While the players were still discussing, Ditway Food Processing Factory, located in the southernmost part of the industrial area, was working at its maximum capacity.

The area of the factory building was not small, about the size of a football field. 1 of the 2 warehouses had collapsed, and the remaining was in good condition and could be used just right.

Judging from the broken bricks on the ground, this place should have just been used, and many places had not been cleaned up, but this would not affect production.

After inspecting the industrial area and Longevity Town in the northern suburbs 3 days ago, Ditway immediately recruited a group of small and medium-sized food merchants in Boulder Town, raised a huge fund of 300,000 chips, and purchased a complete set of nutrient cream production equipment. Together with the old machine in his own small workshop, he hired mercenaries to send them to the northern suburbs.

The land rent in the industrial zone in the northern suburbs was very cheap, and it was rent-free for the first 2 years. The only costs left were water and electricity fees, management fees and 20% business income tax.

Compared to Boulder Town, the cost was already very low.

Especially since the labor cost was also dirt cheap.

The basic daily salary of ordinary workers in the northern suburbs was 10 silver coins, including food expenses and several miscellaneous costs. The actual cost of a month was only about 400 silver coins, and the cost of employing 20 workers was only 8,000 silver coins a month.

How much was 8,000 silver coins exactly?

To be honest, Ditway didn’t have an accurate idea either.

The exchange rate provided by the bank was that 1 chip could be exchanged for 2 silver coins, but that was definitely not the market exchange rate, otherwise the wages of the workers here would be ridiculously high, and the basic daily salary could reach 5 chips.

What’s more, the banks only provided the service of exchanging chips, Dinar, and CR into silver coins. They wouldn’t trade the other way.

If one had to use chips, they needed to apply as a company, write clearly which equipment to buy, and exchange them only after approval.

The control of foreign exchange here was very strict.

But it was not as strict as other small survivor settlements in Clearspring City, such as prohibiting residents from holding chips privately, or trading with foreign merchants privately.

Ditway didn’t really mind it.

Although there was no way to convert silver coins into chips, he could buy things with silver coins and then ship them to Boulder Town to sell.

𝗳𝚛𝗲𝕖𝚠𝚎𝚋𝗻𝗼𝕧𝗲𝐥.𝚌𝚘𝐦

The products produced could also be taken away at will. As long as the tax was paid, they could be exported.

In addition, Shelter 404 also provided him with a ready-made factory building and a low-interest loan of 600,000 silver coins to pay for a series of expenses such as labor, water and electricity.

He didn’t have to spend a penny to set up the factory! All he needed was to provide equipment and technology!

It didn’t matter if his business failed. The factories had a limited liability system, and debts would not be traced back to individuals. At most, equipment and other assets would be auctioned off.

With such a generous condition, Ditway was so moved that he almost wanted to cry!

"... At present, the average daily processing capacity of our factory has reached 100 tons, and the daily production capacity is 10 tons of nutrient cream and 4 tons of organic fertilizer!"

"I can assure you that this number will at least double, or even triple again before the end of the month!"

Walking into the spacious factory building, Ditway enthusiastically introduced the production line he got from Boulder Town to the administrator beside him with a red face.

They could see workers in protective suits throwing the corpses of Crunchers, Creepers, and even Butchers on the truck into containers made of steel.

Their appearance and what they were doing would not make people think of producing food. Instead, people would think they were trying to clean up their traces after committing a crime.

After the corpses filled up the container, the workers standing on the operating platform operated a device like a tower crane to lift the container and move it directly above the cylindrical metal tank as thick as an oil tank.

The container was tilted to pour out all the corpses of the mutants into the huge metal tank like dumplings.

The round hatch was sealed next, the pressure indicator would start to rise. With a roaring buzz, the whole machine would start to work.

In the factory, there were 8 of those metal tanks!

After being canned, these corpses would undergo 24 hours of high temperature, drying, inactivation, extrusion and other processes, before being transported through pipelines to the workshop on the side of the factory building before going through a series of complicated procedures to separate the active ingredients.

After this series of pre-processing, the produced viscous substance would be like lumps of green slime, and basically no one would be able to associate it with the Mutated Slime Mold anymore.

If the smell was ignored, it was actually quite alright.

"... 100 tons is still not a lot. There are at least 20,000 mutants killed on the front line every day. I hope you can handle more than 400 tons before the end of the month." Looking at the equipment in the factory with interest, Chu Guang asked casually, "By the way, what about the distribution channels? Would the produced nutrient cream sell well?"

That was what Chu Guang really cared about.

Ditway smiled and said confidently, "Don’t worry about this. Although these devices are not the most advanced, our cost is cheap enough! In terms of price, we have an absolute advantage to beat our competitors!"

In addition to lower production costs, there was a huge advantage to setting up a factory here compared to setting up a factory in Boulder Town. They had much more convenient transportation.

Although the resources in Clearspring City were abundant, the road conditions were really terrible. 1 kilometer inside the city was even harder to travel than 10 kilometers outside the city.

Facing the 2 to 3 meter wide crack and the 4 to 5 meter high cliff, let alone wheeled vehicles, even tracked vehicles would have to stay away.

Therefore, when caravans in Boulder Town were doing business with the surrounding areas, they would usually choose two-headed oxen or other livestock as a means of transportation.

Some cross-regional caravans would also choose to settle outside the city, and then hire local ox carts to trade with the survivors’ strongholds in the city.

However, in the northern suburbs, the problem was much easier to solve.

This place itself was a suburb, and outside the city was a wilderness. The products produced in the factory could be directly loaded onto trucks and towed away.

"... At present, my partner has already obtained an order worth 200,000 chips from a farm owner in the south. They need a large amount of nutrient cream to feed slaves and livestock, and our price and quantity is something they can’t refuse!"

"The other party even expressed their willingness to come and pick up the goods themselves. This will be a long-term trade!"

Chu Guang glanced at him in shock. "Can nutrient cream even be fed to livestock?"

Ditway had a confident smile on his face. "Of course! Since nutrient cream can be eaten by humans, of course it can also be eaten by livestock, and it is a very high-quality feed! Some farm owners will mix them with green wheat and feed them to two-headed ox. Cattle fed with this kind of feed will be much stronger than those eating straw and pasture!!"

Good.

Chu Guang nodded with a satisfied smile on his face.

He didn’t expect that nutrient cream had such a wide range of uses.

Even if the food processing factory was not doing well, and it couldn’t pay back the loan, or finally went bankrupt and liquidated, he wouldn’t have to worry about losing money.

Ditway had the same look on his face.

Although he invested a huge sum of 300,000 chips at one time, he didn’t feel stressed at all. It wouldn’t be long before he earned it all back.

The price of electricity in the industrial area of Shelter 404 was the same as that of Boulder Town. Combining all the costs together, the cost of nutrient cream per ton was only 200 to 208 silver coins.

According to the official exchange rate of 1 chip to 2 silver coins, it was equivalent to buying a ton of nutrient cream with just 100 chips.

In Boulder Town, even a big company like Vega Trading Company would have to spend more than 200 chips to produce one ton of nutrient cream!

Normally, the retail price of nutrient cream was between 1 and 2 chips per kilogram, while the wholesale price would start at one ton, ranging from 300 to 400 chips per ton.

And that would mean that his cost of production was only half as much as Vega Trading Company, but his profit would be more than 3 times that of theirs!

The huge room for bargaining would allow him to set the price as he liked, and directly below the cost line of the other party!

As for branding…

What kind of brand effect would the nutrient cream used to feed livestock need?

All the buyer required was for the cream to be edible. It wouldn’t matter what he slapped on it!

No matter how Ditway calculated, it was a surefire deal.

And this was only the profit of nutrient cream. The waste left over from the production line could be made into organic fertilizer or sold to the chemical factory next door.

Looking at the non-stop running equipment in front of him, and listening to the rumbling sound, Ditway only felt a rush of emotion.

If it weren’t for the administrator standing beside him, he wouldn’t have been able to hold back his urge to scream about how the Tide should be allowed to come all the time.

...

In fact, it didn’t matter even if Ditway screamed. Chu Guang was not a narrow-minded person; he wouldn’t do anything to him just because of a few words.

The man suddenly made a lot of money after all. It was understandable that he was a little excited.

However, no matter how much he earned, it was impossible to earn more than Chu Guang.

More than 70% of the production cost of Ditway Food Processing Factory, whether it was water and electricity or raw material purchase fees, was paid directly to the shelter.

Not to mention that for every ton of produced goods, a 20% tax had to be paid to the shelter before being sold.

And the wages paid to the workers, although not directly paid to the shelter, would eventually flow back to Chu Guang.

In this circular economic chain, it not only solved the problem of employment and fed the labor force, but also boosted the consumption capacity of residents and generated more demand.

As for how much Chu Guang made from the deal… No one knew.

Anyway, it was almost immeasurable!

...

After inspecting the operation of the food processing factory, Chu Guang didn’t stay in the industrial area for too long. He went straight to the front line.

The fighting on the front line had become more and more intense recently.

In the past week, Chu Guang’s work focus was basically on the logistics side.

Now that the problems of the plague and the fiscal deficit had been resolved, he could finally focus on solving the Tide without any worries.

In the temporary command post.

Chu Guang summoned the frontline officers and staff officers and held a battle meeting.

The captain of the guard, Wrench, first reported the battle situation.

Then Vanus, who served as a staff officer, summarized the intelligence and expressed his point of view.

"... The stalemate has lasted for 10 days, and the Tide’s offensive shows no sign of weakening, while the loss of frontline ammunition and personnel continues to increase."

"There are indications that our enemy has deployed an incubation room or even a Hive on the front line, and the location is around 65th Street."

As he spoke, Vanus drew a red circle on the map with a pen, enclosing the area near the clock tower on 65th Street.

Although there was no direct evidence to prove that the Hive was there, according to the footage captured by the drone, the Creepers that infiltrated the player’s flank basically came from there.

Chu Guang frowned slightly. "That is to say, the mutants we encountered recently were not the ones from the city center? They hatched nearby?"

Vanus shook his head. "It’s hard to say, but their delay in launching a full-scale offensive is quite suspicious. It’s hard not to make people think of something bad."

Wrench suddenly spoke, "I don’t know if it’s right to say that, but these mutants always give me a feeling like they are preparing for something."

After a few days of probing, these mutants had become familiar with the players’ defensive strategies, but they were still sending Crunchers up without end.

If they weren’t stupid...

Vanus frowned. "Are they stalling for time?"

Wrench nodded. "I also believe so."

Chu Guang stared at the map and pondered for a long time, then said. "The frontline position has been stabilized, and our ammunition depot on the edge of the fifth ring has stockpiled enough ammunition and equipment. Now is the best window for counterattack."

As he spoke, Chu Guang looked around at the surrounding officers and staff officers. "Whatever they’re preparing, let’s get this mess out of the way once and for all. We’ll attack before they’re ready.”