Natural Disaster: I Started By Hoarding Tens Of Billions Of Supplies

Listening to Yao Yuechuan’s answer, Fu Zongshang exhaled in relief. "Good. I will leave the arrangements to you since you understand their capabilities best."

"Understood."

Yao Yuechuan accepted the order and began organizing the fire and water element ability users into shifts based on their ability levels, energy reserves, and control proficiency—all while maintaining the fire barrier himself.

With Yao Yuechuan taking command to maintain the fire barrier and control the seawater temperature, Fu Zongshang finally had time to attend to other matters.

By evening, Shi Xuan and Long Yu spotted a plateau basin in the distance. The basin stretched a hundred kilometers wide, offering a clear view of the surroundings.

After circling the area, Shi Xuan said, "Captain, this place should be safe enough for us to spend the night."

Long Yu agreed and activated the communication device. After a beeping sound, he said, "Attention, everyone. We will land in the plateau basin in six minutes. Prepare for landing."

A few seconds later, responses came through from the other pilots. "Roger that."

Long Yu carefully surveyed the terrain below, selecting a flat area free of cracks. Once he made his decision, he transmitted the landing coordinates to the other pilots.

Six minutes later, Shi Xuan confirmed, "Landing now."

Following his words, the military transport aircraft slowly descended, eventually touching down safely. Soon, the other aircraft also landed one after another.

As the propeller stopped and the door opened, Li Zhen and the others disembarked, only to be met with strong winds and thick dust.

Caught off guard, Ding Jianfeng coughed violently as he hurriedly covered his mouth. When his cough subsided, he looked at the surroundings and muttered, "Why is there so much dust?"

Hearing this, the others quickly put on their masks before they choke on the dust.

When Yao Ran stepped off the aircraft together with Jia Xiang, the first thing she did was inspect the ground.

After a brief examination, she frowned and thought, ’The ground here is softer compared to the flat area in Zhongyang Province.’

She then surveyed the surroundings, noting the intense winds carrying dust across the plateau basin.

Given the terrain, strong winds weren’t surprising, but the sheer amount of dust was concerning. With dust this thick, pitching tents is out of the question.

Seeing her standing there, Long Yu approached her. When he noticed her slight frown, he asked with a hint of concern in his voice, "Ran Ran, what’s wrong?"

Yao Ran turned to him and replied, "I don’t think we can set up tents here."

"The ground is softer than the flat area in Zhongyang Province, and the strong wind is carrying too much dust. If we pitch tents, they will either be buried under the sand or collapse while we sleep."

Long Yu considered her explanation and suggested, "We can sleep inside the aircraft and have a few people take turns patrolling the area."

Yao Ran glanced at the ground beneath the aircraft, noticing how it was already sinking.

She shook her head and replied, "It’s better if we sleep outside. If everyone stays inside the aircraft, the added weight will cause the ground to sink faster. It would be a disaster if the ground collapsed while we were asleep."

Long Yu followed her gaze and fell silent for a moment. Then he sighed and said, "I guess that leaves us with only one option—camping outside with sleeping bags."

Yao Ran nodded. "Mhm. That is our best choice for now."

Though she had RVs stored in her space, she didn’t dare bring them out. With the unstable ground, there was no telling when it might sink or crack.

After reaching an agreement, they informed the others. With the sky covered by dust, the group could only find relatively flat spots and light bonfires and then covered their nose and mouths with masks.

As the others sat around the bonfires and rested, Yao Ran, assisted by Deng Qiqi, Huang Zhihui, Madam Han, Madam Sima, and a few members of Xu Ruihan’s team, distributed dinner and diluted lake water.

While they were busy, Long Yu and Xu Ruihan finalized the patrol schedule.

After dinner, exhaustion overtook everyone. Too tired to care about discomfort, they lay down on the hard, dusty ground and try to sleep. Soon, the camp fell into silence, except for the occasional snore.

A few hours later, while the group slept soundly, a patrolling guard noticed lights approaching in the distance. He grabbed the night-vision binoculars from his waist and looked in their direction.

Through the night-vision binoculars, he saw a convoy of vehicles, consisting of three off-road trucks, five buses, and several motorcycles, heading toward them.

Turning to his companion, he said, "Brother, I’m going to report this to Captain Long."

The other guard had also noticed the approaching lights and nodded. "Alright."

Handing the night-vision binoculars to his companion, the guard hurried off to find Long Yu.

Finding him sleeping away from the others, the guard squatted beside Long Yu. He then reached out to wake him up, but Long Yu instinctively grabbed his wrist before opening his eyes.

Seeing that Long Yu was awake, the guard reported in a low voice, "Captain Long, a group of vehicles is approaching."

Long Yu sat up immediately at his words and asked, "How many of them?"

"Three off-road cars, five buses, and a few motorcycles." The guard replied.

Long Yu’s expression turned serious after listening to his answer, and thought, ’Anyone who could migrate to this plateau basin and travel in off-road vehicles was unlikely to be ordinary.’

Turning toward Yao Ran, who was sleeping beside him, Long Yu gently covered her with a blanket before standing up. He then said, "Let’s go."

With that, the two of them left without making a sound.

Unbeknownst to him, Yao Ran had already woken up when they were talking. She opened her eyes, sat up, rubbed them groggily, and yawned a few times. Then, after putting her blanket back into her space, she got up and followed them.