Apocalypse Showdown: Carrier Conquest

Chapter 5: The Joy of Inventorying Supplies

The Eastern Alliance fleet responded:

"Understood! Rest assured, we extend our deepest respect for your act of releasing the hostages!"

Deepest... respect? Why would a bunch of Federation soldiers need respect?

Zhou Lin immediately understood the hidden meaning.

Regardless of how other nations—especially the Federation—interpreted this exchange, he activated the ship-wide broadcast:

"Listen up! The end times are upon us. The world is doomed... You now have two choices."

"One: take the lifeboats. The Eastern Alliance’s evacuation fleet will be passing nearby shortly—they will pick you up. Two: meet your maker."

"You have fifteen minutes. Those who wish to leave, raise your hands and gather on the deck."

Zhou Lin had spared these Federation officers and soldiers purely as a cover for the data transfer. Whether or not the Federation suspected his dealings with the Eastern Alliance fleet, they wouldn’t dare openly launch missiles at their own men, would they?

Fifteen minutes later, about three hundred Federation personnel had assembled on the deck, standing obediently.

"Good. Now, go launch the lifeboats."

Several gun turrets swiveled toward them, their dark barrels ensuring compliance. Of course, not everyone was so easily cowed—like Lieutenant Colonel Magri.

"The Federation does not surrender!" Magri roared, raising his fist defiantly.

"Quite the energy you’ve got there," Zhou Lin smirked. "Perfect. We needed a chicken. Lieutenant Colonel Magri, congratulations, you’ve just been chosen. May glory be with you."

The next moment, a muzzle flashed.

Boom!

Blood mist filled the air, limbs scattered.

Before everyone’s eyes, Magri had used his own body to demonstrate Zhou Lin’s decisiveness and ruthlessness. The message was clear: obedience was not optional.

"Well, at least I didn’t waste a shell." Zhou Lin nodded in satisfaction as the number of evacuees dwindled.

Once every Federation officer and soldier had boarded the lifeboats, Zhou Lin carefully deployed the unmanned submersible carrying the hard drive container, setting it to hover fifty meters below the surface beneath the lifeboats—waiting for the Eastern Alliance fleet to retrieve it.

"I’ve done all I can. The rest is up to fate." He knew the risks. Without hostages, he had lost his bargaining chip. There was no guarantee the Federation wouldn’t launch missiles—or even tactical nuclear weapons—at the Tefor.

In fact, as Zhou Lin commanded the Tefor to flee at maximum speed toward Eastern Alliance waters, a classified emergency meeting was already underway within a secure underground facility in the Federation.

"We must immediately and decisively destroy the Tefor!" The newly appointed acting Secretary of Defense stood and declared. "In fact, I have already ordered our next-generation strategic bombers to take off from the mainland. Within three hours, we will locate and completely annihilate it!"

Aboard the Tefor, Zhou Lin had just received word from the Eastern Alliance fleet: they had successfully recovered all the Federation personnel, emphasizing that "everything was retrieved—nothing was left behind." Once again, they expressed their "deepest respect."

Zhou Lin replied with a casual "You’re welcome" before resuming his inventory check.

Though he could control the Tefor as easily as his own limbs, thanks to their symbiotic link, he still had to manually inspect the ship’s non-integrated assets. Besides, taking stock of his spoils was part of the fun—after all, what was the point of commandeering a warship if he didn’t personally examine his loot?

Survival in the apocalypse depended on four essentials: clothing, food, shelter, and transportation. Naturally, he started with food. As a supercarrier designed to sustain five thousand personnel, the Tefor housed multiple food storage facilities and freezers.

Due to dietary preferences, the ship carried over a million servings of burger ingredients alone—enough for a daily consumption rate of ten thousand burgers. If Zhou Lin and his family of four ate twenty a day, they wouldn’t run out for a century.

But burgers made up less than a tenth of the total food supply. The Tefor also stocked diverse protein sources, staple grains—including rice—fresh and dehydrated fruits and vegetables, and even delicacies like Wagyu beef, foie gras, caviar, and an extensive assortment of premium seafood.

With abundant main courses, beverages and snacks were naturally in no short supply. The ship’s storage held over ten tons of concentrated cola syrup—two barrels of which could be diluted into 250,000 liters of soda, requiring only purified water and dry ice. After all, what was a Federation soldier without their cola?

Thanks to the Tefor’s nuclear reactor, power was never an issue. As long as the reactor remained functional and refueling wasn’t necessary, its deep-freeze storage—maintained at minus sixty degrees Celsius—ensured food preservation for decades.

With nearly two thousand tons of food and an uninterrupted power supply, Zhou Lin’s food security was settled. However, there were downsides. First, the stock of ingredients suited to Eastern Alliance cuisine was limited. Second, staple spices—like the fiery peppers, Sichuan peppercorns, and fermented bean paste beloved by Sichuanese—were in short supply.

"I’ll have to stock up when I get back," Zhou Lin noted in his journal.

Unlike the extensive food stores, clothing on the Tefor was relatively sparse and monotonous, consisting almost entirely of military uniforms in various sizes and seasonal variants—including a small batch of extreme cold-weather gear.

Fortunately, Zhou Lin wasn’t picky. In a post-apocalyptic world, practicality trumped fashion. Military gear was built for durability and function, making it well-suited for survival.

As for shelter, he had no worries.

Based on the sequence of incoming disasters, Zhou Lin had no plans to venture far from his homeland. Sichuan had always been a land of fortune. If he found the right location to camouflage the Tefor, he and his family could live comfortably and securely.

Ice? The ship wouldn’t freeze. Extreme heat? The ship had air conditioning. Floods? The ship wouldn’t sink. Earthquakes? The ship wouldn’t shake.

The thought alone filled him with satisfaction.

The more he inventoried, the more he appreciated his decision. Instead of struggling to gather supplies bit by bit—dealing with space constraints and financial limitations—commandeering the Tefor had been the ultimate "zero-cost acquisition."

A blaring alarm interrupted his thoughts.

"Warning: LRASM detected!" "Warning: LRASM detected!" "Warning: LRASM detected!" ...

LRASM—the Federation’s most advanced anti-ship missile, supposedly still in development, never deployed in real combat!

"D*mn it!" Zhou Lin instantly teleported from the storage bay to the bridge. The emergency lights flashed red, alarms shrieking.

On the horizon, sleek silver missiles streaked through the sky at Mach 1.5.

They shifted formation—first an S-shape, then a B—before hugging the ocean’s surface, skimming the waves in a final acceleration burst.

The Federation wasn’t holding back. The first wave alone consisted of over a dozen missiles. Even if just one or two landed a hit, the Tefor would be critically damaged!