The Six-Horned Dragon's carcass was hauled away by the Logistics and Supply Section. Of the fifty-odd eggs, over forty went with it. Shen Cong kept ten for his own use.

By early evening, the Equipment Development Section arrived with his order.

Twenty bone-gold howitzer shells — specialized rounds packed with Activity core fragments. Three thousand 7.62mm rotary machine gun rounds. Thirty thousand complete sets of primer, propellant, and casings, sealed and preserved. And one specialized piece of equipment: a pressure-cutting machine, a bullet-head fabricator.

The fabricator took large Activity core pieces and cut and ground them into finished projectiles in three calibers: 7.62mm, 9mm, and 12.7mm.

A complete round had four components — projectile, casing, primer, and propellant. The projectile was the hardest to produce well. The casing wasn't difficult. But primer and propellant required strict manufacturing conditions that only the Command could maintain. The casings, primers, and propellants themselves could be mass-produced without special materials. Only the projectile required Activity core material.

Standard practice for Command infantry units: draw casings, primers, and propellant from central supply, carry a fabricator on operations, and make projectiles in the field from whatever Activity cores the unit recovered from kills. Or bring a stock of pre-selected cores and fabricate as needed, returning unused cores to supply afterward.

Nothing wasted. Maximum utility from every Activity core.

The delivery included a settlement figure: the Six-Horned Dragon carcass and eggs, less the weapons package, netted Shen Cong two hundred and fifty thousand greenbacks.

One jin beast kill had made him wealthy.

"Colonel Chen — please verify receipt." The Equipment Development Section representative got a signature and left.

Shen Cong loaded everything into Great Vajra.

The truck was nearly full.

A good problem, but a problem. "Too much cargo — it'll slow tomorrow's journey. Need to clear some space."

He went through the inventory. The high-vitality "more vital" Activity fruit he'd been holding back from sale — the time had come to move it.

Potatoes: the Command already had those. No premium available. Keep enough for seed stock, sell the rest at base price.

Awakening Lotus Seeds:…