hsntnovel Chapter 7 Nightfall, Business Acumen and the First Shift Change
Chapter 7 Nightfall, Business Acumen and the First Shift Change
There are more than a dozen gaps in the wall of the gas station warehouse. Three of them were broken open last night. One of them has been plugged, and Lin Ran is making final repairs on the other.
The sandbags that were originally used to plug the two gaps were left unused. Lu Sheng piled them up at the third gap and stomped on them a few times to compact them.
"Boss, I'm done here."
Upon hearing Lin Ran say that the breach had been reinforced, Lu Sheng went over to take a look.
The exposed steel bars inside were bent, like two hands firmly grasping the concrete fragments that were being filled in, making them a whole.
Once an external force impacts the wall, these stones will jam against each other, distributing the force of the impact onto the front wall.
From the perspective of using local materials, Lin Ran's craftsmanship surprised him.
"You've worked hard. Would you like something to eat? I'll sell it to you cheaply."
"Ah, I brought food."
Lin Ran pulled a long, narrow object out of her handbag. She opened one end of the packaging, and Lu Sheng saw that it was also a type of compressed food.
"Okay, eat something and then go rest. I've turned the sheets over; you'll catch a cold sleeping on the floor. Just make do for now."
"Okay, sure."
It was already night, and according to the shift rules set by Lu Sheng, he was responsible for guarding the first half of the night.
It was pitch black outside, with only the howling of the evening wind. The warehouse was a bit drafty because of the gaps in the walls, but the lights were bright.
Now that the gaps have been plugged up, even though the plugging is only passable, Lu Sheng still feels much more at ease than last night.
Lin Ran ate something simple, then went to the small bed deep inside the warehouse, lay down, rolled herself up in the blanket, and curled up in the shape of a lightning bolt, facing the wall.
A short while later, Lu Sheng saw the blanket wrapped around her rise and fall rhythmically and slowly; she had fallen asleep.
"Being young is great."
Lu Sheng muttered a sarcastic remark to himself, then checked the pistol's magazine and quickloader again, patiently waiting for time to pass.
Boom!Boom!
The expected impact sound occurred, and judging from the sound, there were even more impacts than last night.
Boom!Boom!Boom!
This time, the man-eating rats didn't try to break the gate. After a few attempts, they found it difficult to move and began looking for an opportunity through a gap in the wall.
Following the tracks left by their kind the night before, they quickly gathered at the three breaches that had been made the previous night.
Boom!
But all three gaps were reinforced, and the man-eating rats, despite being dizzy and disoriented from bumping into them, remained completely unmoved.
They turned to other entrances and soon found a target.
A gap blocked by shelves allows warehouse lights to shine through, illuminating the darkness.
A man-eating rat quickly climbed up the gap and rammed its fat body against the shelf, only to be met by the muzzle of a gun on the other side of the shelf.
boom!
The bullet pierced the gap, killing instantly.
Lu Sheng had thought carefully about how to make money, and after much deliberation, he suddenly realized that a highly profitable business was right in front of him.
Including shipping costs, the cost of a bullet is 4 credits, and the cost of a carcass of a cannibal rat is 10 credits.
The net profit margin is 250%, and the profit could be even higher if bullets are directly exchanged through recyclers.
As long as ferocious beasts cannot get in, they are a gift from nature.
Outside the wall, the wounded carnivorous rat fell through the gap, but other carnivorous rats stepped on its corpse, climbed over the gap more easily, and rammed the shelves more forcefully.
boom!
Lu Sheng fired again, then braced his body against the shelf to prevent it from being actually knocked over or overturned by the man-eating rats.
If the shelf collapses, it will directly crush him, creating a gap that allows man-eating rats to swarm in. The terrestrial creature crushed by the shelf will then become a gift from nature.
He braced his shoulder against the shelf, shot the ravenous rats that attacked in waves, and kept an eye on the other gaps out of the corner of his eye.
boom!boom!boom!boom!
One volley of bullets emptied, killing six man-eating rats, but a seventh one followed.
"Whether it was yesterday or before, we'd kill two or three in each wave, and the rest would retreat. What happened today?"
The cannibal rats' high morale surprised him. Most of the gaps were sealed, but the night creatures' combined attack on the gaps in the shelves was expected.
But if the other side fights to the death and refuses to retreat, that's a different story.
Now that the bullets were empty, Lu Sheng didn't think much of it. He used one hand to eject the empty cartridge case from the magazine and the other hand to reach for the quickloader, which was already loaded with six bullets. He could simply press it into the magazine to reload.
Boom!
At that moment, an impact even more violent than before occurred. Lu Sheng hurriedly pressed down on his body to maintain his balance and avoid being knocked over. He almost dropped the rapid-load loader.
He quickly loaded the bullets, closed the magazine, and aimed the gun at the gap in the shelf.
On the other side of the crevice, through a gap in the wall, appeared an eighth man-eating rat.
A scene appeared in Lu Sheng's mind: the two ferocious beasts of the night, taking advantage of the gap when he was reloading, attacked simultaneously in perfect unison.
Is this something a beast of the night can do?
Or is there something directing them?
Without hesitation, he gripped his pistol and fired two shots, eliminating the two man-eating rats.
Because the two man-eating rats had already secured their positions, their bodies did not fall down after they were killed; instead, they blocked the gap, preventing the man-eating rats behind them from getting up.
Shortly after, Riku heard the man-eating rats gradually retreating.
The first wave of attacks tonight has been temporarily quelled. A total of eight cannibalistic rats were killed, and the reward is 80 credits.
"These man-eating rats are much more determined to fight than yesterday, and they'll seize any opportunity to attack together. I'll have to ask Brother Sun about it tomorrow, or maybe..."
He looked at the small bed deep in the warehouse. The bedding on the bed rose and fell in a gentle and orderly rhythm, as if the noise in the warehouse had not affected Lin Ran's sound sleep at all.
"This sleep quality is truly enviable."
Lu Sheng sighed, and taking advantage of the night when the ferocious beast had temporarily retreated, he reloaded his pistol and filled the six slots of the quick-load magazine, just in case.
Time passed by, and with the adrenaline-pumping battle over, the fatigue that had accumulated gradually began to surface.
With the shift change time approaching and the second wave of attacks yet to arrive, Lu Sheng hesitated about whether to proceed with the normal shift change.
Before he knew it, the scenery in front of him became blurry, and his head gradually became heavy. In his daze, he felt something touch his shoulder.
"who!"
Lu Sheng suddenly raised his gun and realized that Lin Ran had appeared next to him at some point.
"It's me. I wanted to wake you up; you'll catch a cold if you sleep here."
Lin Ran pointed to the terminal screen next to her:
"It's time to change shifts. Go to bed and sleep. I'll take over."
Lu Sheng glanced at the time and recalled his last memories. His consciousness had been blurred for at least five minutes. After standing up, he felt as heavy as if his body were filled with lead.
"Okay, wake me up immediately if anything unexpected happens."
After giving Lin Ran some simple instructions, Lu Sheng walked step by step, supporting himself against the wall, to the bedside. Holding the gun, he wrapped himself in the still-warm blankets.
His long night has come to an end.