Chapter 32: One Ton of Gold

Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio

Seeing this, Chen Jin’s heart sank.

What the heck…? I thought I’d found a land of gold; but no, it’s not a land of gold, it’s a land of junk! There’s no point in searching this city.

Furthermore, according to the radiation detector, the level of radiation in this area was higher than normal. It was three times higher! The place was dangerous, he’d better leave as soon as possible.

What should I do?

What was Chen Jin supposed to do with this white elephant city where 70% of it had been destroyed by a nuclear bomb? Should he carry on with the research? Absolutely!

I made this decision and I will finish it, no matter how hard it might be.

Besides, he’d been preparing for this trip for over a month; he took the time and effort to make it to Fort Worth City. He’d come this far, how could he just give up and return without gaining anything? Chen Jin was determined to make the trip worthwhile, whatever he may find.

“Fortunately the city isn’t 100% ruined; there are still some remains in the surrounding areas I can search for. Guess I’ll have to take whatever I can find. Hopefully, I’ll find as much as I did in Tereese City.”

And so, the robots were assigned to a new mission. Apart from the five robots Chen Jin asked to stay near him for protection, the remaining 46 were divided into 10 groups searching the city from every corner on their motorcycles.

Chen Jin had also made a list of priorities, categorizing the items that were worth searching for into four different groups: The first group was gold, platinum, diamonds, silver, rubies, and all sorts of jewelry, and they belonged to the “valuable” group. They were of the utmost importance and should be the first thing to search for.

The second group was high technology information, landing second on the priority list.

The third group was weapons, special equipment, high efficiency batteries, and whatnot.

The fourth group was factories, mines, and power stations. These crucial but fixed facilities were the last ones on the list.

In short, what Chen Jin needed the most right now was the first group, treasure, as he could turn them into cash as soon as he took them back to Earth. Once he had gained sufficient funds for the research and more than enough money for him to spend, the first “valuable” group would be moved down as he moved up the second group, focusing on collecting all the technology data on Haierfa. But for now, he needed to find all the valuables more than anything.

Shortly after they began their efforts, units of robots that were distributed to different parts of Fort Worth City brought back good news one after another.

“Master, we found 800 grams of gold and more than 300 pieces of diamonds and rubies in a residential area.”

“Master, we found 2,400 grams of gold, 700 grams of platinum, and 400 diamond rings in a jewelry store.”

“Master, we found 20 necklaces and 18 bricks of gold, which weigh a pound each, in a safe from a luxury villa.”

“Master, we found more than 1,000 watches of various sorts at a high-end watch store. Should we take them all back?”

The result was nothing Chen Jin had expected! All units reported great news of what they’d found via radio communication. They had gained quite an amount!

It seemed as if gold, diamonds, and watches could be found anywhere. Especially the wealthy villa area on the west side of the city. The robots had already collected more than 50 pounds of gold after searching just six villas…and there were more than 100 of them. Fort Worth City was unexpectedly wealthy.

“Could it be…” Chen Jin had guessed the reason why the city was so rich. “When the destructive war broke out with a nuclear bomb coming this way, the most important thing for the people of Fort Worth City was survival, not their valuables. Compared to their precious lives, all the prized possessions meant nothing but dirt. So, the people of Fort Worth City left in a hurry, jamming probably just some clothes, water, and food in their cars, and drove all the way to the south to escape war. No one cared about the valuables in the safes. Even the local gangsters and burglars didn’t bother to take the opportunity to ransack all these expensive stores…the situation here is completely different from what happened in Tereese.”

In a few words, Chen Jin had hit the jackpot! Furthermore, it was only the second day of their research, but all the treasures they’d collected had formed a pile as high as half of Chen Jin’s height.

In addition, Unit 5 brought back even more exciting news for him. “Master, we found a vault beneath the remains of a bank in the area where the bomb hit; there was lots of gold in it.”

“What?!” This eye-popping news had caught Chen Jin’s full attention.

The vault of a bank! Lots of gold! I must take a look!

But the level of radiation residue in the area where the nuclear bomb hit was 10 times higher than normal; it could even go up to 100 times higher in areas with radioactive contamination.

Da Li suggested Chen Jin stay, because going there would involve a significant risk. As for the gold, robots could bring them over.

“It’ll be fine! I’m wearing my hazmat suit, I’ve got my radiation detector. And I’ll leave as soon as the level of radiation gets unusual!” Chen Jin just could not sit still with his rising curiosity; he had to see it for himself.

“Alright, Master. But please do keep an eye on the radiation detector.” Da Li had no choice but to agree with him.

Wasting no time, he hopped onto the driver’s seat on Rover No.1, leading Unit 5 to the location where they’d found the bank.

…

20 minutes later, they were at the bank. All of the gold bricks in the vault were 24k and weighed 10 pounds each; after cutting the vault open with a laser, the robots took them out one by one, loading up the storage space on Rover No.1 with all of these fine gold bricks.

“124, 125…” There was even a professional gold-counting robot. Finally, the last brick of gold was sitting properly in the storage space. “Master, there are 236 bricks of gold in total,” The robot reported.

He nodded, counting in his head. “Each brick weighs 10 pounds, which is 4.5 kilograms; 4.5 multiplied by 236 is…1,062 kilograms! Damn, I found a ton of gold in such a short time!”

Along with the ones I found in jewelry stores, houses, and luxury villas, I’ve found a total of more than 1.1 tons of gold. It might even be 1.5 tons. For the price on Earth, if I bring them back, I could sell them for $40 per gram, then it multiplies one ton, that’s $40 million!

“I have finally reached the $15 million goal our Millionaire Wang always talks about.” Chen Jin was filled with tremendous excitement. At first he was hoping (with great anticipation) that he’d reach his goal selling all the valuables he found in the City of Tereese, but he’d only made $2.6 million, which obviously didn’t meet his expectation; Fort Worth City was under attack and got hit by a nuclear bomb with its city center burned to ashes, leaving only the surrounding areas for Chen Jin to search. What was originally a letdown turned out to be a huge surprise. “Haha! I didn’t come this far for nothing! No way!”

Looking at this wall of gold bricks in the storage space, Chin Jin was smiling from ear to ear. What Unit 3 reported to him next brought him an even greater satisfaction; it made him much more overwhelmed with excitement than a 100 tons of gold would.

Source: Webnovel.com, updated by NovelKeep