My Apocalypse System Arrives 10 Years Early

Chapter 539: Chapter 342: It Turns Out the Highest Realm of an ”Infrastructure Maniac” Is Physical Sanctification

With the Apocalypse drawing near, jadeite and jewelry had become hard to sell. The more chaotic the world became, the more worthless these items grew. Meanwhile, the price of gold soared, climbing to over 1,300 yuan per gram. Some even predicted it would surpass 2,000 yuan.

It was outrageous.

However, on second thought, it was to be expected during such a transformative era.

Antiques in times of peace, gold in times of chaos.

Some might ask: in the Apocalypse, shouldn’t things like food and gasoline be the real hard currency?

But anyone who has studied economics knows that things like food and gasoline can’t fulfill the role of a currency.

In ancient times, people used shells, which later evolved into diverse forms of currency like knife money in the states of Qi and Yan, spade money in the Central Plains, and round coins in the state of Qin.

After unifying China, Emperor Qin Shi Huang introduced the half-tael coin, which was round with a square hole, establishing the foundational design for Chinese coinage. Emperor Wu of Han later centralized the authority to mint currency and issued the Five Coin Money, weighing approximately 3.25 grams. It remained in circulation for over 700 years, becoming the standard for ancient currency.

The inherent properties of food and gasoline mean they can’t function directly as currency; they fail to meet the necessary criteria. Oil, however, can serve as an anchor. For instance, after the collapse of the Bretton Woods system, the United States and Saudi Arabia signed the Petrodollar Agreement in 1974. This pegged the US Dollar to oil and cemented the dollar’s global dominance. That is why the Middle East is the strategic heart of the Beautiful Country, its most vital region—one it cannot afford to lose.

The reason the ”Dad State” is the little hegemon of the Middle East is also closely tied to this. Of course, there are far deeper reasons why the ”Dad State” is the ”Dad State”—an entity that acts like a Supreme Emperor.

In today’s world, only gold is the ultimate hard currency.

To put it simply, imagine if gasoline became the hard currency. During the Apocalypse, you’d be lugging a bucket of gasoline to buy some steamed buns. Just picture it. The slightest spark, and the whole bun shop could go up in flames.

As for bartering, it’s long been obsolete. It’s just not suitable for large, populous markets, especially for retail. You want buns, I want clothes, and he wants medicine—how is anyone supposed to make a trade?

You’re carrying gasoline, trying to buy buns, but the bun seller has already accepted too much gasoline and has nowhere to store it. Now, he’s only trading for clothes or medicine...

Your stomach is growling, you’re dizzy with hunger, and you’re dragging your bucket of gasoline all over town trying to trade it for clothes. But the clothes seller only wants a woman in exchange, and you’re a man... and the medicine seller will only trade for a weapon...

Bartering might only be possible for large-scale transactions between nations or factions.

With global stock and real estate markets crashing and gold prices skyrocketing, the currencies of all nations in the existing economic system are rapidly losing value. A new era demands a new economic system.

At Li Xiang’s suggestion, the country began preparations for a new currency: the ”Heat Coin.” It would be anchored to food reserves, with one unit being equivalent to the energy required to sustain an adult for 24 hours, and it would replace traditional money.

In the Apocalypse, neither gold nor oil would be as important as food.

And China had the foundation to make this happen. To put it bluntly, when it came to food reserves, no other country could compare. Moreover, once spring came, they would immediately begin promoting Grandpa Yuan’s high-yield hybrid rice seeds.

This was a strain capable of producing 1,251.5 kilograms per mu in a single season. (In October 2023, Grandpa Yuan’s team cultivated the ”Liangyou 8022” variety in Dechang County, Liangshan Prefecture, Sichuan Province. After testing, it achieved a single-season yield of 1,251.5 kg per mu, setting a new world record for single-season hybrid rice. Using techniques like dry-nursery sparse sowing and wide-narrow row transplanting, the experimental fields reached a maximum average yield of 1,316.5 kg per mu.)

It had also undergone multiple tests in other locations and had been planted as a double-season crop. With two harvests a year, the average yield could exceed 1,500 kilograms per mu.

Of course, with the climate now unstable, the yield might be lower, or it might only be suitable for a single growing season. Even so, this rice variety was already a trump card.

Zhao Xueqing, who was in charge of the underground farms, was also experimenting with this rice variety, hoping to set an even higher yield record there.

The environment in the underground farms was different from the surface, and she was extremely ambitious, not content with a mere 1,500-kilogram yield.

’The higher this record, the better!’ As for whether it tasted good, that was not a consideration. As long as it could fill a stomach, that was all that mattered.

The ”Heat Coin” was just a trial balloon, floated to gauge public opinion and prepare for the future. It would be a gradual transition so the change wouldn’t be too sudden for people to accept.

However, even if the ”Heat Coin” became the prevailing currency, gold and oil would still hold significant sway. Their inherent properties determined this. Gold would likely prove more enduring and more sought-after than oil.

Thousands of currencies have come and gone throughout history, but for millennia, gold has remained unshakable.

Fortunately, Li Xiang’s personal gold reserves were also immense.

He had later gone to Lake Baikal and inadvertently salvaged 1,600 tons of gold from the bottom of the lake. Rumor had it that the gold was sunk by a Russian czar during a time of crisis to protect the national treasury.

Lake Baikal is incredibly deep, with an average depth of 730 meters and a maximum depth of 1,620 meters. Moreover, the exact location of the gold was unknown, its ownership was disputed, and Russia would never permit a salvage operation, making any recovery attempt immensely difficult. But Li Xiang possessed the Giant Whale Saint Armor. He could venture into the deepest oceans; a mere lake like Baikal was trivial for him.

Furthermore, he possessed an Earth Superpower. As long as there was unmined gold underground, he could find it if he really wanted to. Then, using his Crystal Gold Armor to refine it was merely a matter of time.

But whether it was gold, US Dollars, or ”Heat Coins,” they were all just mediums of exchange. Behind them still lay productivity in the form of material goods. Without that productivity, all of them would be worthless.