novelraw Chapter 251: Warehouses and Warehouse Managers
Chapter 251: Warehouses and Warehouse Managers
Walking out of the third-floor storage room, Li Wei had to be careful not to move too fast — otherwise he'd get a faint sense of coordination mismatch.
Of course, by the time he got back to the fifth floor, he'd already mostly adjusted. A day or two of hard physical work would sort the rest out.
Worth noting: this kind of temporary drawback only happened when Defense and Strength were raised sharply all at once. Life and Stamina had no such effect. And Agility had been trained so extensively and pushed so far beyond normal that it didn't cause any issues either.
If he had to describe it: suddenly adding points to Strength and Defense was like a small horse pulling a heavy cart. Agility was the opposite.
Next, Li Wei tried on the Noble Crest Armor. As expected, it was slightly off — but not by much. The second time it had been reforged, three adjustable points had been left in: one at each shoulder, one under each arm, and one at the waist. Extra room had been built in for wearing chainmail underneath, so it was actually fine.
The real problem was the boots — a bit tight. Still wearable, but prolonged combat would definitely be affected.
Why couldn't these things auto-resize? What kind of equipment was this?
Li Wei grumbled to himself. He'd just have to endure for now — though next month he could have Li Yue stay home and adjust the boots for him.
"Li Wei, congratulations."
Zhao Xuanxuan came back for breakfast, saw Li Wei, and couldn't help smiling. She immediately set her food aside and started adjusting his summer outfit. He couldn't exactly go out on patrol bare-chested.Thomas was deeply envious. Four stars. It felt like a dream — two years ago this guy had been a complete rookie.
The speed was unreal.
Li Wei was about to say something when, suddenly, several lines of text surfaced before him, Thomas, and Zhao Xuanxuan simultaneously.
["The Flame Duke's Ability Users launched a night raid on the camp's northern resource point. In a critical situation, Family Members Li Yue and Liang Yuzhi responded decisively, took the initiative, and completely annihilated the attacking enemies, holding the resource point. No casualties on our side. They won this battle. Total Contribution earned: 3,000 points."]
["Family Member Li Yue received 1,000 Contribution points. Cumulative total: 2,550."]
["Family Member Liang Yuzhi received 1,000 Contribution points. Cumulative total: 2,500."]
["Family Member Leon received 500 Contribution points. Cumulative total: 1,165."]
["Family Member Zhang Jinjun received 200 Contribution points. Cumulative total: 675."]
["Ten Freemen received 300 Contribution points, merged into the Head of Household's earnings. Each of them will receive 500 Territory Contribution points, to be distributed at the Quarterly Settlement. (Note: 1 Family Contribution point = 100 Territory Contribution points.)"]
["Friendly reminder: The family has now accumulated a total of 15,785 Family Contribution points, approaching the maximum earnable cap of 17,000 points. If more fixed assets cannot be created before month's end to expand the cap, the rewards from this month's Month-End Summary will have nowhere to go and will be reset to zero at the start of next month."]
["Warning: If this situation persists for three consecutive months without improvement, the Head of Household will be subject to Impeachment."]
What?
The Flame Duke had finally made his move?
And the battle had already been fought last night. But Li Yue and Liang Yuzhi were cross-dimensional veterans — they'd held the line against 150% extra difficulty. Though this also meant the two of them were now hitting their stride and starting to push hard. What came next?
In that moment, Thomas and Zhao Xuanxuan both looked at Li Wei with concern.
But Li Wei wasn't the least bit rattled. He even let out a quiet breath of relief. He'd been worried all along that the Flame Duke might bypass the underground base and hit the camp directly.
So this was fine. Because the whole reason he'd spent this month reorganizing and disciplining the Freemen was precisely to handle situations like this.
As long as the Freemen held steady, he had plenty of cards to play.
"Thomas, for the next few days you don't need to work on the wall. Take over camp patrol and security. I'm going to go mine coal. Xuanxuan, shift your priorities slightly too — camp safety comes first."
"Got it."
Thomas agreed without hesitation. Sure, it would affect his monthly main task completion — so what? He knew exactly where his priorities lay.
Everything served Li Wei's strategic objectives first.
"Alright. I can help with night patrols, but during the day I still want to get some work done. Can you assign that welder Linus to me? I'm planning to assemble and weld two more hand carts — you'll probably need them for the coal mining."
"Also — we should get all the welding work done before the radiation storm hits while the solar panels are still generating power. Welding is hard to replace."
"Fine. I was thinking the same thing." Li Wei nodded. The welder Linus was also an electrician — like Nelson and Javier, a spry old man who was still very much in his prime.
Li Wei then waved over Auntie Jenny, who was waiting nearby.
"Jenny, go tell Nelson I need him to organize a ten-person coal mining team. He'll serve as team captain. They'll head to Valley Town today to start mining the coal deposit."
Li Wei issued four commands in rapid succession. Almost simultaneously, everyone except Santiago and Xavier — who were out of signal range — received their specific task notifications: the welder Linus, Nelson, Javier, and the others.
This time, no one could make a fuss.
Speaking of which, among the Freemen, there were currently five people who could be considered the core of the group.
First was engineer Nelson. Second was former lieutenant Santiago. Third was electrician Linus. Fourth was warehouse manager Javier. Fifth was the injured special forces soldier Benjamin.
But of these five, the one with the most potential was Benjamin.
Young, strong, quick-thinking, sharp-minded — Li Yue had picked him out from the start. He'd been working at the underground base for over a month, and under Li Yue's cultivation, his growth had been remarkably fast.
He'd probably distinguished himself in last night's battle too.
In fact, Li Yue had personally triggered six random tasks for Benjamin over the past forty-six days. His current Territory Contribution stood at a remarkable 1,868 points — which converted to only 18.6 Family Contribution points, but that was actually quite good.
On top of that, Li Yue had gifted him three one-star attribute cards and two pieces of two-star equipment.
Anyone who didn't know the situation might think Li Wei was about to gain a brother-in-law.
But in reality, this was Li Yue planting a sleeper agent among the Freemen — a nail she'd driven in for Li Wei's benefit. Or so it appeared.
Unfortunately for her, it could only go so far. Li Wei had already completed the reorganization. Four days remained in the month — more than enough to work with.
After breakfast, Thomas went to change into his gear and start patrolling. Zhao Xuanxuan finished adjusting Li Wei's summer outfit, then went to find the welder Linus waiting on the first floor and got to work on her own projects.
Li Wei headed up to the fourth-floor kitchen. Inside, Aunties Ellen, Jenny, Mina, and two other cook aunties were busy with four Freeman women.
When they saw Li Wei walk in, they all visibly tensed. After being reorganized and disciplined over the past two days, the last of their unrealistic fantasies had been thoroughly shattered.
Naturally, they now felt a certain awe when facing Li Wei — at the very minimum, they no longer dared to be disrespectful.
What had they been thinking before?
Hiding weapons, scheming against the lord. Truly audacious.
Some people only behave when they've been set straight.
"Ellen."
"Esteemed lord, I'm here. What can I do for you?" Ellen responded quickly — it was practically becoming a reflex.
Li Wei smiled. "From now on, you are the camp's Head Chef. You will also be responsible for the intake, output, registration, management, and daily maintenance of all food-related supplies."
"I'm planning to build two food storage warehouses. The first is for dry goods — it needs good ventilation, moisture control, and dry, safe conditions. I recommend building it on the first floor, with a total area of one hundred and fifty square meters. The second is for refrigerated fresh ingredients — I recommend using one of the rooms Nelson has already built in the basement. One room will be enough."
"These two warehouses will henceforth be called Warehouse No. 2."
"You'll manage both. Beyond that, your team can also bring in those eight women with children. I don't expect them to do heavy work — but helping with miscellaneous tasks, picking and washing vegetables, washing dishes, and cleaning should be no problem."
"Starting next month, the kitchen will be split into two sections. One section remains on the fourth floor as the Small Canteen. Ingredients come from the third-floor warehouse, including fresh seasonal vegetables. It operates under Small Canteen standards."
"The other section will be set up outside the building as the Large Canteen. Ingredients come from the first-floor warehouse. It operates under Large Canteen standards."
"Finally — the children are also under your care. All children aged eight and above must study and work simultaneously — light work, of course. Children twelve and older must take on apprenticeships."
"Is that clear?"
"Y-yes, clear!"
Auntie Ellen stammered, clearly overwhelmed. At least twenty lines of information were probably generating before her eyes right now.
All the necessary rules were in place. Li Wei didn't need to supervise personally — the Prestige Card system would automatically track, locate, identify, and settle everything. Any mistake would trigger an immediate warning notification. The joys of having a system.
Without another word, Li Wei left. Auntie Ellen was actually quite reliable — putting her in charge of Warehouse No. 2 made more sense than Javier, who was better suited for Warehouse No. 3.
Right — the third-floor storage room was Warehouse No. 1, currently managed by Liang Yuzhi.
Warehouse No. 3 was the original basement of the building — the place where they'd first discovered the large cache of supplies. About five hundred square meters in total, quite spacious. It now housed all kinds of tools, important materials, and especially the machinery salvaged from the underground base: machine tools, welding equipment, generators, battery arrays, and so on. All of it needed a professional to manage.
So in fact, Li Wei had already issued this appointment through the Prestige System first thing this morning.
Coming downstairs, he found Nelson already waiting with ten Freemen.
He naturally said a few words of encouragement. Nelson wore a bright smile, not a trace of discontent visible. What else could he do? He should know by now — everything had been settled.
The specific task had already been transmitted to them. The coal mine resource point had already been secured for them. Did he still need to be told what to do?
Prepare for hard work. The requirement wasn't high — ten hours a day.
"Let's go. We'll wait at the south side."
Li Wei smiled and continued chatting with Nelson as they walked. In truth, there were many things he needed Nelson's help with. The man was an engineer — that was beyond question. Once he'd been properly disciplined and fitted with a harness, Nelson could be put to full use.
In the future, Li Wei couldn't stay in this territory forever. Finding a capable territory official was extremely important.
Nelson was a good candidate.
Worth mentioning: the old man had four wives and three children, his eldest son being Santiago. Interesting.
Either way — there were many things Li Wei understood, Nelson understood, and Nelson knew that Li Wei understood.