8: Vault Recruitment? I choose to go it alone.

Static crackled for a few seconds.

Then, a slightly tired but clear and articulate female voice echoed through the narrow cockpit.

"This is... *crackle*... Jiangcheng Third Temporary Shelter."

"Repeat, this is Jiangcheng Third Temporary Shelter.

Defense has now been taken over by the 72nd Group Army."

Jiang Ran's movement of picking at the meat stopped, his gaze instantly turning sharp.

An official shelter.

Even now, with the whole world submerged, the state machine was still trying to function.

This should have been a voice that brought hope.

But Jiang Ran wasn't excited; he just listened coldly, as if scrutinizing a contract.

The broadcast continued, the voice mechanical and looping: "The shelter is currently located in the 'Tianlan Mountain' mid-mountain villa area in the south of the city. The elevation is safe.

We have clean water sources, generator sets, and medical support."

"All survivors, after hearing this broadcast, please use any buoyant tools to head to the coordinates: East Longitude 114.23, North Latitude 30.58."

"Please note! Please note!"

The broadcast voice suddenly rose a few notches, becoming stern, even carrying a hint of unquestionable iron-fisted authority:

"Given the current extreme shortage of supplies, to protect the survival rights of the majority, special wartime control regulations are being implemented."

"1. All survivors entering the shelter must undergo unified isolation and inspection."

"2. All privately carried vehicles (boats, rafts), fuel, food, and medicine must be surrendered unconditionally, to be distributed uniformly by the Shelter Management Committee. Those who hide supplies will be expelled."

"3. Those with professional skills (doctors, technicians) will be given priority; the elderly, weak, sick, and disabled must follow allocation arrangements..."

"Repeat, this is Jiangcheng Third..."

*Click.*

Jiang Ran reached out and turned off the speaker.

The mechanical female voice stopped abruptly, and the cockpit fell back into a deathly silence. Only

the slight friction of the wipers moving across the glass remained.

Jiang Ran looked at the unfinished luncheon meat in his hand, a look of extreme irony curling into a cold sneer on his lips.

"Uniform distribution? Unconditional surrender?"

This wasn't a call to a shelter; it was clearly a conscription order targeting "fat sheep."

If he were just an ordinary refugee with a swim ring, this might be his only way to survive.

But who was he now?

He was a captain who owned a Lv1 fully armored patrol boat, a phased array radar, and the potential for infinite evolution.

Hand over the "black iron"?

Hand over these cans he had traded his life for?

And then go there to drink thin porridge, sleep in a communal bunk, and even be targeted by some big shot because this ship was too conspicuous?

"In your dreams."

Jiang Ran stuffed the last piece of meat into his mouth, his eyes as cold as ice.

In this apocalypse where order had collapsed.

The greatest stupidity was handing one's fate over to others.

Even if that "other" was wearing a veneer of authority.

However... Jiang Ran's gaze fell back onto the radar screen.

Looking at the red coordinate point that was constantly sending out a signal, his fingers lightly tapped on the console.

"While I won't be joining you, this broadcast did reveal a lot of useful information."

Jiang Ran leaned back in the comfortable leather pilot's chair, his fingertips rhythmically tapping the cold metal armrest.

The red dot on the display was still flashing.

It was a beacon in the eyes of countless survivors, but in Jiang Ran's eyes, it was more like a giant mousetrap.

He knew the essence of this "wartime control" all too well.

When civilized order still existed, it was a rescue.

But in this post-apocalyptic world where the globe was submerged and order had collapsed, such a shelter was a strictly hierarchical pyramid.

The army with the guns and the elite with the technology were at the top, enjoying the best resources.

And ordinary survivors who joined later, like him, were the fuel at the bottom of the pyramid.

"Surrender the vehicle?"

Jiang Ran looked around the sci-fi-looking cockpit.

If he went to the shelter, there would only be two fates for this ship: either it would be forcibly confiscated and become the ride of some commander.

Or, because of its unique metal material, it would be dismantled and studied by engineers there, or even directly melted down into steel plates to repair the perimeter walls.

And himself?

He might be given a shovel and made to clear silt for 14 hours a day in exchange for a bowl of rice soup so thin it could reflect a person's shadow.

Trade the infinite possibilities of the future for a few days of lingering on?

Jiang Ran shook his head.

The current "black iron" was still only a 6-meter-long patrol boat.

But as long as he kept devouring and evolving.

It could become a hundred-meter-long destroyer.

It could become a mobile nuclear-powered aircraft carrier, or even a steel aerospace fortress floating above the sea!

When that day came.

That "Third Shelter" would be nothing more than a sandcastle he could crush at will.

"I don't need to board someone else's Ark."

Jiang Ran pressed his palm onto the core position of the console, feeling the powerful rhythm of the engines inside the hull.

His voice was low and firm, as if he were making a vow to himself and to this steel beast:

"Because I myself am the future empire."

Having thought this through, that so-called shelter signal completely lost its allure for him.

But he was in no hurry to leave.

As a qualified hunter, he never missed any information.

Since the shelter had been established and had started broadcasting about "extreme shortage of supplies," it pointed to one problem—

Their supply lines were cut.

"Tianlan Mountain... South City..."

Jiang Ran reopened the radar's signal analysis interface, traced a line on the offline map with his finger, and then his gaze fell on the Yangtze River natural barrier that had been cut off by the flood.

"So that's how it is."

A knowing smile curled at the corner of his mouth.

Jiangcheng was split in two by the Yangtze River.

The official shelter was located at Tianlan Mountain, the highest point in South City; it was indeed a good place that was easy to defend and hard to attack.

But the problem lay in the three cross-river bridges connecting the north and south banks.

Including the North City Elevated Bridge where Jiang Ran was just now, they had all snapped during the first wave of the flood peak's impact.

This meant that the current South City and North City.

Without large amphibious vehicles, they were two completely isolated worlds.

The official forces were trapped in South City.

While Jiangcheng's largest logistics hub—

the North City International Logistics Park was currently lying alone in the deep waters of North City, in a vacuum zone with no supervision.

Thousands of large warehouses were gathered there—JD.com, Amazon, cold chain centers... it was a total volume of supplies sufficient to supply half the city.

"When the broadcast said 'extreme shortage of supplies,' they weren't just crying poverty; they really are poor." Jiang Ran looked at the radar screen, a hunter's light flashing in his eyes.

"Because they can't get across.

Their main force is trapped on the south bank, and they can only watch helplessly as the supplies on the north bank soak in the water, or they are desperately building boats to try and cross the river."

This was a huge time window.

Maybe it was one day, maybe three.

Before the official fleet crossed the river on a large scale, all the supplies in North City were unclaimed.

Instead of going to South City to live under someone else's roof, it was better to be the only "Pirate King" in North City.

"Since you can't come over, I'll take this batch of goods for you."

Jiang Ran quickly marked a new coordinate point on the radar chart.

[Target: North City International Logistics Park (Zone B Bonded Warehouse)]

[Distance: 12 kilometers]

[Estimated Sailing Time: 15 minutes]

"System, plan the route."

[Route confirmed, full speed mode ready.]

Jiang Ran took one last look at the edge of the radar, at the shelter signal point representing "safety and order."

Then he turned off the communication receiver without hesitation.

He grabbed the control stick and slammed the throttle to the floor.

"Boom—!!!"

The twin-turbo engines at the stern of the black iron cutter erupted with a thunderous roar, and a huge sense of being pushed back instantly hit him.

The bow rose high, like a black sharp sword, ruthlessly cutting through the curtain of rain.

It did not turn south to seek shelter.

Instead, it charged resolutely into the deeper parts of North City, which were darker and more dangerous, but also buried more treasures.

Only the weak seek refuge.

The strong only care about the hunt.