Chapter 634 - 15: Transformation Base_2
Siberian Coal Energy Company, Udokan Copper Company, Norilsk Nickel...
All the resource companies you can find, almost all have shares held by our family.
In real estate, we also hold a substantial share, and these assets combined surpass the total output of most small countries.
Having them means you and your descendants will never have to worry about money, and by controlling part of the resource export speech rights, you can even become a guest of honor in some countries, possessing privileges unimaginable to most people."
"These things, they are things that cannot be bought even with more money, even if you don’t want to live a luxurious life, you have to think about your future.
I am not exaggerating. Your current physical condition is completely normal, but maybe when you reach my age, the pain you endure will be greater than mine.
If you start building a private research institute now, perhaps you will come up with a solution by the time problems arise.
And you won’t need to wait for death like me, pathetically pleading for the help of the young generation..."
The more Ivan spoke, the less confident he became.
The chips that would tempt countless people lay before him, yet Chen Zhou’s face showed not the slightest change in expression.
Ivan could sense that he genuinely had no interest in these things.
But how could it be? Would there really be someone who doesn’t love money, especially not this much money? Even the richest person in the world would find it hard not to be tempted.
Ivan still wanted to persuade further, offering an even higher price.
But he grew increasingly pessimistic inwardly.
Chen Zhou, after all, is very young and has never disclosed where his physical anomalies originate.
Ivan speculated that Chen Zhou wasn’t on the same path as him, so he didn’t need to look for a solution to aftereffects, let alone risk his life.
Seeing Chen Zhou not responding, Ivan immediately closed his mouth, drained a cup of vodka, and picked up a nearby hat to leave.
...
As he stood, the heavy wooden chair squeaked sharply against the smooth floor.
Ivan tightened the buttons on his coat, his body appearing more hunched and frail, as he turned around, he heard Chen Zhou ask.
"I don’t care what you offer me, I just want to ask you,
is it really dangerous there?"
Turning back, Ivan saw eyes lit up with a flame called excitement.
In a daze, he felt that this young man had become even crazier than him in these two years.
"Yes."
Ivan replied.
"All right, when do we set off?
I can’t wait any longer!"
Chen Zhou pulled out his phone, walked swiftly to the tavern bar to pay, then drew open the door, dragging Ivan into the howling northwest wind.
...
In June 2029, the spring in the Northern Territory just began to bud.
Distant Pripyat welcomed a group of unknown visitors.
This city, built because of Chernobyl, was directly abandoned after the nuclear accident, and nature swallowed the surviving buildings.
Hospitals, clinics, schools, cultural centers, gyms, shooting ranges, malls, restaurants, parks, and train stations were either collapsed or engulfed by plants.
In abandoned classrooms, desks still held chairs and scattered books could still be seen.
When dawn broke through the dense forest, shining on the deserted streets, all that met the eyes were red triangle signs and bright yellow radiation markers, reminding people of the danger here.
Chen Zhou and his group arrived by car at Slavutych, not far from Pripyat, bypassed the heavily radiated area after a brief rest, and proceeded to the transformation base following Ivan’s directions.
On the way, he discovered that although it had become a human exclusion zone, for some animals, it was an undisturbed heaven.
Lynxes, badgers, beavers, wild boars, moose, foxes, otters, grouse, and many unnamed animals frequently appeared in the dense woods.
They weren’t particularly afraid of humans, and as the accompanying warriors cleared obstacles off the path, a fox would even boldly approach the vehicles, scavenging for usable objects.
However, those on this expedition to the transformation base bore complex and heavy hearts, with no one wishing to engage with these animals, and some particularly irritable individuals would even shoot a fox’s head off without hesitation.
...
Ivan’s ride was a Hummer H1, fitted with a heavy machine gun and stuffed with two boxes of TNT, leading the way.
Following closely behind the Hummer were two Toyota Land Cruisers and two Jeeps Wrangler.
Yet even these vehicles with excellent off-road performance struggled to traverse the primitive forest, causing the convoy to stop for rest occasionally.
The war seemed unable to reach this scarcely populated area; sitting in the passenger seat, besides the roar of the engine, all Chen Zhou heard was the steady ticking of the Geiger counter.
The driver was named Afanasiy Vladimirovich, a name meaning ’lover of peace’ in Russian.
However, Vladimirovich was a sheer executioner; before taking on this job, he and his companions operated on the Russia-Ukraine battlefield, snatching lives with drones.
It was said that he had also participated in the Middle East wars, with the blood of dozens if not hundreds of people on his hands, forming a unique black humor with his name.
This man, stout as a brown bear, always kept a large bottle of strong liquor next to him when driving, gulping it as he frantically talked to the seat neighbor.
He claimed to have never been drunk since age five, often boasting to Chen Zhou about the women he had been with and the numerous weapons he could handle.
Actually, Chen Zhou wasn’t interested in Vladimirovich’s past at all; he just wanted to know how to shut this guy, even more annoying than the Geiger counter, up.
...
Merely a few months had passed, and nature had already erased the traces Ivan left on his last visit to the base.
The snow was not yet fully melted, and wolves’ howls could be heard throughout the forest, occasionally even seeing missiles soaring through the distant sky.
When the convoy passed Pripyat, at Ivan’s insistence, they all donned heavy protective suits to explore the town’s remaining buildings, intending to find any documents related to the transformation plan or Unit 10003.
However, they returned empty-handed.
After another rest in the dense forest, the released drone finally spotted the collapsed factory ruins.
After the operator’s excited growl, Vladimirovich spat and called him an idiot.
Chen Zhou knew why he scolded—
Ivan brought 38 people on this trip, only 8 of whom were loyal members of the Ivan Clan, while the other 30 were two mercenary groups, one led by Vladimirovich, and the other by a French man named Alexander.
They didn’t know the task specifics, only that they needed to escort the employer to a location not far from Chernobyl to find a lost document.
Ivan told Chen Zhou that their compensation, besides the basic 10 million US Dollars, also included a daily time allowance of 1 million US Dollars.
In other words, the longer it dragged on, the more they earned, which is why Vladimirovich cursed; the sooner it was found, their regiment would lose a million dollars a day, and there was no deal more infuriating than this.
However, Chen Zhou thought that once deep into the transformation base, this chatterbox would certainly hope for a shorter duration.
Of course, there was also a high probability that Vladimirovich would lose all opportunities to complain, dying directly in the brutal dangers of the negative third floor.
If that were the case, he would have peace in his ears.
...
The Hummer’s wide tires crushed the snow, revealing the dead branches buried underneath.
At the end of a faint, broken road, a faded wall stood prominently.
The large letters painted in white oil paint had long weathered, only glimpses of the factory’s past could be seen through the crumbling walls.
The convoy halted at the factory entrance, instinctively feeling a sense of danger as they gazed at this building from the last century, even the usually talkative Vladimirovich uncharacteristically kept quiet.
Only the Geiger counter beeped away maniacally.