Zombie Apocalypse: Creation

"Good afternoon."

"Afternoon, sir."

Walking past the security guards, Xiaoyun was at the command center. But rather than the usual meeting room, he was in the communication area.

Yiming and Houqin were sitting across from each other, seemingly discussing. No, debating in a heated argument.

Further down the room were ten different radio operator, wearing headphones with a massive map projection in front of them showing the area under their control.

"Ahem, I didn’t come too late, did I?"

"You came just in time. Xiaoyun, you have to convince her we can’t just keep letting the troops sit idly by."

As Yiming quickly dragged Xiaoyun into a seat, he instantly saw what they were debating over on the table.

It was a military operation—a draft proposal with three specific arrows aimed at Zhuhai, Macao, and Hong Kong.

"Commander, you need to talk some sense into him. There’s no way we can afford the cost to launch an offensive into three cities at once."

"Let me read what you guys have made so far first."

Both of them fell into silence, sitting back down as Xiaoyun took up the paper and started reading what had been written.

One hour later...

"Initial encirclement of the cities with numbers, dividing the streets with bombs, and creating a zombie bait with helicopters.

This is definitely the first time I have read something so ambitious in such a short time. Yiming, you made this yourself?"

"I borrowed some of the ideas from other officers. But most of them are from my personal experience in analyzing zombie behavior."

Xiaoyun could see Yiming’s face filled with pride when he answered him back, almost bordering on overconfidence.

"BUT... The budget Houqin had estimated for this operation is unacceptable based on this report over here."

"She’s over-exaggerated the numbers. There’s no way a two-week blitz operation would cost five billion."

"Commander, I—"

Before Houqin could argue back, Xiaoyun signaled her to stop. He turned over to Yiming as he pulled out a beef can.

"Yiming, when was the last time you went shopping in Luoping?"

"Why are you asking this?" Yiming questioned in confusion, and the pride looked changed into confusion.

"That’s not important. I want to know the last time you went shopping to buy stuff. It can be anything, not just food."

"Um... It’s always been my wife who buys stuff. The only time I brought things was through direct salary with traveling merchants."

"Okay, now that makes sense. Let me ask you another question. This can of beef used to cost around 2-5 food stamps, right?"

Yiming nodded his head, as he still could vividly remember the cost back at the beginning of the settlement.

"Now, there are no more food stamps, as you probably know. Do you know what the cost of this beef is now?"

Xiaoyun watched as Yiming stared at the beef can in silence. Looking around the cover and measuring the size with his hands.

"Here."

With the can thrown into Yiming’s hands, he instantly came up with an answer.

"At least 8 NCR... Did I get it right?"

"Close. But it’s 15 NCR. Give it three or four months, and it probably costs 18 NCR until the summer rolls around."

"What? How could it cost this much?" Yiming questioned in disbelief, his eyes staring at the can of beef.

"Because inflation. Canned food now actually costs more than fresh produce. At least that’s what Leyan told me."

After a whole minute of staring at the cans, Yiming finally seemed to have accepted the reality as he put them onto the table.

"I apologize, General Houqin. I shouldn’t have doubted your number like this."

"It’s fine. You haven’t had a break that’s long overdue... It’s hard to measure prices when someone is disconnected from everyday life."

Seeing the two of them make amends, Xiaoyun’s face held a smile. But he was soon going to ruin their new consensus.

"Ahem, even though this plan is extremely high-budget, based on the estimate. We’ll be going through with it."

"What?"

Both of them immediately turned around, looking at him in disbelief as if they didn’t expect him to accept it.

"Commander, there’s no way we can afford this. We’re going to be forced to end operations elsewhere to afford this."

Xiaoyun shook his head, his finger quietly tapping on the table as his mind ran through hundreds of different possibilities.

"We... We’ll be affording it through war bonds."

"War bonds?"

Houqin’s face was instantly filled with skepticism. Her mind was thinking back to the interest cost that burdened the civilian side of the government.

"We can’t sell blind box goods to salvage groups anymore. But we can still sell the goods under our control."

"But what does that have to do with war bonds?" Yiming questioned this time.

"Well, we don’t really have any goods to sell right now. The purpose of the war bond would be to promise future returns on goods."

"Commander, I don’t think the private market can take on this much... Mrs.Yuqi is going to be mad when she learns the central bank is the one buying the war bonds."

"It’s not going to be the central bank, you don’t have to worry about that. I know exactly who can buy these up in large quantities in the private market."

Seeing the confidence in Xiaoyun’s face, both Yiming and Houqin had no choice but to put their faith in him.

"Trust me, I got this. No one can raise money better than me... I just need you two to get everything sorted for me to lead this operation."

"Okay..."

---

As Xiaoyun exited the command center, he immediately took out his phone and dialed the number.

"Hello?"

"Liuqian, can you meet me at the administrative building? Bring Muxie with you. I need to talk to you two about something."

"Okay."

Ending the call, Xiaoyun headed towards the parking lot. Driving in his car, he suddenly noticed something while on the road.

"When did we start allowing mopeds on the road again?

Just as he was slowing down, he was suddenly forced to hit the brakes hard as a moped swerved right before his car.

"Hey! Watch where you’re going!" Xiaoyun yelled as he rolled down the window, his face full of anger.

"Sorry!"

With the groups of mopeds turned around the corner, Xiaoyun rolled his eyes as he continued forward towards the administrative office.

After driving for a few minutes, he finally arrived at the building. To his surprise, both Liuqian and Muxie were already there at the entrance.

"Good afternoon, Governor."

"Afternoon. Let’s go somewhere more private to talk. I have a massive deal that you two are going to love to hear."

The mysterious answer left both of them intrigued as they followed him into the building, heading into the elevator as it traveled up.

By the time the three of them entered an empty meeting room, Xiaoyun’s mind had already developed the pitch for his idea.

"I know this is a little abrupt, but I have a very important thing that I want you two to help me with."

"We’ll try our best to fulfill it, sir," Liuqian responded first.

"Whatever we’re capable of."

"You guys can definitely do it... So the military had been planning a new operation. I need a lot of money."

"That’s no problem, sir. The central bank has more than enough to—"

"The treasury isn’t going to pay for it. Nor will the civilian government be responsible for it."

Both of them waited for Xiaoyun to continue as they looked a little intrigued by what he could be suggesting.

"A week ago, I remember seeing on the news. We’re giving out licenses for investment funds, right?"

This time, Muxie nodded his head. He knew what Xiaoyun was talking about, as he was the one who approved the fund’s licenses.

"I got the perfect investment opportunities for them. War bonds at 10% yield with one year maturity."

"How much are we talking exactly?" Liuqian questioned.

Xiaoyun raised nine fingers, which instantly caused both Liuqian and Muxie’s eyes to widen, their hands shaking a little.

"Ten billions?" Muxie nervously asked.

"Three billion. But you all only need to cover 1.5 billion. I’ll get the other half from land sales directly to the government."

Both Muxie and Liuqian looked to each other for a second, then looked back over to Xiayun with hesitation on their faces.

"Does the deputy governor know about this?" Liuqian questioned.

"She knows there will be a new military operation. Don’t worry about that part, I’ll convince her and the treasury department."

Seeing the two of them still hesitating, Xiaoyun pulled out two different cards from his sleeve.

"Remember, the interest rate right now is near zero. It’s the best opportunity with guaranteed payment for those investment funds."

"Governor, why not just let the central bank buy it then?" Muxie raises his one last concern in mind.

"Because it will look bad. I know the central bank has the money, but the public will still think the government is printing money to pay for it."