The battle was over, it was time for looting. Although it seemed there was nothing to take from this crowd of mutants, Li Qingyu's habit of carefully examining the battlefield paid off.
Among the pile of corpses, they found two service vehicles with the Clean Water Guild's stamp – the same as Reno's.
Li Qingyu immediately rushed to check. The equipment was in excellent condition, but there were no keys in the locks.
"Guys, search carefully! The keys must be somewhere."
The squad began to search the cave. They found broken tools, blue guild uniforms, and at the drain – eight human skulls. The mutants had turned them into a ritual staff, hanging keys on it as decoration.
Later, they found tokens and gnawed bones of workers.
Li Qingyu sighed:
"Gather the bones and tokens, wrap them in clothes. We'll take them and bury them properly."
He approached a familiar corpse – the two-headed mutant – and, raising his machete, cut off its head: it would be useful as proof.
Finally, he set the camp on fire to cleanse the place with fire.
They moved back in a column: Knife at the helm of the handcar, Li Qingyu and Younger Joel – driving the captured vehicles.
After driving a short distance, Li Qingyu suddenly ordered them to stop.
To the left, a huge passage was visible with a sign: "Strategic Warehouse Complex – 3 km."
He remembered how he had previously obtained a black key card here, which opened the electronic locks of containers. And there were rows of sealed storage units! A real treasure trove.
Reno was probably still drunk. Why not take a look?
Li Qingyu ordered Knife to turn. Shifting the switch, the handcar drove towards the warehouses and stopped at a collapsed container.
Everyone dismounted.
"Okay," Li Qingyu said. "Go around and look for intact containers with electronic locks. I'll be right there."
The squad dispersed without question.
Meanwhile, Li Qingyu dashed to the evacuation point. The timer counted down the seconds – and he teleported to the Sanctuary.
Grabbing the black card, he ran outside and headed for the distillery.
Reno's "boys" were sitting there, drinking and smoking. Li Qingyu waved to them and calmly walked through, exiting through another door.
"Huh? Didn't he go to clear out the mutants? How did he get here?" the guys wondered.
Meanwhile, Li Qingyu had already teleported back to the warehouse, clutching the card in his hand, and headed towards his group.
"Well, did you find any intact containers?" he asked, approaching Knife.
Unsuspecting that the boss had managed to travel dozens of kilometers, the fighters led him deeper into the sector where the undamaged boxes stood.
Li Qingyu took out the black card and hovered it over the reader.
It only had five charges. What if he encountered an empty box – he would waste it.
He turned to Silence:
"Can your psi-scan penetrate the container wall? See what's inside."
Silence closed his eyes, concentrated, but after a minute shook his head:
"It's not working. The walls are thick, everything inside is packed. I can't distinguish the material structure."
Li Qingyu breathed a sigh of relief. The main thing is that it's "packed to the brim" – there's definitely no emptiness.
"Can you open the lock?"
Silence shook his head:
"If it were mechanical – easily. But this is an electronic system, and it's protected against psykers."
Li Qingyu shrugged. He'd have to play the lottery.
He looked over the rows and stopped at container #39999. So many nines – there had to be luck.
He swiped the black card over the reader.
Beep, green indicator, click of locks. The container opened.
The fighters leaned on the doors. Inside – a wall of green army crates, tightly packed on top of each other.
Li Qingyu's heart leaped. Green crates... could it be ammunition? If so, they were rich!
He pulled out one crate, but immediately realized – it was too light. His mood plummeted. A knife went into the lid, and his gaze fell on the marking:
"Canned Grox Meat. Shelf life: 680 years."
The crate fell to the floor with a dull thud. Li Qingyu threw his head back and howled:
"Damn penguin! Are you still haunting me?!"