In addition, there were over twenty thousand packets of ready-to-eat meals, all high-calorie foods like braised pork in soy sauce and beef with potatoes. Because he was buying in bulk, the price was cheap. He had negotiated the average cost of a braised pork meal down to six yuan per packet, while other dishes were even cheaper, averaging four and a half yuan each.

Hao Lei had the factory deliver the goods directly to Fang Zhen’s apartment complex in two trucks. After slipping the security guard a few packs of nice cigarettes, they drove the trucks straight into the underground parking garage.

He had also struck a deal with a warehouse club, which delivered three thousand pounds of rice, along with dozens of boxes of compressed biscuits, canned luncheon meat that was nearing its expiration date, and more.

In truth, none of this was particularly healthy by modern standards. Health-conscious people who bought instant noodles opted for things like non-fried, additive-free soba noodles. And ready-to-eat meals had an even worse reputation. Even though many food delivery services used them, the general consensus was that they were unhealthy.

But Fang Zhen’s situation was completely different; you couldn’t apply the same logic.

In the modern world, with its abundance of resources, people had become more discerning, prioritizing health and nutrition.

However, this era of abundance was a relatively recent phenomenon. Even in America seventy or eighty years ago, during the Great Depression, the primary requirement for food was simply energy—calories.

In post-World War II Germany and Japan, there was a time when the average person consumed less than 1,300 calories a day. As for Xia Country back then, the situation was even worse.

An adult man needs over two thousand calories a day. These so-called modernized nations have only been free from widespread hunger for less than a century.

In the Nameless World, the average calorie intake could only be lower, not higher. Most of the population teetered on the brink of starvation.

Take the soldiers of the Nameless World, for instance. Fang Zhen knew a little about nutrition, and a quick glance at their rations told him they were getting only about sixteen hundred calories a day. Even with an extra meal, they might reach seventeen or eighteen hundred.

Of course, the people of the Nameless World were generally smaller, and their metabolisms didn’t seem as fast, so sixteen or seventeen hundred calories was just barely enough to sustain them.

Therefore, to the people of the Nameless World, even if fried instant noodles weren’t healthy, they provided more than enough calories. A single block of noodles was five hundred calories, and with the oil and seasoning packets, it was closer to six hundred. Modern people might shun them, but in the Nameless World, they were a delicacy.

The same logic applied to the ready-to-eat meals. While modern people knew they weren’t healthy, from a pure calorie and flavor standpoint, meals like braised pork and stewed beef were good enough to be served as a feast for the troops in the Nameless World.

It was the same for the rice, compressed biscuits, and short-dated luncheon meat.

Fang Zhen did a rough calculation. Based on the cost of these supplies, feeding one soldier for a day would cost about seven yuan.

Compared to the real world, the Xia Country military divided its meal standards into four tiers. The first-tier mess, the standard for a common soldier, cost only eleven yuan per day. His standard of seven yuan per day for a soldier in the Nameless World seemed a bit low, but it all depended on the comparison.

In the Nameless World, this was an absolutely top-tier standard. It completely crushed the rations provided by any other Duke’s army.

Fang Zhen’s soldiers would be more than satisfied. Their calorie intake would certainly be higher than that of other armies, and it was a vast improvement over what they had been eating before.

In short, his competition made him look good.

With the supplies secured, all that was left was to move them. He planned to do it during the day, when most people were at work and the elevators were free, moving everything to the Nameless World piece by piece, like an ant moving its home.

...

「The next day at noon.」

「In the Nameless World, near the Light Gate in the Ashton Territory Forest.」

Fang Zhen, clad in armor, sat atop the Red Hare Horse.

Behind him, supplies were piled up like a small mountain.

Astride his horse, Fang Zhen felt a little drowsy.

He had spent yesterday moving all the supplies.

Two hundred thousand packs of hundred-gram instant noodle blocks alone weighed twenty thousand kilograms. Including the ready-to-eat meals, rice, canned goods like luncheon meat, and compressed biscuits, the total weight came to over fifty thousand kilograms—and he had moved it all by himself.

Fortunately, Fang Zhen wasn’t afraid to spend money. He had spent over three thousand yuan on a large-capacity, electric-powered hand truck. The kind of thing used for moving freight or ceramic tiles, it had an electric-assist motor, a semi-automated dumping function for easy unloading, and a capacity of over seven hundred liters. It could carry seven or eight hundred pounds at a time.

Fang Zhen lost count of how many trips it took to get all the supplies into the Nameless World.

With his excellent constitution, powerful strength, and great stamina, he wasn’t so much tired as he was annoyed. The process was tedious and required a lot of patience.

He’d done it once, and he never wanted to do it again.

’I wonder if there’s a way to expand or upgrade the Light Gate’s peripherals in the future,’ he thought. ’It would be best if I could just drive a truck through. That would make transporting supplies much more convenient. Failing that, I could save up and buy a detached house in the city. That would also be more convenient. Oh well. I’ll just count this as a workout.’

He had solved the army’s supply problem.

Besides, he was eager to see the looks on the faces of those who had doubted him yesterday—people like Mage Mansa—when they saw this mountain of supplies.

That thought alone had filled him with motivation as he worked, and now he was eagerly anticipating the arrival of Mansa and the others who were coming to retrieve the goods.