is said that antiques are valued in prosperous times and gold in chaotic times. With the tense situation, especially after ASEAN set its sights on the ocean, the price of gold has skyrocketed.

If the end times are coming, fine. But if the end times don't come and ASEAN returns to normal, causing gold prices to fall, there's probably a lot of fun to be had.

As things stand, the North American stock market has experienced several circuit breakers, and the US dollar system, which was originally the world's reserve currency, is on the verge of collapse. Many people have stated that they only recognize gold and not paper money.

The financial bubble will burst before the apocalypse even arrives, and for some, this may be no different from the end of the world.

ASEAN was not affected as much, or rather, the wartime economic system did not allow such a thing to happen. All sectors were doing their own thing. During this period, most museums were closed, and many precious cultural relics were urgently transported to various bases, while the rest were transferred to underground storage.

Those treasures that bear witness to the rise and fall of Eastern civilization over thousands of years are not really distinguished by high or low value. Every single one of them should be well protected. In the past, when the apocalypse came, museums were almost completely looted, but that won't happen this time.

As long as those antiques don't become sentient... I guess not.

Shao Xuezhen began to arrange the work. In the past, gold was an important strategic reserve resource. Even for Su Xun, a reborn person, it was not easy to mobilize a large amount of gold. However, with his help, a gold mine with a huge reserve was discovered, and there would be much less opposition.

Upon hearing the quotas promised by Shao Xuezhen to the businessmen responsible for contacting foreign tycoons, Su Xun's lips twitched slightly, and he suddenly felt a little sorry for his gold mine friend.

Forget it, if the apocalypse comes, we won't have time to dig you up here. If the apocalypse doesn't come... well, you won't show up anyway, so I'm just helping you see the light of day again, brother.

At worst, we'll erect a monument for you. What's there to say?

(End of this chapter)