The value of a mineral depends on its utility in survival logic.

As society devolved into pure survival competition, lithium’s strategic importance in Happiness City had long surpassed traditional precious metals.

Take gold, for example.

For the scattered settlements, small tribes, and nomadic groups around sanctuary cities, a gold bar scavenged from city ruins couldn’t change their survival predicament.

But a 10kWh battery from Happiness City could free a hundred-person settlement from a month of darkness.

Lithium was a core raw material for high-performance batteries.

“How many were on the other side, and how did you win?”

Cheng Ye didn’t dwell on the deposit’s authenticity or value, nor did he consider claiming the discovery for himself.

When the checkpoint was established, Happiness City’s leadership had anticipated this.

If inspectors could casually seize scavengers’ findings, no one would dare venture out to explore.

Submitting a mineral location triggered a thorough inquiry and on-site survey process by the inner city.

Non-discoverers had virtually no chance of passing this process.

And if caught falsifying a claim, there was only one outcome: execution at the public punishment grounds!

“Twenty-seven scavengers, from the Big Head Ghost’s crew in the Hundred Ghosts Gang.”

Cole grinned, showing his back molars. “They saw us as easy prey, thinking they could squeeze some profit out of us. Too bad we four grew up scrapping in the ruins. We’ve seen scenes like this plenty, gotten used to them. We weren’t scared and came prepared.”

His tone was light, but the words dripped with killing intent.

Cheng Ye hadn’t heard of the Hundred Ghosts Gang or Big Head Ghost, but breaking through a trap set by twenty-seven people, winning, and returning with samples?

If Cole wasn’t lying, their combat strength was far superior to Cheng Ye’s, a half-baked inspector with two months of training.

“Hmm, so their injuries are from gunshots?”

“Uh…”

Cole’s smile froze, and he shook his head frantically. “No, no, sir. They’ve got scratches.”

“Scratches?”

“From mutated beasts!”

“When we clashed with the Hundred Ghosts Gang, mutated beasts jumped in, letting us escape intact.”

If it were gunshot wounds, with the lithium deposit as leverage, they wouldn’t worry about being detained.

But scratches were a different matter. If Cheng Ye deemed them an infection risk and locked them in isolation, even Happiness City’s higher-ups couldn’t object.

It was an ironclad checkpoint rule, an unshakable principle.

“Sir, we’re willing to add a meteorite fragment from Qingstone Settlement on top of the six hundred coins—”

“Shut up!”

Cheng Ye cut Cole off, stopping his bribe mid-sentence.

No matter how good the offer, you needed to be alive to spend it.

Despite the Western faction’s greed at the checkpoint, seemingly letting money buy passage, no one dared slack on screening infected entities.

Even the brute in Zone B would rather overkill than let one slip.

This was why inspectors maintained a solid reputation in the buffer zone, never faltering.

Anyone who broke this rule became the enemy of all inspectors and the public enemy of the buffer zone’s residents!

“You, get out. Let the one with the arm injury come in.”

“Yes, sir!”

Cole gritted his teeth, hoping this Eastern inspector could see clearly.

Soon, the two swapped.

The new Westerner stripped, and Cheng Ye saw a shocking scratch.

From shoulder to forearm, the mark was at least thirty centimeters long, flesh torn open, bone visible!

“Name?”

“Ram Waters.”

“You’re brothers?”

“Yes, sir, all four of us are.”

“Tell me how you got injured. Be specific. Don’t feed me bedtime stories for kids. My patience has a limit.”

“Understood, sir.”

Ram’s gaze was steady, realizing his life was now in his own hands.

“It was ant-wolves, over forty, all adults.”

Ant-wolves, one of the most common mutated beasts in city ruins, were notorious for their reproductive prowess.

Cheng Ye’s mind flashed with information from both the inspector’s manual and scattered records in the Survival Library.

Their lifeform resembled gray wolves, with adults standing about 1.2 meters at the shoulder, sporting sharp fangs and incredible speed. Their carbonized keratin fur resisted physical attacks.

The “ant” in their name came from their mutated reproductive system.

Female ant-wolves went into heat every six months, their abdomens evolving into massive brood sacs like ant queens, producing 15–20 eggs per cycle.

Hatchlings reached adolescence in three months and maturity in a year.

With ample food and no natural predators, a few ant-wolves could spawn a massive pack in four or five years.

However, their meat, though tough and foul-tasting, was non-toxic and edible, ensuring they didn’t overrun the wasteland, especially within Eastern borders, where ant-wolf meat was a staple festival dish for scavengers and drifters.

“You know the value of a lithium deposit, sir. We didn’t believe a scavenger would find a wild one and just happen to tell us. But scavengers risk their lives for a shot at striking it rich, right? After hesitating, we decided to check it out, but we deliberately lured a pack of ant-wolves to trail our van, figuring they’d disrupt any ambush.”

“And we bet right!”

A ruthless glint flashed in Ram’s eyes. “The scavenger’s tip about an open stripping layer on a hillside was true—pegmatite lithium deposits on the sunward side. The ambush was no surprise either. But the Hundred Ghosts Gang didn’t expect us to bring ant-wolves. While they hid on the shaded side, the wolves swarmed, and we hit from the sunward side, taking them down with little effort.”

“But…”

Ram paused, a bitter smile crossing his face.

“We misjudged the wolves’ appetite. Twenty-seven people didn’t satisfy them, and they turned on us. These injuries came from fighting the pack.”

Ram’s account was not only clear but also fluid, clearly rehearsed on the road.

Cheng Ye nodded slightly, unbothered by this, unlike other inspectors.

Nor did he, like in TV dramas, illogically assume “fluent” equaled “lies.”

For his graduate defense, he’d rehearsed for two days in his dorm. With life and death at stake, it made sense for the four to polish their story to avoid slip-ups, which would otherwise suggest guilt.

“Four brothers, bold, cunning, and smart…”

“Only people like this could find a priceless lithium deposit.”

Cheng Ye sighed inwardly.

Heroes were as numerous as fish crossing the river. In the wasteland, no one could be underestimated.

Anyone surviving the city ruins was a ruthless figure licking blood off the blade.

“Report your numbers.”

“37.7/133/22.”

Ram answered calmly, though his heart sank. His stats were on the edge of abnormal.

If his temperature broke 38°C, the inspector could lock them in isolation without justification.

“Let the leg-injured one come in, supported by the other two.”

Cheng Ye spoke flatly, pointing to the corner of the isolation zone. “You, stand there and don’t move.”

“Yes, sir.”

The gate slid open, and the two helped the injured man in. Cole assisted the leg-injured one in stripping.

Good lord.

Compared to Ram’s arm wound, this man’s leg injury was horrifying.

From calf to thigh root, massive bite marks exposed raw flesh. Even immediate medical attention might not save the leg from amputation.

“Sir…”

“Names?”

“Hal Waters, Simo Waters.”

“Report numbers.”

No room for extra explanations, Cole gritted his teeth and measured for them.

“36.9/102/18.”

“38.7/162/26.”

Hal’s data was fine, but Simo’s three danger-level stats were so bad even a dog would shake its head.

“Sir…” Cole opened his mouth, unsure where to begin.

Pleading for leniency now would be asking Cheng Ye to break inspector principles.

Everyone knew abnormal stats were likely due to severe injuries triggering immune responses.

“Sir, lock me up. My injury’s too bad; I’m done for.”

Simo clenched his teeth, blood foaming at his mouth. “Please, for the lithium deposit, for our service to Happiness City, let the other three go!”

“What nonsense!”

Cole’s face changed, grabbing Simo’s shoulder. “We four brothers swore to live and die together. We finally got a shot at turning things around; no one gets left behind!”

“Simo, shut up. If anyone’s getting locked up, it’s me…”

Alright.

Time to retract the “smart” label for these four brothers.

Cheng Ye sighed silently, noting that while he wasn’t as dumb as interrogators in TV dramas, the interrogated idiots were very real.

Whether to detain was indeed up to the inspector. Even with Simo’s three abnormal stats, he could choose not to isolate.

But locking up one and letting the other three go? That was blatant rule-breaking.

Unless they were inner city residents with higher-level authority backing them, doing so would get him suspended and investigated the next second.

Bang.

A shot fired into the air silenced the melodrama.

The four brothers froze, their minds buzzing with the gunshot’s echo.

Holstering his standard-issue pistol, Cheng Ye jerked his chin toward the corner. “Leave him. The rest of you, get to the corner and squat.”