My Post-Apocalyptic Shelter Levels Up Infinitely!

by Stayrr

As disaster was about to strike, a group of survivors transmigrated into a desolated world and were challenged to a game of survival. From terrifying acid rains, to endless natural disasters, the heavens burn while the earth scorches, radiation is rampant, and nobody is spared from the dangers of this hellscape. The only way one survives is by building a shelter and slowly upgradin

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My Post-Apocalyptic Shelter Levels Up Infinitely! #Chapter 481 - Dismantle, The Mysteries Of The Modular Technology! - Read My Post-Apocalyptic Shelter Levels Up Infinitely! Chapter 481 - Dismantle, The Mysteries Of The Modular Technology! Online - All Page - Novel Next

Chapter 481 Dismantle, The Mysteries Of The Modular Technology!

A self-proclaimed genius hypocrite: Exposed to astronautics at the age of nine, entered the School of the Gifted Young, a "youth class" in the University of Science and Technology of China with a 52 mode of study at the age of thirteen, acquired his Ph.D. at the age of twenty, achieved the maximum points of the Science Citation Index continuously at the age of twenty-three, recruited as a super talent to study at the largest research base at the age of twenty-eight, single-handedly promoted the progress of astronautics at the age of thirty-four, became the top research scientist of the expeditionary force and participated in the construction of the satellite base on the Wasteland at the age of forty.

A true prodigy: The prodigy landed an entry-level role from being an outsider in a span of ten days. The prodigy progressed from an entry-level position to an expert in less than a month.

It was not necessary to expound on the progress of the prodigy, nor to be lauded for his achievement.

It was a wonderful feeling.

Lu Kuan's feelings came out of nowhere as he watched Su Mo dismantle the engine seriously.

It was the second day of the fourth month, four hours and fifty minutes in the morning at that time.

Hope One arrived at the place they planned to disembark before dawn.

Su Mo wanted to minimize the time spent in doing research, so he took the opportunity to commence his work while everyone was still fast asleep.

It was already the second hour since Su Mo was engrossed in his work.

However, Lu Kuan could not distinguish the difference between the first hour of Su Mo's movements and the second hour.

Truth to be told, if it were not for Su Mo's biological motion, Lu Kuan would have thought that the man in front of him was a robot!

"Lu Kuan, I need the No.13 plier, disassembly tool, hand-held electric arc, and the oxide film. Please pass them to me in the right sequence!"

Upon hearing Su Mo's request,Lu Kuan immediately passed the tools to Su Mo in the sequence he requested.

There used to be a discussion on who to perform the dismantling when faced with an unknown object.

At that time, everyone chose Ai Jianfeng to dismantle the mechanical components of a machine.

It was a pity everyone changed their mind after Su Mo entered.

Su Mo's movements were limited by his robotic arm. In the virtual world, Su Mo just could not compare with Ai Jianfeng who had been a professional in this field for decades.

However, in the outside world, Su Mo could perform far better with his agility.

The human skeleton is made up of 206 bones and a total of 639 muscles in the human body, providing unparalleled body support, enabling Su Mo to achieve accuracy and precision similar to the machine tool.

It would not be an exaggeration to say that Su Mo currently possessed the potential to become a Level 8 fitter.

His nimbleness had exceeded the progress of most machine tools on Earth.

"What a monster. This is almost like a max-level human participating in the wilderness survival field trip for the students of an elementary school."

Upon hearing a loud ripping noise, Lu Kuan immediately took his mind off his racing thoughts and lowered himself down to receive the parts Su Mo had dismantled.

Simultaneously, his mind connected directly with virtual reality and visualized a well-equipped laboratory.

"Coordinating module grade 3. Transmitting the data now."

"Zhuo Junfan, Ou Yangguo, please hurry your analysis up!"

Both of them were focused on their analysis and merely nodded without turning around.

Once the data transmission was completed, Lu Kuan hurriedly exited the virtual realm.

"Su Mo, there is one last component from the coordination module. Should we dismantle the other parts?"

"It will be a disaster if we dismantle the last component of the module and the machine stops functioning!"

Su Mo nodded his head in agreement and exclaimed, "very well!"

Even though he had the access to the system evaluation, he was unsure of what to dismantle next.

Su Mo followed the advice given and began to dismantle the second module which was the control module.

Unfortunately, once the control module grade 1 was dismantled from its main module, the engine power was abruptly reduced by 30%.

"This is not good. The engine is still losing power. You can't dismantle it anymore!"

"Dismantle the last component of the coordination module and let's see whether there will be any response!'

The engine power of Hope One would usually remain at approximately 60% by night. Although the 30% loss of engine power did not cause a major blackout, it still led to a shortage of power supply in the ship.

The power supply of the crew's cabin on the first level was cut off while the power supply was redirected to the temporary research lab and the warning module.

As soon as Lu Kuan ended his conversation, Su Mo immediately shifted his focus to the last component of the coordination module and began to dismantle it carefully.

Unfortunately, after the last component of the coordination module was dismantled, the engine power was reduced to 40%!

"This is bad. This engine operates on a closed-loop algorithm to perform a logic check. When we remove the outer layer of the components, the system will automatically detect and troubleshoot. These components will be temporarily removed from being detected. However, we have removed too many components, the engine will deploy another logic check and reduce the power to ensure the stability of the engine."

"Su Wei, come and help please!"

The vibration was similar to Parkinson's tremors. Lu Kuan shocked himself with electricity, hastily left his robotic body, and returned to the glass brain box.

Su Wei who stood behind and awaited orders, took his place swiftly.

Su Wei took a U-disk from the storage space, plugged it into the port of the engine, and started tapping away.

As she tapped, numerous green characters flashed across the screen and returned to its quiet state afterward.

The good news was that the engine stopped losing its power and started increasing to 50%.

"Su Mo, our data breach can only delay the performance of the logic evaluation mechanism for thirty minutes. After thirty minutes, no matter how much we have dismantled, as long as we didn't reassemble, the power of the engine may instantly plunge to 0%. It may initiate its destruct sequence!"

"Quick!"

"We have to scan all data of the modules within thirty minutes!"

Su Wei tried to buy time and this was the only thing she could help with as a top computer scientist.

Su Mo immediately lowered his head and began to dismantle the engine roughly in the limited time he had left.

Su Mo tried to remember everything from the screws, snap fasteners, plastic pegs, and even how they were fastened.

After dismantling and keying in the data, he aimed to reassemble them.

Su Mo could work much faster after ignoring certain steps.

His fingers worked nimbly as though he was arranging flowers. He could locate every opening and dismantle a component without damaging the other components.

He could easily figure out how some parts were seamlessly connected and dismantled them skillfully.

Earlier, Su Mo took two hours to dismantle the entire coordination module.

He could dismantle the control module, changed eight components in the module, and laid them neatly on the floor in fourteen minutes only.

"Su Mo, why don't you take a break? We still have sixteen minutes left."

He was under tremendous pressure to complete the work.

Su Wei noticed Su Mo had turned deathly pale and his forehead was beaded with sweat.

It was as though an unathletic person had just participated in intensive cardio training.

Su Wei could tell that Su Mo was in a terrible state without the need for the auxiliary robotic scan.

"No, we don't have much time!"

"Pass me the tools. I need the 45-caliber conversion knife, shock arc welder, and a hot melt glue stick."

"Quick!"

As he yelled for the tools he needed, he drank some psychic energy-water he retrieved from his storage space.

While lying on his stomach, Su Mo took the tools from Su Wei and performed the first incision on the last two remaining modules.

Just as Su Mo predicted, there was an immediate power dip after the first incision was performed.

The power that was originally at 50% capacity had plunged to 20% in a matter of five seconds.

This led to a blackout in the ship except for the indoor lighting at the third level and the virtual reality.

Fortunately, the power capacity did not plunge further until Su Mo completed the dismantling of the output modules. The power capacity then gradually dropped to 0%.

"Captain Su Mo, it has been detected that the power supply stopped working. The OS has automatically activated the use of emergency power supply. Currently, the power supply is supported by the…indoor lighting!"

The virtual reality was integrated with independent backup power. Hope One was also equipped with a 50 kilowatts electricity reserve.

Su Mo slowed down and exhaled deeply when he held the last output module.

"That will do. Go do your research using virtual reality. I'll take it from here!"

"Alright!"

Without further ado, Su Wei returned to the glass brain box, back into the realms of virtual reality.

The engine room went quiet all of a sudden. The only sound in the room was that of the beeping sound the robot made every minute.

"How amazing it is to see the modules being assembled in this manner."

"The input and output modules are not entirely independent of one another and this resembles…human arm?

Without any pressure, Su Mo was able to relax and his brain became more active.

It was different from what they had imagined.

The structure of the modular technology bore resemblance to the structure of the human body.

The human arm could push, pull, raise, drag and perform other various movements by using the same joints and muscles.

This was similar to what the engine could accomplish using the input and output modules.

Once foreign objects enter the input terminal, the engine would not analyze the object using a singular module. Rather, it would integrate and activate all modules to complete the operation.

This guaranteed the structural integrity and ductility of the modules.

"Currently, we only have the Civil Type II engine. Does it mean that the Civil Type III or the Military Type engine models have been equipped with more modules and there will be a radical reform in the mobilization strategy?"

He quickly dismantled the last input module of the engine and keyed in the data swiftly before entering the virtual realm.

There was enough equipment for everyone to carry out their research in the virtual realm.

Furthermore, their experiments would not cause any harm to the outside world.

Besides not being able to simulate the physical condition of the outside world to perform a complete reaction, the virtual realm was indeed a perfect location for research purposes!

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Chapter 482 Preparations Complete, Relocating On A Starry Night!

At this hour, just before landing in the New World and starting on the relocation to their new territory, all the villagers on Hope One were either awakened by the heat, the stuffiness or were startled awake.

Month 4, Day 2, 6.15 a.m. When the first door of the ship's living quarters opened and gasps were heard from the people who dashed out, the rest of the doors opened as well like a series of dominoes.

Without exception, everyone wore expressions of bewildered astonishment.

"Sh*t, what happened, am I still asleep?"

"We can't have been abducted by aliens. Oh no, don't tell me we've fallen into the foreign races' trap!"

"Yuan Zi, pinch me, quick… ouch, that hurts. This is… real!"

In between their noisy chatter, within less than two minutes, everyone who had remained in their rooms came out as well.

Normally, the walkway that could only accommodate 5 people at a time would certainly have been packed to the brim.

However, over a thousand people were standing there now, and they still could not fill up even half the space.

The walkway had expanded!

It was now an astounding… 10 meters wide!

The compact 15 square meter cabins that everyone had squeezed into had also suddenly increased to 40 square meters in size!

The interior of the entire ship seemed to have absorbed water and suddenly expanded to almost three times its size!

"Everyone, please wake up and prepare your belongings. We have reached the landing point. We expect to set out in half a day, or a day at most.

"The power supply for the entire ship has been cut, and maintenance is in progress.

"The increased size of the ship that you are looking at now is all part of our Shelter Leader's plan. There's no need to panic!"

Chen Shen hurried out from the crowd with a megaphone and addressed everyone.

It did not matter whether what he said was true or not. Once the villagers heard that it was the Shelter Leader's plan and that they had reached the landing point, everyone's spirits lifted immediately. For the time being, they forgot about the power cut and became excited instead.

They had drifted on the ocean for a whole

month.

They had been homeless nomads for four months.

After such a long wait, it was finally time to "return home"!

Like precise and orderly gears, all the villagers finished their meals in two hours and stored all their items in their storage space.

They came up to the deck. Some quietly walked while others sat, all looking with shining eyes at the New World that was now so close at hand.

Time passed in a flash as they waited.

Just after one in the afternoon, after everyone had finished their lunch, Su Mo stumbled out from below decks.

"Leader Su, you…"

"I'm alright. I just need to rest for a while. After I wake up, we'll set out immediately!"

Su Mo did not need a mirror to guess how dreadful he looked at present.

Given he had not slept all night and his mind had been working in high gear, practically every inch of Su Mo's energy had been wrung out.

Fortunately, after so long, his willpower was now no longer what it used to be.

Otherwise, even in the best-case scenario, any other person would have immediately fainted!

Su Mo called Chen Shen over and murmured some instructions into his ear. Then, he hurriedly climbed up the stairs laboriously and returned to the captain's quarters.

The next second, without even bothering to freshen himself up, he planted himself on the small bed in his quarters and immediately sank into a deep sleep.

He was exhausted!

Exhausted to the depths of his soul!

As Su Mo lay down, all the cells in his body practically cheered and jumped for joy. They were ready to start a new round of efficient work.

The old dead cells would be eliminated and replenished by new cells through cell division.

In fact, even in the chaotic regions of the brain, extremely noticeable blood flow signals were already beginning to surge.

From a biological standpoint, Su Mo's current physical body structure was no different from any other human.

Internally, however, the difference was like night and day.

Naturally, Su Mo was not aware of these changes; he was dead asleep. He slept for 6 hours before gradually opening his eyes.

'Oof, in future I can't stay up all night like this again. Otherwise, I might die any day from exhaustion!

'Such high-level brain activity will surely shorten my lifespan significantly!'

He opened his eyes and felt his heart still beating vigorously.

He slowly sat up, still harboring lingering

fear.

This was completely different from how refreshed he used to feel. Even though he had slept for such a long time, a faint sense of weakness and exhaustion still lingered within his body.

This was not the repercussions of burning midnight oil.

Instead, it was the consequence of exerting the brain continuously without rest.

In the short term, if nothing unforeseen happened and he had plenty of time to rest, he would still be fine.

However, if he encountered a crucial decision or a life-and-death struggle, this fluctuating state could cost him his life!

Fortunately, after drinking a bottle of psychic energy water, his condition was eased significantly. "It might have been tiring, but the rewards are splendid. Now, I just have to wait for the specific equipment to be manufactured. Then, I can start trying to make improvements!"

He sat at the desk and watched the handful of sporadic lights outside. From his chest pocket, he took out a USB flash drive.

He had worked for nearly 10 hours, but as expected, he still could not completely analyze the matter conversion engine.

Furthermore, based on his current progress, only the analysis of the input and output modules was complete.

This was not just an issue of time constraints. It was more that there was a huge disparity between technologies, which slowed down the progress of the entire project.

Even so, now that he had the input and output module, it would not be hard to resolve the remaining problems. Once the construction of the territory was successful, and the power research capabilities were resumed, it would only take three months at most to come up with the working principles behind the construction of the entire engine, using the existing components.

Su Mo was in no hurry. He calmly calculated last night's technological process.

It was not until 8 at night that he stood up leisurely. He spent 10 Disaster Points and put the USB flash drive into his storage space.

The next second, as he turned to leave and pushed open the door of the captain's quarters, the faint hubbub on the deck instantly died down.

Without the power supply, the humans on Hope One had once again returned to the very beginning of barbarian times.

On the now-expanded deck, several fires were kindled, radiating blazing heat to their surroundings.

Before Su Mo had come out of his quarters, the villagers were sitting by the fire, chatting up a storm.

One moment, they would be happily imagining how they would flaunt their skills once they reached their territory.

Another moment later, they would dream about whether they would be able to restore mankind's glory in the future, just like in the "olden days".

However, once Su Mo came out of his quarters, everyone immediately set aside all these thoughts. The only thing on their minds now was the following phrase…

To set out!

"Chen Shen!"

"Present!"

Chen Shen, who was sitting at the very front, immediately responded. He hurriedly stood up and jogged to the front.

With everyone's gaze on him, Su Mo stated quietly, "Start the preparations. We will set out immediately at midnight!"

Traveling at night was a big taboo.

Yet, in the New World, it was quite the opposite.

With the protection that the game had provided, everyone did not need to fear that they would be attacked by foreign races. They could reach the new territory with absolute safety.

Furthermore, based on the pace of their travel, they would arrive in the territory just as afternoon fell. They could sleep and replenish their energy; the timing was just perfect!

"Yes, Shelter Leader.

"But…our Hope One…"

Su Mo smiled as he shook his head. "It doesn't matter. Everyone only needs to bring their personal belongings, and the logistics team only needs to bring two days' worth of rations. Leave the rest of the items on board. When the time comes, I'll have a way to handle it!"

Last night, Su Mo had used the two new abilities that Hope One had acquired after attaining legendary-level and experimented to see the results.

It was just like the divine weapons in mythic stories.

With a mere flicker of Su Mo's thoughts, Hope One increased by three times its size, as if it had suddenly ballooned from eating.

Looking at it from the outside world, Hope One had now reached at least 240 meters in length.

Its width was now almost a staggering 50 meters!

Based on the description of this ability, he could still use it a few more times and could certainly first shrink Hope One to the size of his palm.

He could then carry the miniature ship to the territory, expand it there, and retrieve all the items on board. Then he could activate the Thousand Realm Traveler ability.

Now that he no longer had to worry about this future matter, Chen Shen received his orders and immediately withdrew. Everyone on Hope One also began busying themselves.

The cooks began to cook.

Those assigned to kindle a fire began to do so.

The scouting team was the first to disembark. They began to systematically explore the surrounding area.

In the meantime, the defense team changed into full-body gear and began doing pre-battle pep talks.

Su Mo was not idle either. He took advantage of this intermission to quickly have a meal in the kitchen, then swiftly returned to the small research room where Lu Kuan and the others were staying.

"Eh, Su Mo, you've recovered so quickly!"

For the past few days, Lu Kuan and the few others who had been placed in the glass brain box had been well-nourished with psychic energy water. The lifespan of their brains was now securely maintained at 800 years.

Even after their labors last night, their brains' lifespans had only decreased by 70 years. It only needed the nourishment from two bottles of psychic energy water for them to rapidly recover.

Furthermore, residing in the glass box meant that their brains would not need to be responsible for the recuperation of body parts below the neck. In terms of brainpower recovery speed, it was utterly unattainable for a normal person.

"No, I'm still far from it. I'll need to sleep for at least another two or three days before I can fully recover.

"By the way, we're about to start our relocation. The chests of brains will temporarily be left onboard. When I reach the new territory, I'll let all of you out!"

The backup power supply for the chests of brains could still deliver power for another 180 days. In terms of duration, it could be considered ample time.

As such, Lu Kuan had no objections. He merely nodded in agreement on behalf of the rest.

All preparations were now complete.

With a flashlight, Su Mo took the flight of stairs to the third level to make a round of inspection.

He finally stopped in front of the secret door that led to the engine room and began knocking on the wall in a specific sequence.

With a few faint creaks, the secret door was opened from the inside, revealing Connie's slightly exhausted leonine face.

"You've been working really hard! There are no problems inside, right?"

Connie shook her head. "No, but Wolf Three's condition is worsening by the day. The onset ought to happen within these few days but the rest of the foreign races are still alright. Currently, with Wolf Three still in his condition from the last round, it will take at least a long cycle of 14 to 28 days before his symptoms will gradually emerge!"

Su Mo followed behind Connie, and both came to the secret door at the end of the secret passage.

This was the only place on Hope One where the power was still maintained.

Even after the power supply was completely cut, by using the backup power supply, this place could still maintain the lights for another 7 days, as well as the steel feeding pipeline that operated three times a day.

Su Mo shone the flashlight precisely at Wolf Three's face.

Sure enough, just as Connie had stated, Wolf Three's face was savagely ferocious, and his eyes had turned blood red. It was a terrifying sight to behold.

"Tomorrow, then the day after tomorrowonce they're transferred out after two days, your task will be complete. You just need to hang on for another two more days!" "Don't worry, I'll be here!"

After integrating with the inhabitants of Hope Village, Connie was no longer like the foreign races. Apart from her external appearance, she was not that different from a human being

Now that he had completed his observations, Su Mo noticed that only 20 minutes remained before midnight.

He made his way through the secret passage and watched the secret door close before he retraced his steps and returned once more to the deck.

Su Mo had been on the ocean for a month and had spent three months undergoing the God of the Ocean's trial.

Altogether, it had been over four months since he had left the shelter.

At this moment, just before they set out on their relocation, he looked at the villagers, all ready with their baggage and outfitted with various weapons and armor.

He did not know why, but his heart swelled with great pride.

The next second, he stood on the platform and raised Hope Village's flag up high, which fluttered in the wind.

With a roar of voices, all the villagers raised their right hands.

"All inhabitants of Hope Village, hear my command.

"We will disembark in 15 minutes. Our objective—the New World!"

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Chapter 483 Rapid March! Heaven and Hell!

After Su Mo announced that they would now disembark and head for their new territory, the villagers on the deck did not cheer at all. Instead, they began checking their belongings one final time in a disciplined manner.

This intuitive response came about as a result of the 7 days of training.

After wartime regulations were initiated, everyone no longer functioned as individuals.

They were now collaborators in a collective, and they had only one task.

To obey orders!

At 11.55, the passageway door on the second level of the deck slowly opened.

Thanks to the expansion in width, the narrow passageway that could only contain one individual at first could now fit three to four individuals walking together.

In less than three minutes, once the last person had entered the passageway, Su Mowho had been standing at the back, observing – joined them as well.

Bang!

With a violent pull, the door that connected the second level of the deck and the passageway was slammed shut in an instant.

Despite hearing the door slam, everyone did not stop but scaled the stairs in orderly fashion. A brisk pace brought them to the ocean.

Being the last person in line, by the time Su Mo exited the passageway, most of the villagers had already organized themselves into teams on the distant shores of the New World and were standing in disciplined ranks. They had begun to "daydream".

Evidently, the reward for landing in the New World had been issued.

With a faint smile, Su Mo closed the passage door that led downwards. Following the stairs, he then took an agile leap as he landed on the lifeboat that had been prepared beforehand.

As he rowed and reached the shores of the New World, a notification issued by the game suddenly sounded a second later.

[Record): Congratulations, player Su Mo. You have successfully landed in the "New World" that symbolizes a new life

[Record): Here, you will enjoy a completely different game environment from the wasteland, immerse yourself in a rich new culture, and participate in the unprecedented Clash of Races. If you are bold enough, perhaps you can realize your dreams here and ascend to new heights in your life

(Record): It has been detected that your territory has successfully transferred to the New World. Its current coordinates are 358.252, and its distance from the player's current position as the crow flies is 1629 kilometers

(Record): It has been detected that the number of subordinate players under you is 1405 players. All 1405 players have been automatically transferred to be under your command and will receive the same bonus in territory properties

[Record: Congratulations, player Su Mo. Given that your territory has been successfully established, on your journey to the territory, you will receive an invincibility bonus within the range of the route (following the route predetermined by the game will result in bonuses of movement speed 500%, stamina recovery rate 100%, and you will not be seen by all other living beings). Please be aware that if you go beyond the determined range for 30 seconds or more, all bonuses will be lost and will not be awarded again in the future

[Record: Congratulations, player Su Mo. You have been detected as the 138952271st human to land in the New World. You will automatically receive a 100 millionth level rank reward

(Record): Your rank rewards are: Dry rations (1kg)*1, drinking water (5L), random item card (normal)*1. Your rewards have been stored in your storage space. Please check

(Record): It has been detected that you have successfully reached the New World. By default, the game will issue a platinum level Disaster Privilege Reward "Pioneer"

[Record: Your privileges have been issued. Please enter your game panel to check

[Record): Enjoy gaming!

Altogether, there were ten records.

They sounded one after the other.

However, it was different from what he expected. Out of all the records, Su Mo first noticed the invincibility bonus awarded by the game. Only then did he notice his rank.

He was ranked number 130 million.

'Who would have thought there were so many gamblers among us humans.

'They're not wrong, though. We're already at Doomsday. If we don't take a gamble, how will we ever know where our upper limits lie!'

He closed the notifications and called up the game panel to inspect his privileges.

His gaze was remote as if he had pierced through space and seen every living being that resided in the New World.

Based on the timeframe, these were the early days of mankind's first arrival in the New World.

Before setting foot on dry land, everyone had speculated about what their rank might be while they ate.

Some had guessed 3 million.

Some had guessed 5 million.

Even the boldest amongst them all, Chen Kai, had guessed 10 million.

At that time, Su Mo had not shared his own guess, but in his heart, he speculated it might be 30 million.

Now, however, even this 30 million might as well be considered zero in the face of 130 million!

Based on the data model, the number of people subsequently arriving in the New World would probably exceed…

300 million!

In fact, it might even go up to 500 million!

One-fourth of mankind had decided to not live their life like cowards in the deep reaches of the ocean. Their hearts still burned with a zealous ambition to turn the tides of their lives.

A blue light flashed.

The game panel automatically switched to the privileges panel and revealed all the attributes of the Pioneer bonus.

[Privilege: Pioneer

[Description: This privilege only belongs to the bold. Any human who reaches the New World will enjoy this privilege bonus for 210 days. However, 24 hours after leaving the New World, this privilege will immediately be revoked

(Special Ability:

Phase One (day 1 to 3): Rapid March On days 1 to 3, all humans who arrive in the New World will possess the ability to rapidly advance, movement speed 500%, stamina recovery speed 200%. However, when attacked by another living being, this privilege will temporarily lose its effect, until the attack ceases

Phase Two (day 4 to 30): Locked

Phase Three (day 30 to 180): Locked

Phase Two (day 180 to 210): Locked

When Su Mo had initially negotiated the rewards with the game, he had only requested the Abundance privilege

As for the Pioneer privilege, Su Mo knew absolutely nothing about it.

At this point, when Su Mo read the description of the Rapid March ability, a trace of comprehension showed in his eyes.

For their first journey to their territory, if they followed the route predetermined by the game, they would receive a 500% movement speed bonus.

With the addition of the Rapid March ability, their movement speed would increase tenfold.

Taking into consideration that each person could walk 150 kilometers and calculating from there, even with half a day's break, this tenfold increase would allow them to travel several thousand kilometers.

Given this, it was apparent what the game's intentions were.

It wanted everyone to reach their territory as soon as possible. "The route mentioned is probably a pre-planned route that avoids all living beings and resources.

"The game is well prepared this time. It's managed to grasp everyone's mindset."

Previously, Su Mo had thought about ways to sponge off people as their journey progressed.

Now, however, considering that they were 1,600 kilometers away from their territory, there was no need at all to consider this option!

"Shelter Leader, everyone has gathered. Do we begin our journey now?'

1,400 people.

If this were a school and they were sorted into classes of 50, there would be 28 classes in total.

Right now, everyone was gathered here. Under the bright moonlight and the illumination of their burning torches, all that could be seen was a sea of black.

"Yes!"

Su Mo nodded as he met the hopeful eyes of the villagers. With a smile on his face, he turned and walked toward the beach.

A second later, in front of everyone's eyes, the colossal, 40-meter high Hope One began shrinking rapidly.

Under the villagers' tongue-tied gaze, in less than 20 seconds, Hope One-hitherto still at a distance on the ocean-had suddenly shrunk to the size of a fishing boat.

Following that, under the traction of a mysterious yellow light, it levitated into the air and drifted toward Su Mo. By the time it had floated into Su Mo's hands, the boat had shockingly shrunk to…

The size of his palm!

"Sh*t, is this the Monkey King's staff? How can its size grow and shrink?" "D*amn, my eyes have deteriorated. When did our Hope One gain the ability to transform!"

"This… this can't be a magical artifact crafted by a celestial being, can it? Don't tell me that our Shelter Leader is a cultivator of enlightenment!"

"What do you mean cultivator, our Shelter Leader is definitely a celestial being that graced us with his presence. This magical artifact…"

Uproar began breaking out among the teams.

Looking first at the empty ocean, then at Hope One now gleaming in Su Mo's palm, everyone furiously rubbed their eyes, then confirmed what they were seeing.

Hope One had indeed shrunk!

"Shelter Leader, is this… is this really Hope One?"

Su Mo came back to stand in front of all the teams. As they watched, he placed the miniature Hope One into the leather bag on his back and nodded slightly.

"Let's go. Even though Hope One has many restrictions now in the New World, under certain circumstances, it's more useful than before."

Upon hearing the word "restrictions," Chen Shen was startled.

Even so, he was smart and did not pursue the matter further. He immediately turned and began issuing orders.

Woosh!

As the team flags were raised and the orders were disseminated down the ranks, the entire group began moving forward in a disciplined manner.

Without any baggage to impede them, everyone could traverse several dozen meters. Their traveling speed was startling.

Su Mo did not want to be given special treatment, but as the crowd urged him, he reluctantly got onto the large cart that was pulled by the foreign races.

as

"Big Brother, come in and sleep. We'll call you if there's anything!'

Not only was Su Chan inside the cart, but Oreo was there as well. The husky was sprawled lazily in the corner and leisurely cleaned her fur with her tongue. At the sight of Su Mo, Oreo wagged her tail and barked softly. She wanted to tell Su Mo that there was no danger here and it was safe.

Given these few safeguards, Su Mo sat at the front of the cart to observe briefly and was finally able to set his mind at ease. He lay down on the soft mattress in the cart and fell into a deep sleep.

He had exhausted his mind, so his slumber was extremely satisfying.

There were no worries, nor any responsibilities.

He slept until nine in the morning. Only then did he leisurely open his eyes.

They had been marching rapidly for 9 hours, yet everyone had still not stopped.

With the stamina recovery bonus, everyone's stamina was maintained at 70% even up until now.

aw

After conversing with Chen Shen as they traveled, Su Mo was stunned when he became aware that the game appeared to be eager to send him—the God of Plagues—to his new territory.

Throughout their journey, they had not encountered any foreign races or even any remotely precipitous terrain at all.

The villagers had traveled through nothing but open plains throughout their entire journey. In only 9 hours, they had managed to cover a distance of…

1,000 kilometers!

Calculating based on this pace, they were traveling on foot at a speed of 110 kilometers per hour!

"Shelter Leader, we'll rest for an hour at 12.

"We'll be able to successfully reach the territory at 4 in the afternoon!'

After estimating the distance and reporting their ETA, both Chen Shen and Zhang Long's faces were full of joy without a trace of the fatigue from journeying through the entire night.

However, for whatever reason, Su Mo suddenly felt uneasy as he was sitting in the cart.

In

Everything had gone too smoothly!

Even if the game was eager for everyone to reach their new territory, a route like this was overly preferential.

Unless…

"We'll rest for 10 minutes at 12. We must reach the territory as soon as possible.

"I have a feeling we're about to encounter a big problem!"

Once Su Mo had given the order, Chen Shen caught a glimpse of Su Mo's serious expression and realized as well that the situation was not quite as simple as everyone had thought.

The two immediately retreated and issued the order to the rest.

By 2.40 in the afternoon, the 1,405 inhabitants of Hope Village had managed to traverse a distance of 1,600 kilometers to arrive at their territory.

However, it was at this very moment, as they stood by perimeters of their territory, that everyone—including Su Mo-sucked in a sharp breath.

Throughout their march here, they had seen plains that were verdant and flourishing, like the gardens of heaven.

The basin that had been submerged by seawater for a month…

Was as barren as hell itself!

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Chapter 484 So Many Things To Be Done, Our Future Is Bright!

If there was a ranking for disasters on Earth, a tsunami would be ranked first to many people!

A disaster like that would always bring about a terrifying outcome.

Not only would many lives be lost during the initial stages of the disaster, but buildings and infrastructure would also be destroyed.

What was worse than the disaster itself would be the aftermath!

Su Mo hopped off the car and hastily walked past the groups of villagers. He then proceeded to remove himself from the in-game protection before entering the territory.

The next moment, as he felt the change in the ground beneath his feet, there was an unconcealable severity on his face.

"Shelter Leader, according to the information relayed from our point men, nearly all of our territories have transformed into this state. The weird thing is, the ground outside of our territory still resembles that of the New World.

"It seems like an invisible line has stopped the horrible state of our lands from spreading out. Simultaneously, it has also stopped other living things from coming in!" With amazing speed, the scout that Hope Village sent out earlier returned quickly and relayed the information back to them.

Because of the game's restrictions, Su Mo and his crew could not deviate from their set course. Even so, what they saw during their journey simply shocked them.

The entirety of Hope Village's territory looked like a cursed land that was split open from within.

In such a situation, even though the clash of Ten Thousand Races had yet to begin, the people of the basin were already at a disadvantage. It could be said that they had lost the battle at the starting point!

In spite of that, Su Mo crouched and grabbed a handful of soil from the ground.

He rubbed the soil in his hand and watched as white substances fall to the ground.

Having tensed up for so long, Su Mo finally breathed a sigh of relief. "Thankfully the soil hasn't been liquefied yet.

"The soil has only been soaked in seawater for a long time, so they are now alkaline soil!"

Su Mo did not have high hopes for a basin that was never modified nor reinforced anyway.

That was because ever since he transmigrated into this world, this place was a barren, damned piece of land filled with nothing but sand and stones.

However, it was only after the blizzard, welfare disaster, and the energy fruit tree came along that this piece of land was finally blessed with some signs of life.

Before all of that happened, Su Mo remembered how it was like every time he went to the place where Hope Village used to be.

At the time, that place was still called Candlelight Plains.

His eyes would always be gushing with admiration in spite of himself back then!

The basin was simply horrible!

Even if the land was flooded for more than a month, it was only a little bit worse than its original condition.

It was within reason that the tough plants around the basin failed to withstand the corrosion from the salt that seeped into the ground and the alkalization of the soil.

With no nutrients to fertilize the soil, the land turned into the hellish landscape that everyone now looked at.

However, with a little bit of treatment, the saline water would no longer be a hindrance. Instead, it would enhance the quality of the soil in the early stages of farming.

More importantly, the opportunity to do so was right in front of them the whole time!

Everything… Still looked promising!

"It's okay. Let's get everyone into the territory and tell them to clean up the place. After all, we're in no state to farm right now, so this patch of land is a secondary objective. "Our priority right now is to construct a building that can withstand a huge amount of snow. Besides, we need to find out what kind of enemies we have around us.

"Hmm?"

For the first time ever, Su Mo realized that no one responded to him, much to his surprise. So, he turned around.

A smile appeared on his face in the next second.

Just like when his crew headed toward the great northwest to cultivate the wasteland, the people who had always lived on this barren piece of land felt nothing at all.

The same could not be said to the people who traveled over from the fertile lands of the south-now that they had something to compare to, they were hit with a realization that they would never forget.

In such situations, one would usually see netizens express their emotions on certain applications—the villagers were doing that right now.

The wasteland that they previously lived on was barren as well, but at least it had some grass and its soil had some color to it.

The basin, on the other hand, was completely dry and there was not an inch of grass to be seen. Now that was something that was neither seen nor heard of before.

In comparison, this place looked more like an actual wasteland. It was absolutely arid!

"Shelter Leader, why don't we… go somewhere else? There's grass on the ground on the other side and the soil is very fertile too. What if we…"

Zhang Long muttered as he walked forward, trembling.

The helplessness on his face regarding their future were obvious to any onlookers.

Besides, deep inside him, he also feared the snowstorm that was coming in just more than ten days. On this piece of barren land that housed not even a single tree, the grand plan that everyone came together to create was officially destroyed. "Zhang Long, do you think we'd have a chance at turning this around?"

Su Mo walked forward with a smile on his face and then proceeded to grab the megaphone that hung on Zhang Long's side.

As Su Mo observed the troubled faces behind him, he quickly glanced around before striding toward a huge rock and standing on top of it.

"Do you regret this?"

Su Mo looked at the villagers as they gripped their luggage so tight that their knuckles went pale.

With the help of the megaphone, Su Mo's voice projected far and wide.

"This is the basin; it's also the place where I transmigrated to.

"I'm telling you, everything that you're seeing right now isn't very different from when I first got here."

There was an uproar among the crowd!

When Su Mo gave everyone his first statement, no one responded.

However, after hearing his second statement, the villagers were astonished when they heard that the basin had not changed since!

Even the leadership team who joined the villagers were also in disbelief.

They could not believe that such a barren piece of land actually gave birth to the strongest human in history.

It was harder to believe that Su Mo actually got this far under such circumstances.

"Shelter Leader Su is right. It has… this place has always been barren. It's… just like how it is right now. There's no difference!"

Connie stepped out of the crowd as she spoke.

Her words were very persuasive. After all, she was the leader of the foreign races. In just a few seconds, the uproar died down. However, much unlike before, the distraught look on everyone's face diminished as well as the noise died down.

"Everyone, this is our territory. This is our home!

"Don't blame it because this place has nothing at all. Don't blame it because it can't give us fertile lands.

"Don't blame it for being barren either because that's how it always has been."

To everyone else, this place was completely alien to them.

To Su Mo, however, this was the place that marked the beginning of his rise through the ranks—the Underground Shelter.

This was also home to the place that brought him his first livelihood—the Deep-sea Shelter.

The sulfur mines here also enabled him to improve himself by ditching cold weapons and then switching to firearms.

There were also fossil fuels that could be mined for years on end, thus providing him with endless energy!

This place was not as "barren" as it looked.

There was unlimited potential buried in this place!

"Ever since we arrived on this land, we must let go of all unnecessary delusions.

"Ever since our ancestors' time, we've always been on the path of fighting against all odds -heaven, earth, and other people.

"Humans can always win against all odds. As long as we persist, there will be a day that this place becomes a sacred haven that everyone in the New World would admire. The civilization of mankind will also take root and rise up from here!"

Su Mo raised his right hand and pointed toward the huge patch of land behind him as a fiery ambition burst from his eyes.

"This isn't an insult, and I'm not taunting you either. Now that we've all returned to the starting line, everyone would have a bright future as long as we work hard.

"If you want to be the pioneers who recreated civilization on this land from nothing

"If you want to be recorded in the history books and be remembered as an honorable figure by your children, grandchildren, and descendants

"If you want to live in a blissful home, watch television, play video games, eat delicious food, exercise when you want to, rest when you want to, and live a carefree life

"Then, straighten your back, raise your weapons, and follow me home!"

The crowd burst into another uproar!

Su Mo did not give inspiring speeches when they journeyed on to the New World. After they disembarked from the ship and headed toward the territory, Su Mo simply hopped into the car after showing his face briefly. Just when the situation called for a leader to stand up and speak, the organized crowd began to stir after his words of encouragement resonated in the air.

Something began to stir in the crowd's previous silence.

In just three to five seconds, the moment the sound of strong and firm footsteps was heard, the crowd… went wild!

They were akin to a stampede of newly unreined feral horses; or more accurately, wanderers who had just returned home.

They broke formation and hollered at the top of their lungs as they charged out of the path the game had set for them.

1405 people! Not a single exception! [Record: Player Su Mo, the system has detected that you have successfully entered a territory. Please grant this territory a stately name. Perhaps this name will accompany you in your battles and will be known across the world.

[Record): Player Su Mo, the properties of your territory have been updated. Please access the game panel to view them.

[Record: It has been detected that the condition of the current territory is far more barren than the New World's standard. All players will automatically receive the status: Resolute Determination (For 15 days, all attributes are increased by 10%).

The sounds from those three notifications chimed the moment everyone entered the territory.

Everyone could hear the chime clearly.

Before anyone could react, another joyous news materialized on the game panel!

[Record: It is detected that there are currently zero species in this territory. Because of player Su Mo's previously excellent performance, the game will provide three choices to aid players in their initial development (choose one).

Option One: Five acres of red soil (Soil that is more fertile than normal soil. It can provide crops with nutritional microbes to increase the rate of ripeness and increase yield; Note: The red soil's quality will change depending on the quality of the soil around it.)

Option Two: Thirty camphor trees (Every single tree has a height of fifteen meters. The crown of the tree spreads far and wide with thick, dense branches and leaves. They look grand and majestic. They are evergreen throughout all four seasons, so they can provide great material for building houses; Note: The trees cannot endure cold temperatures. Temperatures in the winter cannot be allowed to drop below o degrees. The trees will suffer damage if the temperature drops below o degrees. If the temperature drops 5 to 8 degrees below zero, the trees will die from frost damage.)

Option three: Creek (Opens up a small creek from the trunk road of the New World. The intensity of the flow will be adjusted according to the size of the territory; Note: The shape of the creek can either be randomly terraformed, passing through the territory, or thinly dispersed across the territory.

"The game actually gave us three choices?"

"Red soil, camphor trees, and a creek. Now, this is a timely windfall!"

Those notifications were not only sent to Su Mo, the great thane.

They also appeared on the game panels of the players that entered the territory, providing them with a morale boost.

With joy on their faces, the leadership crew who were worried about development were now jumping with joy all of a sudden.

However, from where they were standing, they could not see the look of shock on Su Mo's face.

[Record): Player Su Mo, based on the nerf toward Hope One and the current situation of your territory, the game will make the necessary adjustments. This is to encourage you to develop this place and obtain resources.

[Record: It has been detected that the initial potential of this territory is zero. The game shall automatically construct a special facility for you. You can choose one of the three options. Be warned that once a choice has been made, the game will not provide a chance to reselect your choice.

Option One: Weather observatory (Assign a human weather expert into the tower. After staying inside the observatory for more than eight hours a day, a special ability can be activated to predict the weather; Note: More weather experts will result in increased knowledge, and the accuracy of predicting the weather will also increase. If mankind's best candidate in this territory (Su Mo) is assigned to the observatory, the probability of accurately predicting the weather is: 35%)

Option Two: Gardening and farming tools manufacturing center (Assign a human expert blacksmith. After staying in the smithy for more than four hours a day, a special ability can be activated to give buffs to the people inside the manufacturing center; Note: The buff will be adjusted based on the blacksmith's level. If mankind's best candidate in this territory (Qi Lu) is assigned to the manufacturing center, buff properties: farming tools durability 20%, farming tools quality 15%) Option Three: Training grounds (Assign a professional trainer. After staying in the training grounds for more than eight hours a day, a special ability can be activated to increase the properties of the humans who are training in the area; Note: Enhancements will be adjusted based on the trainer's level. If mankind's best candidate in this territory (Li Hu) is assigned to the training grounds, buff properties: Stamina recovery rate 15%, strength 10%, appetite 30%)

These notifications were private this time.

Only Su Mo could see them.

By allowing Su Mo those three options, Su Mo reckoned that the game was extremely generous toward him. Every one of them was practical. The first option enabled everyone to prepare for any sudden weather changes on the temperamental wasteland. The second option, on the other hand, could quickly speed up the territory's production rate during its initial state.

Meanwhile, the third option functioned to increase combat abilities. "I didn't expect that accidentally leaving a good impression in the past would turn out to be so useful."

As he stared at the three options and made sure that he could make his choice at any time within a day, Su Mo was delighted at the knowledge. Then, he suppressed his urge to make a decision on the spot.

Su Mo let the rest of the villagers walk and look around curiously. He lead Su Chan, who was jumping with joy; the excited Moore; Big Spark and Little Spark that were fluttering around and Oreo who just love to run around.

The two adults and four small ones started rushing forward!!

After a while, as his surroundings slowly looked more familiar to him, the smile that Su Mo had long repressed finally broke out across his face. "Brother, so this is the place that you lived in the past? It doesn't feel all that great."

Every day, there were an endless amount of people on the World Channel talking about how much they wanted to join Almighty Su's shelter.

They were willing to do anything to sleep at the place for just one night even if it meant shortening their lifespan! Su Chan was very curious about those comments.

However, she could not help but widen her eyes as she scanned around the silt-covered mound for something special.

"Hehe, you'll find out if it's great or not the moment you step in!

"Come, Moore, let's get to work!"

Su Mo took out a shovel from the storage space and passed it to Moore as he eyed the mound in front of him.

In the next second, they looked like human-versions of trucks. After both man and bear pumped themselves up, they went to town on the mound like a bulldozer.

As shovels swung in the air, silt flew behind them relentlessly.

An opening started to appear at the front of the grave-like mound and it slowly straightened up!

Thump! As a blunt sound echoed through the air, Su Mo stared at the shovel that came into contact with a with a steel door. He began to quicken his pace.

After a while, all of the silt blocking the front door disappeared. After Su Mo keyed in the password that was all too familiar to him. With a push and a pull, a winch suddenly appeared! As he forcefully pulled down on the winch, the strongest shelter in all of mankind that was submerged underwater had finally…

Seen the light of day once more!

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Chapter 485 Learning From The Strength of Others, The Basin's First "Neighbour" (Two in One)

Huff!

Oof!

A loud creaking sounded before gradually stopping.

Covered in sludge, the garage door of the Underground Shelter opened fully, revealing its slightly darkened interior. "Master, we've… we've come home!"

Moore hoisted the shovel on his shoulder, his face alight with excitement; his eyes were shining As far as he was concerned, this was where he had been born. It was also his only home in the entire world.

This place held a special significance in his heart!

However, without waiting for Moore to spring into action, Su Chan-who had been waiting at the back all this time—did not restrain her excitement. She dashed forward eagerly.

A second later, the stench of waste oil that had been left for ages in the machinery and the smell of mold from the still-damp interior surged out!

Su Chan, who had intended to run in immediately, hurriedly started coughing and retreated.

"Hack, cough. What a stench! Big Brother, did you bury a bomb inside?"

"Ha, young lady, you don't know what you're saying. This is such a familiar smell. In the future, even if you wanted to, you won't get to smell it again!

"You agree too, right, Oreo!"

His enhanced body now possessed a powerful sense of smell.

This sense of smell allowed Su Mo to easily differentiate the familiar smells within.

There was the smell of Earth Tiger.

There was also the smell of King Kong's bucket.

There was the reek of petroleum that seeped past the stone door. There was even the distinct sweet smell that emanated from the psychic energy water well. Su Mo watched as Oreo kept barking, dashing inside as if she could not wait. After inhaling a deep breath of air in enjoyment, he stroke inside the shelter.

Poof!

The battery that had been left untouched for more than a month still had plenty of power reserves.

As Oreo skillfully used her claws to flick on the power switch, the three garage headlights on the first floor blazed on! The lights revealed the contents of the garage. Lying dormant within were several iron beasts silently crouching on the ground! Standing at the doorway behind everyone, Su Chan had intended to wait for the smell to abate first. However, when she saw so many modern vehicles, her eyes immediately… Widened!

Normally, only men understood vehicles crafted from machinery, and only they would enjoy and appreciate these massive toys. However, to the humans who had survived in the doomsday world for a couple of months, it did not matter whether they were men or women, young or old. The minute they saw these things, they felt only one thing

Familiarity!

It was as if they had returned to Earth!

"Haha, the gas tank should be empty by now. When we revive our production force, I'll take you out for a spin!" Su Mo patted Earth Tiger's hood and listened to the clang of the metal outer skin. As his reactions caught up, he suddenly became aware that happiness was truly that simple! In the wasteland, he had a sturdy base, as well as his family and his loyal iron vehicles. These clearly mundane, ordinary days held a sense of blessed happiness that was completely different from before! "After the next disaster finishes, dad and mom will come here. We'll live here together as a family! "No one will ever be able to stop us from advancing! "I want this territory to have towering steel cities that belong to mankind!"

His words were like an exclamation.

At the same, it was also a goal that he had set for himself.

Watching as Su Chan nodded fervently, clenching her small fists, Su Mo smiled. Striding toward the stone door, he slowly pushed it back This time, the sound of the friction between the door and the ground stopped. Thanks to the mermaid's blessing, the smell spilling out from the two floors beneath was considerably less pungent.

As Su Mo manipulated the wind ability of the lion clan to blow through the area, the air became fresh and clean.

The air now carried a faint and pleasant scent of stone, similar to when the shelter had been newly constructed. "This is the second floor of our home. Usually, Oreo, Moore, Big Spark, and Little Spark live here. "This is our oil well, this is our psychic energy water well, and this is where we position our generator…"

Su Mo walked through the Z-shaped corridor as if he were introducing the place to guests, watching as Su Chan nodded in a cute, lovable manner.

Every spot that Su Mo walked them through, he would begin explaining in lecture-style. First was the oil well that had been idle for more than a month. After the first input of manual power, the control panel popped up. "Since our base needs to be constructed, the first thing we need to consider is diesel. "Then we need to consider that when it snows heavily, we might have to use gasoline as a firestarter to ignite some things. Therefore, our selection for the second question is diesel.

"For our last selection, we can select… asphalt!"

He pondered over the selections for a while and browsed through all the items that could be produced. In the end, his choice was still asphalt.

Regardless of temperature drops, heavy snow, or rainstorms, once the magnitude of these disasters was too great, road problems within the territory were inevitable. Never mind hunting and working; even regular movement would be heavily impeded.

They had to start accumulating resources now.

In 10 days or more, even if the asphalt was not enough for paving the main roads, by combining it with more gravel, there was still enough to pave a few important places.

The second thing that had to be activated was the generator.

Even though the generator set consumed an enormous 300 thousand watts of energy and an astounding amount of fuel, its power generating efficiency was exceptional.

As the generator began to rumble, the power output indicator turned green. Satisfied, Su Mo made his way to the last area. "Don't be fooled by the many items in our house. This psychic energy water well here is the real treasure. Its value is entirely comparable to… "Ten, no, hundreds of bases like ours here!"

He lowered the bucket that was suspended in midair. After using the system to check that the well had resumed normal operations, Su Mo let out a long sigh of relief.

"So the psychic energy water really is drawn from a well. I used to think that…"

"Don't tell me you believed what the rest said

—that I drew the water from a fountain of youth that was dug out from the underground ruins?"

Su Chan might as well have had the words "That's what I thought" imprinted on her face.

Seeing this, Su Mo scratched the back of his head and laughed.

Before the World Channel was closed down, everyone had varying opinions about this miraculous psychic energy water. Number one-Su Mo had brought this water out for sale on the very first day. Therefore, it was not very feasible that Su Mo had dug a well.

Number two-this water had effects that no ordinary water could ever compare itself with. Drinking this water would cause scabs to form immediately on minor wounds. Common colds or flu could even be cured in minutes.

Number three-in the subsequent days, Su Mo had stopped selling this water. These three points combined led the crowd to a unanimous conclusion. Most of them started to believe in the fountain of youth story that had originated from goodness knows where. They adamantly believed that Su Mo must have found an underground ruin at the beginning of the game and obtained all the treasures within.

This fountain of youth, then, was one of those treasures.

Word of this story got around very quickly indeed.

Since Su Mo had strictly ordered Moore—who knew the truth—to keep it a secret, even Su Chan had been completely in the dark.

"Truth to tell, it's not a bad thing that they're saying this. Let everyone think that the psychic energy water has been depleted; that will be our best safeguard. "Furthermore, the psychic energy water produced is still insufficient. We'll have to think of a way to start it again further down the line.

"However, at this stage, we have plenty of it for our everyday use!"

As they talked, the bucket had already filled up with three to four mouthfuls of the precious liquid. Glancing into the interior of the well, which seemed to be formed from blue dots of light and was as stunning as the starry galaxy, Su Mo put the cover back on and proceeded to the third floor.

"This is where we usually rest. I've prepared a room for you.

"Here, this side room is yours. Not too bad right!"

Despite saying that, as they turned the corner into the room, Su Mo could not help but awkwardly rub his head upon noticing the saltpeter that was piled up in there. Amused by the sight of this, Oreo, who was following beside them, began to bark in amusement. "Our house may look like it's decorated in Syrian style now… "But I have many tools here. When I have time, I'll cover up the walls, pave the floors, and install the lights. I guarantee our home will look like a villa!"

Su Chan shook her head. "No, Big Brother, I'm very satisfied with this room. I'm absolutely certain mom and dad will be utterly satisfied with it as well. "Our shelter embraces the global community, and it's a luxurious shelter that countless others are fighting to enter. I think that at this stage, we should not prioritize our own comfort or indulgence. After all, there's heavy snow imminent. With a thousand over people, our shelter certainly… In between speaking, Su Chan's face was full of concern.

She had witnessed the decline of law and order and witnessed cruelty first-hand. Even a child of the civilized era who had never experienced hardship and failures would grow up extremely quickly and shoulder their own responsibilities. Having survived in the Tundra Shelter for a long period, Su Chan knew better than any lone wolf how insignificant humans were in a disaster.

The thought of enduring 7 days of heavy snowfall had usurped her initial excitement at entering the shelter.

Like the villagers outside, an emotion called "anxiety" surfaced in her heart once more.

However, in the end, she could not finish her sentence.

This was because she noticed that Su Mo, who was standing in front of her, showed no traces of worry or even confusion on his face.

It was as if he knew he would win, like a commander who had utter confidence and faith in his eventual triumph.

Su Mo nodded. "I'm aware of everything you've mentioned. I understand your concerns as well, but now that we've arrived in our territory, you only need to remember one thing from today onward. "Other people might have failed, but that doesn't mean your Big Brother will!

"Here, I don't want to see you worrying every day like when you were still in the Tundra Shelter. You only need to eat well, sleep well, and do the things you like. This alone will be my biggest motivation!"

It was just like Su Mo's bravado back in the day when he had stood in front of the kobold castle and shouted that they were merely false gods, barking mockingly.

While he spoke, he had turned and was already on his way out.

However, watching his departing figure from where she was standing behind, Su Chan stood immobile.

After a while, she finally smiled.

Having someone looking out for her was…

Truly wonderful!

"Chen Shen, first take out the tents from our reserves and set them up. Everyone's tired after a day and a night of walking. We'll have a long planning session tomorrow! "Oh yes, dispatch three scouting teams. We must take advantage of the Rapid March buff while we still have it and clearly ascertain the situation in the areas surrounding our territory.

"If there's time, try and put together a map of our territory as soon as possible. Right now, don't worry about the heavy snowfall coming in 10 days!"

In no time at all, they had entered the basin.

Everyone who had been hurrying along the way for more than a thousand kilometers seemed to collapse. They all lay by the foot of Iron Rock Mountain and rested.

As they rested, a few stoves were set up as well. Curls of smoke began rising into the sky with the gentle breeze. Su Mo caught the scent of smoke and fire as he stood at the peak of Iron Rock Mountain and leisurely issued his orders.

Standing behind him was the entire current leadership team of Hope Village. There were 16 people in total. After Chen Shen had acknowledged Su Mo's orders and swiftly departed along the mountain trail, the rest of the management team suddenly went quiet. "What's the matter? Are you all at a loss after seeing this wilderness?" It was still alright when standing below.

From above, however, all that could be seen within a radius of three to four kilometers was saline soil where not even an inch of grass could grow. "Shen Ke, tell us—in the remaining 10 or more days, how should we construct things to successfully survive this disaster!" Since no one spoke, Su Mo immediately picked the left-most person to ask.

At this point, everyone reacted. However, the one thing in common was that they were not looking at Su Mo. Instead, they focused their gaze on Shen Ke's face.

"If it were me…

"Currently, everyone essentially still has remaining cores. If we pool it all together, although it would be difficult to build individual houses for everyone, we could still construct one or two hundred houses easily.

"We have quite an abundance of basic supplies. Once we've solved our housing problem, we won't have a shortage of food. Furthermore, we can utilize the time to set up several infrastructure models. As long as we collect enough materials, we can immediately start the construction work.

"As for the 7 days of heavy snowfall, from the game's compensation choices… we can select camphor trees and cut them down to store as firewood reserves. When the snow comes, we can use the wood as fuel for warmth. There's a high chance that we'll weather this disaster until the next time…" When Shen Ke started initially, she could still reason things out as she spoke. In fact, the rest had nodded along in agreement as well.

However, when she brought up the next disaster, she stopped. They were literally being asked to make bricks without straw.

Right now the entire territory was completely barren, and they could not leave to explore the outside world. They also could not take a sustainable development path and grow by leaps and bounds in 3 to 5 years. Surviving this first disaster was not hard. However, once the next disaster hit… that would be awkward indeed!

"Excellent. This idea is feasible. Come, Zhang Long. Tell us your ideas!" With the construction ideas that the ship's crew had previously provided, along with the dozens of cards currently in the storage space, Su Mo already had some things in mind.

However, in construction, it was best to pay attention and learn from the strengths of others.

Now that Su Mo had singled him out, Zhang Long took a step forward with a frown. "Shelter Leader, my idea is similar to Shen Ke's.

"The natural resources we have now in our territory are few and far between. If there were a large forest of trees here, we wouldn't be in this state. However, we can think of ways to go outside our territory and use machines to extract resources. The resources can then be used to compensate for what we lack here currently. "In fact, this Iron Rock Mountain that we're standing on-maybe we could think of a way to find out if there are any large gathering points that lack iron. We could extract some from this mountain and send people out to…

"Trade!"

Wow! Zhang Long's idea stunned everyone. The rest of the hitherto-silent leadership team instantly had a strong and heated response. Trading

Selling off the iron.

This was something the rest had never even thought of. In the Doomsday world, in simple terms, iron was a normal metal resource.

More seriously, however, trading iron was a traitorous act of financing the enemy, just like in the olden days.

It was highly possible for the enemy to use the extracted steel to forge weapons and invade one's territory.

"Not bad at all. Since we've already decided to come to the New World, we can't be complacent and stay locked up in our own territory. "Zhang Long, this idea of yours is splendid!"

Players that exited their territory would instantaneously have their cores revert to unowned status.

For instance, if Su Mo exited the territory, the underground shelter would immediately crumble.

Furthermore, the further players were from their territory, their individual status (energy, stamina) would significantly be weakened based on their skill.

In other words, if anyone dared to leave…

Once they did not return for a long period, they would be no different from a useless person.

Outside their territory, machine power was the only thing that was not restricted. This was the reason why the foreign race had decided to revive Old Era Technology. Even Zhang Long's absurd idea was accepted by Su Mo. Encouraged by this, the rest immediately began chipping in their ideas without holding back.

After a while, as everyone discussed merrily, Chen Shen returned from carrying out Su Mo's orders.

This time, he brought back news that shocked the rest!

"Shelter Leader, our scouting team has returned. On the east side… at 135 kilometers, they discovered…

"A large camp! "Apparently, they found traces of human activity!"

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Chapter 486 Coal Mine Thief! The Pivot Point To Pry Open Old Era Technology (Two in One)

"Traces of human activity?" Upon hearing Chen Shen's report, Su Mo's response was an immediate frown, unlike everyone else's excitement. Before transferring territories, based on the distribution map provided by the game, Su Mo had thoroughly surveyed the basin's surroundings.

At that time, 7 large camps were in proximity to the basin, and the nearest was 300 kilometers away.

Could it be that…

As they were heading for the basin, someone had coincidentally occupied this middle area as their territory?

Could something be that coincidental?

"Shelter Leader, the traces of activity that I mentioned aren't what you're thinking. No, that's not exactly the case. Do you want to come with us and take a look?"

Su Mo nodded. "Yes."

Having lost the 500% movement speed bonus they were given to set out for their territory, they still maintained the Rapid March buff because they had taken no damage. However, their travel speed was halved and ultimately slower.

130 kilometers.

After traveling at a hurried pace for nearly two hours, the group finally arrived at the borders of the territory. "Shelter Leader, Village Chief!"

The scouting team was cautiously carrying out observation on some high ground at the territory border.

However, as the group arrived, the man leading the team let out a visible sigh of relief and quickly stood up to greet them. Chen Shen stepped forward. "Liu Peiqiang, how's the situation!" "Village Chief, there's a big problem. When Xiao Sun went back to report earlier, we only saw what seemed to be silhouettes of humans because they were too far away.

"However, half an hour ago, a group of more than 30 individuals set out in that direction. This time we were able to see them clearly. They aren't humans!

"Ah, no, that's not entirely correct. They're not Earth humans like us!"

After the basin was transferred, a lot of minor resources had been subtracted, so the overall topography had been disfigured into a somewhat irregular quadrilateral shape.

Even though the shelter level restricted their exploration radius to 150 kilometers, outside these 150 kilometers was another 80 kilometers that also belonged to the area that Su Mo had transferred.

It was also barren, with not even a single blade of grass. "It's surprising that a foreign race wants to build their territory here; are they out of their minds?" Puzzled, Su Mo headed for higher ground. He did not even need to use the telescope that someone had passed to him. Just by relying on his sharp eyesight alone, Su Mo could catch a glimpse of this unfamiliar territory, which was around 20 kilometers or so away. However, just that glimpse caused his blood pressure to rise. A large village that looked similar to the kobolds' saltpeter camp from his previous encounter stretched as far as his eyes could see.

The difference was that the kobolds had only fortified their camps with a single surrounding wall made of wood. There were observation towers everywhere within their camp, and their defenses were extremely weak.

This camp, however, used visibly sturdy stones to surround itself with two walls!

Like a fortified city, the two surrounding walls were of different heights. If enemies broke through the outer layer, they could easily be disposed of by their opponents in the inner layer using long-range killing methods. Just based on its defenses alone, any attempts to attack this place without modern weapons and 10 times more troops would be nothing short of wishful thinking. "What are they mining? It seems to be something really familiar!" While Su Mo was busy observing the camp, Chen Shen surreptitiously sized up their surroundings, then passed Su Mo the telescope with a touch of uncertainty.

The next second, they had an answer. "It's a coal mine!

"They've occupied the coal mine that we transferred over. It's only been a few days; they truly are a group of animals!"

Fixing his gaze on the view he saw in the telescope, Su Mo observed that a stream of figures scurried to and fro within the fortified city like ants. Against his body, his left fist… Clenched!

In the middle of the fortified city was an opening that spanned more than 10 meters.

With the aid of the telescope and his own sharp eyes, Su Mo could vaguely make out a stream of silhouettes that continuously went in and out of this opening. He could not see these creatures' appearances clearly.

However, the containers as tall as themselves that they carried on their backs were filled with black objects that Su Mo was extremely familiar with

It was…

Coal!

This was different from open-pit coal mines. Back then, when Chen Shen had reported that there were underground coal mines around the basin, Su Mo had been extremely excited. Based on the degree of coalification, coal could be ranked from weak to strong in the following order.

Peat, lignite or brown coal, bituminous coal, and anthracite or black coal.

There were too many impurities in peat, so strictly speaking, it could not be considered

coal.

Lignite had a low degree of coalification, was low in carbon content, and high in ash content. It also had a low heat output and was highly volatile. It could only be used as thermal coal to generate power. Next on the list was bituminous coal, which was the most common and also the best type of coal overall. Bituminous coal only had to be mined and broken into small pieces, then it could be directly burned to obtain heat. Coincidentally, the coal that had been transferred into their territory was bituminous coal! "Heavens, it really is our coal mine. How is this possible? Our mine is underground, and the degree of mining difficulty is also extremely high, yet they… "This is unbelievable!"

Now that he had an answer, Chen Shen took another telescope and continued watching. After careful observation, he froze.

In Huaxia during the last century when black coal mines were everywhere, people already had an in-depth understanding of coal mines due to all the publicity. In general, there were two types of coal mines: open-pit and underground. Since open-pit mines required a continuously stable coal seam, these were rarer. For the time being, they were not mentioned.

On the other hand, the coal in underground mines was in the earth's crust and extremely solid, just like rocks. Usually, these would take more than a single person to mine. This was why it was necessary to have professionals first use a method akin to blasting to crack the tightly compressed coal seam and loosen it up before the coal miners could start work.

Only then could the miners enter through the opening and venture deep into the mine. The coal would then be manually brought out on their backs.

The mining tunnels had no lights. The miners could only rely on illumination from the miner's headlamps they wore as they worked both night and day. Once they reached the very deep sections of the mines, there was even the possibility of the mine caving in. To survive, the miners had to be extremely skilled and of extremely high standards. Right now, even Hope Village did not possess the ability to mine coal on a large scale. "Don't look down on these foreign races. Their technology might not be as advanced as ours.

"However, it's possible that they have their own miraculous ways of extracting and mining natural resources that we can't achieve ourselves."

The distance between the two areas was more than 20 kilometers.

Despite Su Mo's eagle eyes and the high slope they were standing on, it was very difficult to see any concrete details inside the fortified city.

The others were even more at a loss.

After pondering for a while, Su Mo squatted down and asked, "Liu Peiqiang, are you brave enough to go over there?" Liu Peiqiang was still lying on the ground. When he heard Su Mo's question, he was startled at first.

Immediately after, his expression became resolute, and he nodded his head firmly!

"Shelter Leader, never mind asking me to go over there—even if you asked me to capture one of those thieving cubs and bring them back, I'm confident I could do it!

"Previously when they appeared, I could only vaguely make out their figures. They're not very tall, and they look very skinny and frail. "If they don't have any special abilities, even if our own capabilities have been weakened, I'm still confident I can do it!"

This time, it was Su Mo's turn to be shocked. "They weren't very tall? Are you sure?" "I'm absolutely certain. Even though they were riding some kind of very peculiar animal, they still weren't as tall as us. It feels to me as if…"

Shen Ke chimed in. "You mean they're dwarves?!"

Liu Peiqiang nodded in delight. "Yes, dwarves. Their faces are exactly the same as us humans except that they all sported large, thick beards. They're all exceptionally short as well, around the height of my calf. I am very sure they are dwarves!"

Wow!

The moment they heard that those really were dwarves, the 30 or more people standing on the crop of high ground immediately lost all fear. They began to crack their knuckles and rub their palms. Even Su Mo's face revealed a trace of delight.

Truly, one could search high and low for something, only to find it very easily.

As a result of that standard dwarf's dagger, before coming to the New World, Su Mo had set a few important goals. One of them was to find a dwarf.

In fact, his goal of finding a dwarf was even more important than finding the Blazeland ruins!

Unlike the cautious Su Deben, Lu Kuan, and the others, Su Mo had the system's protection. As for the technology trees that could be derived from Old Era Technology, he had developed a strong interest in them. If they could master this extraordinary technology that had a conversion efficiency of more than 500%, they could exponentially expedite the territory's development. When one thought about it, one liter of diesel originally could only be converted to 10 kWh of power. After this upgrade, however, one liter could now be converted to 50 kWh of power! Based on the current output of the motor-pumped well, 4000 kWh of power could be generated in a single day! Even though it was still far from being able to satisfy the requirements for research, sustaining power for the entire Hope Village was no problem at all! As for vehicles like Earth Tiger and King Kong, when the time came, they would only need to be filled up for 5 minutes to travel 10 thousand miles! Even if the vehicles had their armor enhanced and their load increased, there was absolutely no need to worry about power output. "If that's the case, Liu Peiqiang, bring along the 13 men from your group and head out together. "Chen Shen, Li Hu, Qi Qin, Wu Feiguang, the four of you will accompany them. Capture the dwarves in this city and bring them to me.

"Don't worry about what the repercussions will bring. As long as you can capture even just one of the dwarves alive, we can make up for the loss of this coal mine."

After he finished issuing his orders, Su Mo paused for a moment, then reached into thin air. With a tug, 17 rifles flew out. After that, 1,000 bullets gradually floated out as well. As they hurried to the New World, they had no raw materials so they could not craft anything at all, even with the medium-sized machine tool.

Currently, Hope Village was left with a mere 3,000 rounds in their rifle ammunition reserves.

Until they manufactured a proper bullet machine tool, these reserves would be the last of their combat power. "Shelter Leader, we won't fail!

"Yes, we won't fail!"

Chen Shen was also aware of their meager ammunition reserves. When he saw a trace of distress flicker over Su Mo's face as he issued the ammunition rounds, he immediately stood up and made a solemn declaration.

As for the others, once they picked up the rifles on the ground, the benevolence on their faces instantly dissipated, gradually replaced with the "madness" that only occurred in the Doomsday wasteland. Before picking up the weapons, they were merely ordinary scouts who were only responsible for reporting intelligence. However, once they were armed with weapons, they now had to fight for their lives and face cruelty that had never been part of peacetime.

"I wish you a successful return! I'll be here waiting for you all!" "Rest assured Shelter Leader!"

Su Mo patted each of the soldiers on their shoulders, looking straight at their impassioned faces.

He then shifted aside from the road that led down the slope.

The 17 men did not waste time in idle chatter. Once they had fallen into line, they swiftly dispersed. "Shelter Leader, should I go back and fetch more people? Just in case there's any major conflict when the time comes, we'll at least be prepared with a response."

"Very well. When you go back, ask Moore to come along with you as well. He might be of great help!" Within Hope Village, apart from Su Mo, who was constrained by the shelter and thus could not freely enter or exit the territory, the other villagers were all free and unconstrained. Since they had never put down their shelter cores before, naturally, they did not have to deal with something unexpected like this.

Su Mo agreed with Shen Ke's suggestions and watched as she hurried off along with two men.

Su Mo lay down on the ground. With the telescope, he began to scrutinize and assess the enemy in detail.

Since it was already ascertained that the foreign race was a tribe of dwarves, his plan for observation became clear.

This time, he picked up on multiple details that he had missed out on before. "The outer defense layer doesn't seem to be actual gigantic stones. It even wobbles when the wind blows over it. But how does it support those observation towers then? From the looks of things, it's some sort of highly polymerized reactant, maybe? "What's that red circle on the wall? Could it be a different way of utilizing the camera? Using it to survey the outside world? "Judging from proportions, the miners inside the mine and the dwarves outside don't seem to have consistent silhouettes. Does that mean that the workforce in the mines aren't dwarves?" The more Su Mo observed in detail, the more questions and speculations he had.

In front, the assault squad was advancing; they moved extremely rapidly with the 500% movement bonus.

Even though they were very cautious, in two minutes they had breached the territory's line of defense and entered the area beyond it.

Boom!

It was like being hit over the head with a heavy hammer. The moment they stepped out of the territory boundaries, everyone felt that the world was spinning around. They felt like a patient who had just set foot out of bed after recovering from a grave illness. Three of them instantly collapsed onto their knees as their legs gave way. "Take cover and rest first. We'll decide after we recover!" Li Hu, who was the temporary leader of the assault squad, immediately gestured. The rest immediately dropped down onto the ground and took deep breaths. After a while, when Qi Qin had caught his breath, he slowly crawled to Li Hu's side. "Big Brother Hu, after we exited the territory, I don't know why but I feel as if I've put on a layer of sandbags. It's like weighted training; it feels terrible!"

Li Hu nodded. "Indeed. It looks like this is the punishment for exiting the territory!"

From body to spirit, it felt as if they had a heavy layer of invisible sandbags tied onto them.

Between body and spirit, the pressure on their physical body was still alright. It merely felt as if their thighs were strapped with 2.5 kg weights. However, when it came to the pressure on their spirits, even Li Hu frowned, his face revealing his utter discomfort. "Can everyone still walk? Those who can't will wait here for us as backup. Those who can, follow me ahead! "We can…"

"Charge!"

All 16 answered his call; none of them backed down.

Seeing that everyone was eager to try, Li Hu nodded, and the entire line dashed out once more.

They had advanced for another 500 meters before a familiar pressure descended on them again.

This time, the pressure on their bodies increased to 3 kg. Fortunately, the pressure on their spirits did not change, which caused everyone to breathe a sigh of relief.

"If this is the case, everyone, calculate in your hearts. Every 500 meters, we need to approach with caution!"

There was an approximate rule now.

This meant that their advance now would be much easier.

The distance between the borders of the territory to the center of the fortified city was 25 kilometers.

As they hurriedly came to the last 5 kilometers, Li Hu retreated. His expression was dreadful. Everyone gradually stopped as well.

"The pressure on the body increases once every half a kilometer. We're now 20 kilometers from where we started, and the pressure on our bodies is 15 kg.

"Every 20 kilometers, the pressure on our spirits will increase once as well. After the next increment, the pressure will be… three times what it was before !"

Wow!

The moment they heard "three times", the entire assault squad was stunned.

Surprisingly, none of them wanted to retreat. Instead, they began to forge ahead cautiously, sensing the pressure. After a while, the 17-person squad was fully differentiated. A total of 11 could endure the pressure; the remaining 6 immediately felt symptoms of nausea and vomiting when they advanced. They could only wait outside the range boundary as backup.

"Qi Qin, stay here and bring the others along to be our backup. I'll leave… 300 rounds of bullets for you!"

Li Hu swiftly made a decision. Seeing that the city gates showed signs of opening, the assault squad parted ways. This time, Li Hu and his smaller team of 10 advanced until they were one kilometer away from the front of the city. Here, they found a low-lying area and slowly lay down.

Unlike Su Mo's vague observations, they could observe clearly from close proximity. After studying the bunker, which appeared to be made out of all kinds of random materials, everyone including Li Hu was immediately bewildered.

The body of this wall was not some sort of high polymer material at all, stirred by the wind.

This was clearly a living creature that was constantly twisting its body. The red circle was not a camera either. It was a giant eyeball with a diameter of two meters. The sight of it gave them chills.

However, before they could start making comments about this appalling sight, with a rumble, the gates of the fortified city… opened!

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Chapter 487 Without My Permission, No One is Allowed To Die! (Two in One)

"Big Brother Hu, based on our observation, they leave the city once every three hours. It has been…fifty-six minutes since they last left the city!"

Liu Peiqiang was afraid to be spotted by the eye on the wall, so he was extremely cautious with his body movements. Unlike normal animals, humans were adept at recognizing patterns and making use of them. The enemies were out in the open, while they were hidden in the dark. Hence, it was even more important for them to recognize any patterns that might lead to opportunities. "In which direction did they last head out?" "To the northwest. However, they are using a line formation that is at least 30 meters long, and there are approximately 50 of them."

This time, Li Hu did not reply. Instead, he quickly lowered his head and shifted his sights.

Within everyone's field of vision, the dwarf that first left the gates suddenly appeared.

Visually, the dwarf was as previously described. Its height was approximately between sixty to eighty centimeters.

The creatures they were riding on were not tall either, being only around 110 centimeters in height.

The creature bore a close resemblance to bipedal dinosaurs from Earth's prehistoric age. Its skin was green in color and it had pointy fangs.

"This is ridiculous. Don't they look like Kled from the League of Legends game?"

With the binoculars, Chen Shen observed the dwarves and the creatures from head to toe, and came to that conclusion.

The youngsters among the team nodded in agreement, while Li Hu and the rest who were middle-aged were completely clueless regarding Chen Shen's words.

"Big Brother Hu, what do we do? They are heading in the northwest direction, but our position here is not an optimal one for an ambush!"

"Should we circle around and position ourselves ahead of them?"

Li Hu shook his head and replied, "Don't panic. Let's first assess their formation this time around. If there are too many of them, we'll give up and wait at the front for the next opportunity. If there are only a few of them, then we'll speed up and catch up with them. Anyhow, they are carrying goods with them, so they won't move very fast!"

The dwarves began to pour out from the gate one by one. Behind them, six carts were once again transported out of the city.

The carts were gigantic in comparison to the tiny dwarves. The carts were three meters long and two meters wide.

From behind the slope, they could make out that the carts all contained coal rocks. Black dust trailed behind the carts as they traveled.

Each cart was pulled along by six lizards as it moved at a ridiculously slow speed.

The assault squad still had the Rapid March movement speed bonus. Even if they gave the lizards a half an hour head start, they would still be able to catch up to them with ease-as long as they were still in range.

Due to the slow speed of the dwarves, they waited and waited until an hour had passed.

Like seasoned hunters, they waited until the final cart was sluggishly pulled along by the lizards out of the gate. As the gate closed, they once again got ready and assembled while half-squatting.

However, the dwarves did not seem to be afraid of an ambush, As soon as they exited the gate, they carefreely started heading north without even bothering to form ranks or get into formation.

"Fifteen, twenty, twenty-five…forty-five!"

"Six carts of coal. One cart is roughly carrying 600 to 800kg."

"Get up, get up. Quick, we need to capture them and the coal as well. If we can get our hands on the coal, we can use it during the heavy blizzard disaster!"

They observed as the team of dwarves finally left the fortified city and headed northwest in a line that was forty-five meters long. The group of men, who had been laying on their stomachs this entire time, could not wait anymore.

If they were only armed with cold weapons, they might have been slightly afraid to face the dwarves and their hundreds of lizards.

However, they were armed with rifles, so defeating these dwarves seemed to be a foregone conclusion.

They half-squatted and moved slowly along the slope. After leaving the range of the red eye's sight, they began to gleefully break out into a run.

In less than five minutes, they overtook the dwarves and gathered ahead of the long line.

"Big Brother Hu, don't the weapons the dwarves are carrying look familiar?"

"Eh, now that you mentioned it. It does look like…"

Chen Shen pondered and said, "Are they similar to the dagger that I received from that trade back then?"

"Yes, yes, yes. It's that dagger that can shoot out blades of light. Looks like we got ourselves a big haul."

"I've counted. There are forty-five of them. In total, there are twenty daggers and a… machete!"

With the binoculars, Wu Feiguang excitedly examined each of the dwarves as he murmured his findings.

This scene was similar to before, when their army had been excited at the sight of the well-equipped opponents.

They passed the binoculars to one another as they spied on the dwarves.

Everyone's eyes became green with envy!

Hope Village and the basin area… they were really too poor.

In terms of food, they had accumulated enough food to feed everyone for half a year. However, in terms of other aspects, they were still extremely poor.

They only had thousands of rounds of ammunition left and a limited number of firearms; it was barely enough for a medium-scaled battle.

In terms of natural resources, all they possessed were petroleum and the Iron Rock mountain. They were literally the poorest territory in the New World.

Given these circumstances, the only way for them to become rich overnight was to…

"Hold the guns in your hand tight. Don't shoot unless they are in range. None of these dwarfs shall escape us today."

"The dwarves, the coal rocks, the lizards, and their weapons. I want them all!"

Everyone firmly nodded in response to Li Hu's ruthless instructions.

The next second, just like they had practiced in the virtual dimension, they scattered and arranged themselves into a fan-like formation, surrounding the dwarfs and their carts within.

The dwarves who were approaching them were like innocent sheep sent to the slaughter —completely unaware that they had been surrounded.

At least not until…

One hundred and fifty meters!

Buzz!

A piercing siren rang out!

A siren abruptly wailed from the waist of the dwarf that led the team. When that dwarf came within that range, it was as if some sort of trigger had been activated.

"Gu ji ji, ji gu!"

The next second, the dwarfs that were carefreely strolling about immediately raised their guard and swiftly grouped up. Seeing this, Li Hu knew that the dwarves had realized that they had been surrounded.

Fortunately, the dwarves were already within the lethal firing range of their rifles.

As the first gunshot rang out, a bloodbath began!

Bang!

Bang bang!

Bang bang bang bang!

They were reminded of Su Mo's instructions as they shot with restraint. Most of their shots were aimed and directed at the lower half of the dwarves' bodies.

Despite that, the rain of bullets snuffed out the lives of half of the dwarves within a mere five seconds.

As for the other half of the dwarfs, except for the leader who had summoned a white barrier, the rest of the dwarfs laid flat on the ground, hiding behind the bodies of the lizards to avoid the flurry of bullets that rained over their heads.

There was a crackling sound as the bullets were stopped by the barrier.

"Stop shooting. Switch to your melee weapons and begin advancing!"

"Stay wary of their attacks and don't get too close. Be careful of the leader's machete!"

The moment they began their attacks, even though none of the assault squad had suffered any damage, they still inevitably lost the Rapid March buff.

They could feel their movements slowing down. Li Hu's face turned somber and, at the same, he also had a bad feeling about the situation.

However, they had already come this far and had invested too much.

If they chose to leave now, it meant that they had done all that for naught.

However, if they stayed, there was still a chance!

Ten Disaster Points were spent and, at the same time, everyone retrieved the various weapons from their storage space. These weapons had been previously crafted by Su Mo for practice.

The blades, longswords, and spears that they held looked somewhat crude, but the truth was that these weapons were exceptionally sturdy.

Armed with their weapons, the seventeen of them stood up and charged-their formation changing continuously.

However, their charge revealed their position to the dwarves.

The dwarves now knew the location of the enemy. Moments ago, they were still lying on the ground; now, they were suddenly emboldened to fight.

They drew their daggers, stood up, and began to howl.

Fifty meters.

Forty meters.

Twenty meters!

One side held their ground while the other charged fervently. The two sides were rapidly closing in on each other.

However, it was also at this distance that, when the dwarfs raised their daggers and charged, all the members of the assault squad stopped in their tracks.

Something awkward happened…

The dwarven daggers' maximum attack range was only ten meters.

Currently, the assault team stood three meters beyond that ten-meter range.

These three meters seemed like an impassable moat, as the blades of light weakly stuck the ground between the two sides.

"Three!"

Li Hu roared as everyone advanced again. After baiting the dwarves to attack, they immediately retreated to avoid the attacks.

"Two!"

It was the first time the two sides met, yet the skillful tactics of the assault squad left the dwarfs stumped.

The combat tactics of the assault squad were so polished. It was as if they had fought against this team of dwarves countless times. Even their facial expressions when they charged were remarkably synchronized.

They seemed ruthless and evil, almost as if they wanted to feast on the dwarves.

It was this exact expression that fooled the dwarves into believing that their charge was genuine.

The assault squad charged once again. As they were not given any time to think, the dwarfs could only once again brandish their weapons.

This time, however, a few of them were wary of the assault squad's tactics and only released 10% of their weapons' energy.

Unexpectedly, the assault squad members that attacked this time did not stop.

Resignedly, the dwarves had to attack once again as the energy in their daggers was completely depleted.

"One!

"Ha ha ha, these fools. They thought that they could fight us with that weapon. Little did they know that our Shelter Leader had already made preparations for it!"

Everyone was ecstatic when Li Hu shouted the number one, as Li Hu mocked the dwarves gleefully.

Previously, during their final two days of training in virtual reality, all the enemies they encountered had been armed with such weapons. Initially, everyone suffered at the hands of such a ridiculous melee weapon that had a long-range attack option.

Some of them even died twenty to thirty times before barely making it through the enemy's gates.

However, in the end, as everyone's deaths gradually piled up, they too gained more and more experience.

They shared their experience with one another.

The thousands of villagers all shared their experiences and came up with strategies to deal with the weapons. In the end, even the women that were physically weaker were able to exhaust the energy of their enemies' weapons without suffering any damage at all.

These dwarves were far weaker than the kobolds that were simulated in the virtual reality training session. Naturally, the dwarves were not a match for the villagers.

After the last attack was once again launched to no avail, the dwarves began to panic.

"Oo oo chi ji!"

"Wa oo oo ji!" The dwarf leader, who was still protected by his barrier, shouted to rally the others. Despite that, the dwarves inevitably scattered.

"This is a good opportunity. Everyone, pick a dwarf and fight. Let no dwarf escape!"

There were only fourteen dwarfs that could still run and fight.

Their strategy was to pair one man against one dwarf. This would leave Li Hu, Liu Peiqiang, and Qi Qin-the strongest among them—to fight the dwarf leader. Armed with sabers, they stared into the dwarf leader's eyes. The three of them split and charged from three different directions.

Their footsteps were nimble as they floated like butterflies; they attacked and protected one another in synchronized tempo.

However, the power of the machete strapped on the dwarf leader's waist was still unknown to them. Therefore, they remained cautious of any long-range attacks.

The dwarf leader was still hiding behind his barrier. However, he knew that he was surrounded and had no way out.

With that knowledge, his gaze intensified and his expression turned ruthless.

Buzz!

The white barrier was shattered as the dwarf leader grabbed his machete from his waist.

The dwarf leader was riding a creature that was significantly larger than the rest of the lizards. He began to charge and launch his counterattack.

"He's going all out to fight us. Don't answer his challenge. Try to delay him!" Li Hu roared as he watched the dwarf leader charge. The three of them instantly scattered. The first call to attack was filled with vigor and drive.

The second was not as fervent as before, yet still somewhat strong. By the third time, the morale would be completely spent.

When a cavalry unit attacked an infantry unit, the first charge was the most lethal.

After the first charge, it would be difficult for the cavalry unit to gain the distance required to build up another charge. The infantry unit would then be able to take the opportunity to counterattack.

This was plain and simple logic that everyone understood.

Unfortunately, the lizard creature that the leader rode was far stronger than anyone had expected

Amid the chaos, the dwarf leader, along with the large lizard, found Liu Peiqiang's position.

The two sides were evidently not heading in the same direction, yet this large lizard did not slow down. Instead, the lizard made a sharp 70-degree turn. This instantly exposed Liu Peiqiang and left him at the mercy of the dwarf leader's machete.

"This isn't good. Qi Qin, quickly use the rifle to cover him!"

"Shoot the lizard!"

Li Hu instantly reacted to the situation, and Qi Qin quickly took action.

Just as Qi Qin raised his rifle and aimed, the dwarf leader raised his machete and swung it; his blade clashed with Liu Peiqiang's saber.

Thud!

Splat!

A stream of light with a purple hue flashed from the machete as it was imbued with daunting power. The saber was an excellent quality weapon crafted by Su Mo, and was only given to the captain of the scouting unit. Even so, it stood no chance of withstanding the tremendous impact.

The instant it made contact with the machete, the saber fractured and split apart from the middle. Liu Peiqiang's right arm was now exposed to the cold light of the machete.

Whoosh!

Thud!

Dat dat dat!

The severed arm fell to the ground just as the sound of bullets erupted.

Without the white barrier, the three successive shots from the K-1 rifle, which spit out 5.56 caliber bullets, instantly sent the large lizard to its grave.

Before dying, the lizard thrashed about and sent the dwarf leader flying. He was knocked to the ground and was stunned dizzy, seemingly with birds circling over his head.

Li Hu, who ran over, immediately slashed and severed the right arm of the dwarf leader that was still holding the machete-eliminating the potential threat.

"Peiqiang, are you okay? Hang on." "Big Brother Hu, Big Brother Hu, save me. I don't have my arm anymore. I don't want to die. My daughter is still in the village. I don't want to die!"

Liu Peiqiang's arm had been severed cleanly from the shoulder onward.

At that moment, adrenaline coursed through him, so he barely felt the pain.

Even so, a pool of blood gushed out from his shoulder. Like a person drowning, Liu Peiqiang was frantically grabbing Li Hu's hands as he shouted.

"D*mn, this d*mn bastard!"

Qi Qin also rushed over. However, he was carrying a tiny 300ml bottle of psychic energy water.

"Quick, onen your mouth and drink this!"

The psychic energy water in Qi Qin's hand was the enhanced psychic energy water that had been upgraded twice.

It was a reward that Su Mo had given him previously in appreciation for his achievements.

In this instance, Qi Qin willingly gave the liquid to Liu Peiqiang.

Glug glug glug…

The refreshing and sweet psychic energy water flowed down his throat. The shoulder that was spurting blood stopped. It was visibly healing as fleshy scabs began to form on his shoulder that sealed the open wound.

"Don't worry about your arm. Take the arm with us. Perhaps Shelter Leader will be able to think of something."

"Yes, Shelter Leader will think of something!"

They picked up Liu Peiqiang's severed arm. Hearing the dwarf leader's howls, Li Hu's eyes were instantly filled with the flames of fury.

He took two steps forward and slapped the dwarf's face. The dwarf instantly flew and spun three times in mid-air before finally landing on the ground again.

Engulfed by his anger, Li Hu's slap was harder than usual. This slap instantly knocked the lights out of the already small-sized dwarf.

"Can you walk?"

Liu Peiqiang feebly nodded his head: "I can still walk. But the fight after this…"

"As long as you can walk, it's fine. Don't worry about the fight. Anyone who dares to challenge us today will die!"

After the loss of their leader, the other dwarves were swiftly dealt with.

Among the fourteen dwarfs, eight were killed

-hacked to death as they had resisted capture. The remaining six were all captured alive.

Chen Shen grabbed some hemp rope that he had prepared earlier from the inventory space. Like stringing a fishing line, Chen Shen neatly tied all of the dwarven captives up, including the dwarf leader—and threw them onto the coal carts.

"There's been a change of plans. Everyone, quickly empty your storage space, except for the weapons. Store as much of the coal as you can inside."

"We don't have the movement speed bonus anymore, and I'm afraid the enemy has been alerted by the siren. Be quick with your actions!"

Li Hu moved forward hastily. He instructed the others while he threw items out from his storage space.

However, the next second, he was stunned.

(Record): This item has been detected to have been imprinted with another player's mark. The item temporarily cannot be stored into your storage space. Please remove the mark before attempting to store the item again.

An ordinary coal rock was actually imprinted with another player's mark and couldn't be put inside the storage space?

This was the first time that humans had encountered such a situation since arriving at the wasteland.

Chen Shen saw that Li Hu was stumped and walked up to him. "What's the matter?"

"Damn it, we can't store these items. This is a big problem!"

Chen Shen attempted to store it as well to no avail. The color on his face changed as he said, "What do we do now? What if we abandon the coal rocks, take the dwarves… and just leave?"

"No, we'll use the carts. Without these coal rocks, when the upcoming heavy blizzard comes…"

"Yes!"

They discussed it briefly and, after confirming that the lizards were not intelligent, they made them pull the carts.

Instead of going back the way they came, they switched up the route and the carts began to move.

Their mission to chase and slaughter the dwarves had suddenly now turned into a mission to escape.

The lizards were too sluggish and slow.

Unwillingly, they had to abandon two of the carts and redistribute the lizards to the other four carts. It was only then that their pace picked up slightly.

The twenty or so kilometers that they had traveled earlier ironically felt much longer as they were escaping.

When they reached the final three kilometers, the lizards began to behave abnormally. Li Hu took a deep breath and moved to the back of the group of carts.

The next second, a pale big hand grabbed tightly onto his shoulder.

"Big Brother Hu, is the enemy catching up?"

"No…"

"Big Brother Hu, don't lie to me. Let me go instead. You take the coal back. I don't have my arm anymore, so I'll be a useless person even if I manage to return. Why don't you let me…"

"I won't…"

"Big Brother Hu! Without the coal, it will be difficult to survive the heavy blizzard and extreme cold disasters. These coal rocks are literally our lifeline. If you don't bring it back, it would be the same as losing lives!"

"Let me go!"

Liu Peiqiang had suffered substantial blood loss. His lips were pale and the color of his face was appalling. Only moments earlier, this man had been terrified at the thought of dying.

However, at this juncture, this same man now had an unparalleled desire to sacrifice himself.

Seeing this, Li Hu went silent for a few seconds before firmly nodding his head.

"Very well, as for your daughter, we will…no, Shelter Leader will take care of her. Don't worry about her!"

"You are our…"

"Hero!"

They fled while the pursuers chased them from behind; the distance between the two parties had now narrowed to one kilometer or

so.

The distance to the borders of the basin area was now less than 1200 meters.

However, they had changed their direction of escape.

There would be no reinforcements waiting at this location.

They finally were out of the woods; the distinct and clear borderline of the territory was now in sight. Seeing this, the group attempted to whip the lizards again. The lizards sped up and sprinted three hundred more meters.

Unfortunately, those last nine hundred meters were so close, and yet so far!

"It's time, Big Brother Hu. Let me down!"

The carts stopped, and Li Hu helped Liu Peiqiang down off the coal cart.

Chen Shen came over as well. He slowly waved his hand at the void and retrieved a package wrapped in paper from his storage space.

"Village Chief. You understand me so well!"

Liu Peiqiang took the pack of explosives from Chen Shen and loaded his weapon with his remaining arm. With a smile, he turned around and lay on the ground.

In his field of vision, a large group of dwarves on their lizards had emerged from the woods.

He roughly scanned their numbers—there were less than three hundred of them.

"Go, quickly go!""

"Liu Peiqiang, take care of yourself!"

Slam!

Crack!

The carts began to move again. The lizards were trembling but, under the threat of the whip, they could only move forward.

Watching the carts of coal rocks escaping, the three hundred dwarves went into afrenzy and rushed to catch up.

However, the next second, once Liu Peiqiang pulled the trigger, the dwarves were immediately stopped in their tracks.

Brt brt brt…

Brt brt…

Even in the last moments of his life, Liu Peiqiang remained level-headed-unlike the idiots in TV series who would go on a rampage and shoot indiscriminately.

He was clear about his mission; he could only buy time as long as he had ammunition.

If he fired everything in one go, it would barely even have an impact.

Thirty-five rounds—With the first thirty rounds, he managed to kill seven and injure four with his non-dominant arm, which was nothing short of a miracle!

The fleeing carts were now three hundred meters from the border of the territory.

Liu Peiqiang turned and saw that the carts were about to enter the territory. With a sense of gratification, he smiled.

The next moment, he supported himself with his remaining arm and shakily stood up.

"Come, come at me, you animals. Come and let me see!"

"Oo chi chi ji!"

It was one against three hundred, and yet both sides were equally tenacious.

This was a middle-aged man who had aimlessly muddled through the forty years of his life in the peaceful era.

Yet, in the last few moments of his life, he chose to burst with "brilliance".

If the doomsday had not happened, he would perhaps have been a gratified elderly father. He would go and come back from work, passing the days watching his daughter grow day by day, while spending time with his significant other as they aged and lived happily ever after.

Instead, he became a warrior in his last moments on the wasteland. One that was destined to be written in the history books, forever remembered as a courageous warrior!

Bang!

Seeing that the dwarves did not react, Liu Peiqiang picked up his rifle and fired another round at the dwarves.

Sadly, he did not hit any of the dwarfs. He was even knocked back by the recoil of the gun, deflecting his aim.

"Oo oo chi!"

"Chi chi ji ji!"

This was an opportunity that the dwarves immediately pounced on.

The dwarfs decided that Liu Peiqiang could not retaliate anymore. They once again revealed their bloodthirsty gaze and charged.

Three hundred meters.

Two hundred and fifty meters…

Two hundred meters…

Liu Peiqiang, who was still on the ground, watched as the enemy got closer and closer. Filled with relief, he turned and glanced at his team that was now meters away from safety.

The next second, he lifted the explosive package and exposed the fuze.

"These animals… One day, Almighty Su will lead humankind, the basin area territory, and Hope Village to crush and flatten all of you!"

He placed the fuze into his mouth and watched as the dwarfs approached the last hundred meters. The hideous faces of the dwarves were now clearly visible. Their grin was equally hideous as they charged.

At the sight of this, Liu Peiqiang broke out into a laugh instead.

"Farewell to this human-devouring era!"

Brt!

Brt brt brt brt!

Brt!

Brt brt brt brt brt!

The next second, just as Liu Peiqiang was about to bite the fuze, a faint but familiar sound made him tremble.

Then, the sound crackled continuously like a firecracker.

"There are reinforcements?"

He heard the shots in the distance. Liu Peiqiang regretfully shook his head as he lifted his head.

"I?!

"???"

Liu Peiqiang had shot seven dwarves dead with thirty bullets.

He had thought his feat was impressive until he raised his head; he now realized there was someone else better than him.

er

The dwarves that were charging fiercely had already stopped; their avaricious expressions had been replaced by fear.

US

Every second, two or three dwarves would drop lifelessly from atop the lizards and fall to the ground.

Within ten seconds, a tenth of the dwarves had fallen off their lizards; they were being slaughtered at a frightening speed.

"Shit, this distance is eight hundred…no, nine hundred meters away. How can a rifle shoot so accurately from that distance?!"

Stunned, Liu Peiqiang quickly turned his head.

This time, however, what he saw was not the sight of his team fleeing back to the territory, nor was it the location where the gunshots had originated.

It was…

A crowd charging in his direction!

"Kill them, charge! Our brother is in front. Run faster!"

"Everyone, don't waste your bullets and start running!"

Li Hu, who had fled with the carts, was now charging ahead of the crowd. He was even riding on the lizard that was pulling the cart earlier.

Behind him were the familiar faces of the villagers. Their numbers easily exceeded the dwarves.

However, the villagers behind him still had the Rapid March buff active. Li Hu and the rest of the assault squad were instantly overtaken by the villagers.

The eight hundred meters between them instantaneously narrowed.

"Brother, you did well!"

Liu Peiqiang was still in a daze at this sight when someone pulled him up and took the pack of explosives from him. His brain was still spinning in circles; he did not recover his senses for a while.

However, the next second, the person next to him placed a walkie-talkie by his ear and a familiar voice could be heard from it.

"Liu Peiqiang, you better f*cking remember this. Even in this small basin area…"

"Without my permission, no one is allowed to die!"

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Chapter 488 A Timely Rain, A "Gift". From The Dwarves! (Two in One)

The war for territory was not a child's game. Proper preparations had to be made for it!

The gates of the fortified city had suddenly opened and hundreds of dwarfs poured out of the city. The moment Su Mo noticed this, he knew that something had gone wrong. Immediately, he used the pointer… His target was Chen Shen! Currently, the pointer had four remaining uses, and Su Mo did not feel that it was a waste to use it like this, because he was aware that the villagers that had been chosen and trained in the virtual dimension were far more valuable than anything else.

In other words, if he had to choose between the villagers and the territory, he would not hesitate to choose the villagers!

"Humans, your reckless behavior has breached the rules set between territories. There will only be room for peace talks if you surrender the murderers and return the coal rocks to us." "Otherwise, the Cole clan will never let you

go!"

On one side were the dwarves that were only two hundred in number.

On the other side were the villagers numbering five to six hundred.

Thousands of meters away, Su Mo was also providing cover fire. This deterred the dwarves as they lost the courage to charge at them.

However, one of the dwarves that rode a lizard that was twice as large as the others stepped out from the crowd. This dwarf was carrying a machete that was even larger than the previous dwarf leader's machete by a full one-third. Even the lizard that he rode was outfitted with black battle armor and looked extraordinary. "Shelter Leader, the dwarf said…" Standing at the front, Pei Shao raised the walkie-talkie and whispered into it; the dwarf's words were repeated precisely back to Su Mo.

Then, as expected, Su Mo laughed in anger. "Hook me up to the loudspeaker. I want them to listen carefully to my words!"

"Dwarves, I'll give you two choices. Either you completely surrender all of your Old Era technology to me, or I'll personally flatten your base in three months' time."

"You dwarves are the first to steal my stuff and not die immediately. This coal mine, you can mine it, but you better hope you live long enough to use the coal!" The moment Su Mo mentioned the Old Era technology, the dwarf chief's disdain and arrogance immediately faded as the color on his face dramatically changed. It was as if Su Mo had touched on a taboo topic.

The dwarf chief did not even bother to respond. He shouted and whipped his lizard to dash back toward the fortified city.

The rest of the dwarves were equally clueless as to what had transpired. However, under these circumstances, they blindly followed the actions of their chief as they ran back too.

In a few seconds, the tense atmosphere that was filled with hostility abruptly dispersed. By the time they finally reacted to what had happened, any traces of the dwarves were long gone. Aside from the large footprints left by the lizards, there were no other traces that indicated that the dwarves were here before. Even the scent of the dwarves was goneblown away by the wind. "What. These dwarves left just like that?" "Huff, huff. I thought there was going to be a big fight!" Li Hu was the first to lead the charge, but the last to arrive. He arrived riding on the back of a lizard that was now panting for air. The crowd of villagers had dispersed and sprinted forward to pick up the loot left behind by the dwarves. Swords and lizard carcasses, those were usually the only things that could be found from these ordinary dwarves. Occasionally, the villagers would find treasures on the dwarves' corpses. For instance, they found a shield that could be activated, a longbow that glowed green, and a sharp light-absorbing dagger that was half the size of a palm.

The hundreds of villagers cleaned up the battlefield and, within minutes, only spots of blood were left on the ground. They even carried back the corpses of the dwarves. Glancing at the dense forest, Su Mo ordered the villagers not to greedily search for the remaining two carts that had been abandoned earlier and to hastily return instead.

The distance back to the territory was eight hundred meters but, for the villagers who still had the Rapid March buff, this distance could be covered instantaneously.

However, Liu Peiqiang, who was still dazed and clueless about the situation, had to be coerced back to the territory;

This was all a dream beyond dreams.

"My physical and mental… the pressure is gone!"

"I actually…made it back alive?"

He was in the real world and not virtual reality. Death was permanent here and there was no way to revive.

He stared at the empty sleeve where his right hand used to be. Then, he watched as Su Mo strode toward him-his eyes were brimming with tears!

"You're a real man. It's a pity you have no brains!"

"I'll let it go this time. Next time, I don't care if you have to throw away everything. Just make it back alive!" Su Mo took the severed arm and pressed it against Liu Peiqiang's wound. Su Mo took out the Mountain and Sea Painting Scroll card that exuded the power of the stars. The card had been frequently used and its power level had decreased to 97.39%.

After reattaching the severed arm, its power level decreased by another 0.22%.

However, Su Mo felt that the power spent to reattach the arm was worth it.

From the corner of his eye, he saw the hundreds of villagers standing by the side; their eyes were all shining brilliantly. A severed arm was a medical conundrum that stumped even modern medicine practitioners.

This was especially in Liu Peiqiang's situation, whereby it was practically impossible to reattach the arm through surgery. Now, in front of everyone, Su Mo's feat of reattaching the arm undoubtedly sent a message to everyone. "Shelter Leader, you have once again shown us your grace. I have no other means to repay you but to offer my life to your service!"

Liu Peiqiang moved his arm about and made sure that it functioned no differently from before. Flustered, he knelt to offer Su Mo his gratitude.

His flustered composure was no surprise to Su Mo or the rest.

In the doomsday world, survivors knew the importance of the arm better than anyone else.

It would not be an exaggeration to state that Su Mo had just given Liu Peiqiang a second chance at life.

"Peiqiang, just stand up. Shelter Leader won't buy into your antics!" "Today is a great day of harvest. If you act like this, you'll ruin the mood!" Chen Shen laughingly walked to the front and helped Liu Peiqiang to his feet. The rest of the villagers cooperated as well and broke out into laughter—the atmosphere instantly eased and became harmonious.

"That's enough, that's enough. Don't waste time. It's getting late so quickly take the things back. "We'll begin the major construction work tomorrow, so go home early and rest!" They had struggled to make progress with the slow-moving carts.

Currently, it was six in the evening, and the sun had begun to descend past the horizon. Seizing the moment, the crowd began to make their way home as the carts were slowly pulled along. Li Hu and the few who had lost the Rapid March buff moved slowly. They were accompanied by the carts that were being dragged sluggishly by the lizards. Seeing this, Su Mo sent someone to report back to the base first, after which he swiftly walked to the side of a cart and jumped into it.

According to Li Hu's description, it did not matter whether the coal rocks were stored in the carts or smashed to bits; the notifications would still pop out whenever they attempted to store them into their storage space.

This was the first time Su Mo had come across such an issue.

To try it out, Su Mo spent ten Disaster Points to open and attempt to store the coal rocks in his storage. He was immediately greeted with the same notification that Li Hu described.

"Peculiar indeed. It would make sense if the coals were in the enemy's territory and we couldn't use our storage space to smuggle it out."

"However, we've returned to our territory and somehow it is still the same."

"Could it be that whoever researched the Old Era Technology purposely created such a thing to stop us from using the storage space to smuggle items?" The light in Su Mo's eyes was faint as he rubbed the coal rock. Then he quickly closed the notification panel and summoned the system.

The next second, a green light appeared and circled the coal rock.

A new properties panel floated up amid the pitch-black darkness.

[Bituminous Coal Rock (Purity: 81.35-89.12%) (Marked)] [Description: A high-purity coal rock mined by hand. It releases more energy when burnt and is currently marked by the Cole dwarves. Feedback on its current position is being sent in real-time.]

[Combustion heat output: 1kg/29307.6 kilojoules] [Combustion duration: Determined by the size of its container]

(Mark status: Activated (Positional feedback is sent every minute to the receiver. Time since last feedback: 32 seconds).] [Marking method: Old Era Technology (high concurrency position reactor)]

[Comment: Even though the combustion of bituminous coal releases a significant amount of air pollutants, without a doubt, it is still an extremely useful natural resource.]

"As expected. It really is the Old Era Technology. Looks like the Cole dwarves have plenty of goodies under their care!"

The game would only notify them of the existence of the marks.

However, the system could even identify the time since the mark last sent feedback to the receiver.

At the same time, he noticed the feedback cycle was one minute. From this, Su Mo surmised the reason behind why the dwarves believed they could successfully bring the coal back to their territory.

In the enemy's territory, the dwarves had lizards to ride on. They could have easily caught up with Li Hu and the others who were moving slowly.

At the very least, based on Su Mo's observations, after the assault squad triggered the siren, the three hundred dwarves immediately left the city to provide support. Yet somehow, the dwarves did not manage to catch up with the assault squad; they even allowed them escape and successfully return to their territory. Based on their speed, the reason that this had happened was simple… They wanted to acquire the location of the basin area.

Or in other words, they wanted the location of the invader's base camp.

"It seems that the Cole dwarves are much smarter than the stupid foreign races after

all."

"Let's not even discuss how they managed to familiarize themselves with the use of items that were derived from the Old Era technology. Their acting skills alone were absolutely breathtaking!" He thoroughly contemplated the matter.

Su Mo had boasted about his ambition to flatten the enemy's base within three months. However, he did not harbor any contempt toward his enemy, nor did he belittle them in his mind.

In terms of their threat level, the dwarves had managed to extend their territory into Su Mo's vicinity and had excavated coal mines within a short period of time. This alone indicated the dwarfs possessed a certain level of strength.

However, if they could grab ahold of these dwarves and snatch the Old Era Technology from their hands…

"This matter needs to be shelved for now. We have to at least wait until the basin area recovers its production capacity in terms of firearms and ammunition manufacturing. Only then can we consider taking action."

"Based on our current ammunition reserves, and the fact that I can't step out of the territory, even if we are victorious against the enemy, our casualties will be heavy as well." In terms of combat power, Su Mo, who was empowered by the wasteland authority, had grown increasingly into a monster. His accuracy with a rifle exceeded the maximum stated range of the rifle. This alone displayed the difference between Su Mo and the others.

In a territorial war, if Su Mo was not constrained by the rules of the game, he would have been confident in slaughtering the dwarves even if thousands of them surrounded him, let alone three hundred.

However, it was a pity that there were restraints in place. Unless the dwarfs were unafraid of death and charged into his territory, there would be no opportunities for Su Mo to display his strength. "System, how many points does it cost to remove these marks." After pondering for a while, he ultimately decided to remove the marks that would relay the position of the coal rocks every minute. The reason was simple…

He needed time to grow and develop!

If the enemies were really armed with long-range weapons or or capable of other magical means of attacks, during this stage where the basin area was impoverished, these attacks would undoubtedly strike a fatal blow to his plans. For the sake of their safety, Su Mo chose the safest route.

(Bituminous Coal Rock (Purity 81.35-89.12%) (Marked)]

[Description: …]

[First upgrade option: Remove all enemy marks. Permanently block all position-sensing trackers. Survival points required (98).]

[Second upgrade option: Reverse-track the enemy marks through position-sensing to confirm the enemy's location. There is a probability of destroying the enemy's tracking equipment, resulting in unknown consequences. Survival points required (690).]

[Third upgrade option: Provide the following materials (Circuit board*4, computer*2, borosilicate glass*6, high-frequency signal receiver and transmitter*1, harmonic oscillator*1…etc). There is a high probability of infiltrating the enemy's tracking equipment, stealing the information within, and simulating incorrect information to mislead the enemy. Survival points required (31000).] The three upgrade options far exceeded Su Mo's expectations.

After the system upgrade, it provided many innovative new upgrade options, although it had not provided the daily survival points announcement for quite some time. Su Mo was slightly surprised when he noticed that there was even an option to infiltrate the enemy's tracking equipment. However, he slowly shook his head when he saw the enormous cost of that upgrade option.

Earlier, he had used up a substantial amount of survival points. In addition to the miscellaneous fees he had incurred during the voyage to the New World… He was currently left with just 3690 survival points!

Tomorrow, he would receive a large number of points for successfully entering his territory. At this juncture, Su Mo had to choose between the development of the territory, and his impulse to spend on the upgrade. In the end, Su Mo subdued his impulse and chose the former.

"I choose…upgrade option two!" A stream of light flashed and 690 survival points were deducted. A familiar red light that represented the "delete" function emerged from his body and passed through all the coal rocks and lizards before returning Then, Su Mo attempted to store the coal rocks into his storage space again. This time, the restrictions were gone.

"Eh, Shelter Leader, the restrictions are gone? We can now store them into our storage

space?"

The coal rocks that were half the size of a man abruptly disappeared and reappeared. Sitting on a cart, Li Hu's eyes widened when he saw this.

"Oh, did you mean the mark?"

"This is something only the territory lord can do. Its function is to more or less detect the position of the marked object and prevent it from being stored into the storage space. If we don't remove it, then it would be equivalent to exposing our location to the enemy." "Don't panic though, I'll inform the others when we return to the territory. The next time anyone encounters such a thing, just place it outside the boundary of our territory. It requires the authority of the territory lord to remove."

This was all nonsense made up by Su Mo. Seeing Li Hu's "I understand" expression, Su Mo laughed and turned his head. Su Mo did not know whether the upgrade had destroyed the enemy's tracking equipment. Nonetheless, thanks to the four carts of coal rocks, the looming threat of the upcoming heavy blizzard had diminished significantly.

Furthermore, in addition to that…

"System, evaluate the lizards!"

Su Mo observantly looked on as each of the carts was pulled by nine diligent lizards. Once again, he summoned the system. [Hybrid earth lizard coolie (Normal)] [Description: It is rumored that, during ancient times, two powerful dragons gave birth to nine offspring. With their unparalleled strength, they controlled large swaths of territory. Unfortunately, they were naive in believing that they could oppress everything with power alone. They failed to understand that emotions were the scariest thing in this world.

The eldest son of the dragon's offspring fell victim to a meticulous trap designed to exploit his emotions and bloodline. He willingly sacrificed his bloodline and mated with a lowly lizard, birthing a new species on the continent-dragon lizards.

Although this creature did not have a powerful physical body, nor the ability to use magic like the dragons, their reproduction speed was tens of thousands, or even hundreds of thousands of times, that of a dragon. After going through countless breeding cycles, they changed several times and ultimately gave birth to tens of thousands of different bloodlines. Among those bloodlines, the most powerful Sky Shaking Lizard was even capable of facing off against the legendary dragon. Even the lowest among the dragon lizards, the earth lizard coolie, which had the most mixed bloodline, possessed an endurance that surpassed every other ordinary living being. It was born to be a beast of burden!]

[Food source: Omnivorous (Inheriting the gluttony of the legendary dragon, the earth lizard's stomach acid can digest anything including, but not limited to stone, mud, feces of other beings, grass, grains, etc…)] [Endurance: One thousand and four hundred kilometers per day, when fully sated.] [Interests: Sunbathing, massages, interacting with other living beings.] [Command method: The timid lizard coolie does not have a true master. They will obey any commands from other living beings in order to acquire food for survival. However, the lizard will acknowledge a true master via a special method and will forever stay loyal to their master. If any outsiders attempt to forcefully control them, the lizard will resort to extreme methods of resistance. This includes, but is not limited to, suicide, attacking, escaping…(Special method: Help the lizard coolie to breed stronger offspring.)] [Breeding difficulty: Extremely low (The coolie lizard is a natural breeding vessel, its bloodline has been mixed with the genes of hundreds of thousands of living beings. Each time a different living being's genes is mixed into its own via breeding, it will result in the creation of a new living being and, at the same time, unexpected variations may be produced.)]

[Comment: Perhaps you can try… Moore-lizard, or maybe even…Oreo-lizard?]

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Chapter 489 Blast! The First Night Of The Basin Jubilant! (Two in One)

While the group from the basin area was still on their way back to Iron Rock Mountain, the dwarven troops who confronted the villagers had also returned to the fortified city. Immediately, together with forty people, the dwarven leader rushed off without resting and headed to the northwest.

On the way, he did not hesitate to use a purple item, with a pained expression on his face, to buff the lizards they were riding on. A purple light flashed, and the lizards' speed became very fast. In just four or five minutes, it had traveled a full 50 kilometers!

At this point, they were at the edge of the fortified city's territory. However, things were different from the time when Li Hu and the others entered the territory of the fortified city. The team led by the dwarven leader rushed inside the other territory without encountering any resistance. It was as if the boundaries between territories had disappeared! "Gaturu, hurry up, I want to go back to the king's city, this is regarding the decree issued by the king previously. We found the human… that one!"

The lizards that were empowered by the purple light collapsed to the ground, yet the dwarven leader did not care.

As he ran over to the gate raising the machete in his hand, his loud roar echoed in the distance.

This time, the people behind the gate instantly panicked, and quickly opened the gate.

"Captain Abe, that human… is here?" "Yes, although I didn't see him with my own eyes, but his voice was definitely the one. We must be vigilant!" "Move quickly and take the shortcut. Be sure to tell our king!" Leaping off the collapsed lizard, he took out the 'King's decree' and handed it to the dwarf named Gaturu for inspection.

Captain Abe did not say anything further. He rushed forward, and this fierce dwarven leader plunged into a very inconspicuous-looking hole. The inside of the first 50 meters of the hole looked just like an ordinary pit that had been dug up; there was nothing unusual about it. However, surprisingly, after Abe made some twists and turns, the space in front of him suddenly opened up.

By rough estimation, this space was at least a thousand cubic meters in size, similar to a subway station underneath a modern city. If there were humans here, they would be shocked to see the structure inside.

"Captain Abe, you're here!" "Let's depart quickly. I need to get back to the city quickly, as I have something urgent to report!"

"Okay, get in and sit tight!" A black carriage was sitting on a sunken track at the center of the space, exuding a misty black light. As Abe got into the carriage, the dwarf behind him started the carriage, and the black light gradually began to gather around the wheels of the carriage, creating whistling noises as it did.

Miraculously, no outward energy response could be seen, yet the carriage still started to move forward steadily. It was as if an invisible big hand was pushing it forward, and it soon traveled straight across the tracked passage. The dwarves had actually developed a subway system?!

No one saw it, and no one knew about it.

In just over a month, the dwarves had actually reproduced a product created by humans of the 20th century from scratch.

Although the train itself still looked rather basic, and its maximum speed was only 110 yards per second, there were no obstacles on the track to hinder its speed, and the fact that it could travel in a straight-line non-stop made it superior to any other form of transport!

Riding in this carriage, the anxiety on Abe's face was significantly relieved. Then, after taking out the locator that had been tracking the mark, he looked at the locator that was still receiving the mark's location information continuously.

There was a hint of 'great achievement' on his face!

"As long as I can get my hands on the location information of the King of Humans, the loss of dozens of dwarves and black stones is negligible. Heck, I can even give the entire territory to him!"

"Now, as long as I return to the king's city and report his location information, I can be transferred away from this shitty black stone base camp immediately!" Holding the locator tightly, he looked outside at the rapidly passing scenery. Abe's mind had already begun to fantasize about the envious expressions of his colleagues when the Dwarven King rewarded him for his contribution. However, the next second, a rapid beeping sound interrupted his daydreams. "Hey, what's going on?"

In the last moments of his life, holding up the locator, Abe saw the latest location information displayed by the locator.

Unlike the usual coordinates, what he saw displayed this time was… "Boom?"

Boom!

Boom!!

Boom boom boom!!!

"Chief, look over there, is that a volcanic eruption? Are there such random disasters in the New World?"

After briefly inspecting the attributes of the coolie lizard, before Su Mo could take a closer look, the convoy that was heading back to base suddenly stopped in their tracks.

It was eight o'clock in the evening; the night was dark and the breeze was chilly.

However, in the northwest direction, there was a fire that burned so high that it was visible from where they were. Then, a few seconds after they saw the fire, a faint rumbling sound followed, shaking everyone's eardrums. "Such a large fire… This rumbling sound doesn't sound like a volcanic eruption either, but more like some sort of explosion." "Stop for now. I have to take a look at the situation!"

Looking around, Su Mo shook his head and jumped off the coal cart. Then, after running to a nearby high slope, he took out a pair of binoculars and looked in the direction of the fire.

"It's at least 200 kilometers away from us!"

"It is very likely to be even further away. Given the distance, it is probably not an ordinary bomb, but some sort of compressed high-energy bomb!"

In the distance, a mushroom cloud had risen into the air.

Looking at half of the night sky that had been lit up by the fire, Su Mo's facial expression changed greatly and took on a hint of caution. Since he arrived at the wasteland to the present day, this was the first time that Su Mo had encountered someone other than himself with similar technical and technological capabilities.

The conditions for a mushroom cloud to form were simple… The explosion had to occur on or near the ground; not in the air or underwater. The explosion had to release a huge amount of energy.

Everything had to happen within the atmosphere, or on Earth (because there had to be a gravitational field present). The presence of the mushroom cloud indicated that the yield of the bomb exceeded 200 kilotons; at the moment the explosion erupted, it created a large amount of low-pressure hot air around it, and the hot air rose rapidly, causing a vortex that turned outward and downward…

Or…

That it was an underground explosion, causing the airflow from beneath to rise upward! "Is it possible that this is related to me erasing the mark and causing some sort of chain reaction? The rumbling sound has not even ended yet!" The sound of the initial explosion was completely different from the continuous explosions that could be heard currently. He listened for a while and, after confirming that the explosions were still ongoing, Su Mo returned to the convoy in deep thought. "Chief, what's the matter? Did the dwarves on the opposite side come up with some sort of new weapon?!" "Let's take advantage of this opportunity, and…"

He wanted to take advantage of their weakness and end the dwarven threat once and for all.

Making a cutting gesture across his neck and pointing to the location of the explosion, Li Hu's face turned fierce.

Su Mo shook his head. "Don't worry about it for the time being. They shouldn't be able to enter our territory. During this time, we still have to focus on development of the territory. Picking a fight rashly without sufficient intel and data is extremely risky and inappropriate. The restrictions have been lifted. Everyone, open up your storage spaces and distribute the coal evenly. Let's speed up and head home!"

The further in they traveled into their own territory, the safer they would be.

Fearing that the subsequent explosions would continue for some time, Su Mo trembled slightly and instructed the others to move quickly. This time, no longer limited by the burden of the coal rocks, the convoy picked up the pace and started making good time. Before 9.30 pm, he finally saw Iron Rock Mountain at the end of the horizon!

"The subsequent explosions did not continue, which means that this is not a weapon that they have developed to deal with us."

"After securing these coal rocks, the enemy's camp will definitely become more vigilant. Have everyone remain low-key during this period of time. We'll think about how to deal with them after getting through the upcoming disaster." Although Su Mo was also very curious to figure out the source and cause of the explosion, in the end, he was the territory lord and rationality prevailed over curiosity.

Regardless of reason, such an explosion would never occur naturally. Even if it was an accidental discovery by the dwarves, the end result was still the same. The dwarves had the capability of recreating that same explosion! In this case, there was no technical or technological gap between the two sides. Once a large-scale confrontation occurred, it would be easy for the other foreign races on the sidelines to benefit.

Chen Shen, Li Hu and the others obviously understood this.

After thinking for a while, they all nodded, indicating that they were clear about everything. "Fortunately, we have procured more than two tons of coal rocks now. If we have central heating, there will be no need to fear the heavy blizzard disaster this time!"

Looking at the lights at the foot of Iron Rock Mountain in the distance, unconsciously, Su Mo's mood also improved.

However, what he did not know was that, at this time, the people in the base camp were so anxious that they were behaving like ants trapped in a pot. Before the fire and explosion broke out, after the return of the messengers, the people were still excited and restless, fearing that they would miss the grand scene of the coal returning to base. However, when the explosion happened, even the messengers who had gotten back first panicked.

At this point at night, all the villagers were walking around anxiously, glancing at the end of the horizon from time to time. "They're back! The chief and the others are back!"

"Look!"

"Wow!"

Someone shouted out of nowhere, and all the villagers looked over in the direction the man pointed toward.

The next second…

As expected, the entire camp seemed to boil with excitement!

Every villager seemed to be drunk, dancing some unknown war dances that they had come up with on the fly. Furthermore, some of them kept on muttering words without any meaning.

y.

If one listened carefully, one could hear prayers such as…

"Bless us, Buddha!"

"Haha, the others were really anxious when we were not around."

"Come on, place our harvest back in the carts, and manage these lizards properly. I want everyone to witness our victory this time!" Looking at the dozens of tents that had been set up at the foot of the mountain, as well as the crazy villagers, with a wave of Su Mo's hand, he immediately gave the order. The next second, the coal rocks that had been kept inside their storage spaces reappeared on the carts.

After resting for more than an hour, the coolie lizards also seemed to know their mission, and were quickly harnessed, as they began to pull the carts diligently.

After three to five minutes of traveling, when the convoy finally entered the camp, cheers began to explode as everyone gazed at the four carts filled with coal!

Seeing such a scene, even if Su Mo had already mentally prepared himself, he could not help but join in the celebration and laugh together. Half an hour later, as the cooks served the food, the celebration feast commenced!

It was not until twelve o'clock in the night, when the cold wind began to pick up, that the feast finally came to an end.

He asked everyone to head back to rest quickly, and ordered Moore to escort the dwarven captives and gather all the unique treasures they had obtained from the dwarves.

Su Mo swaggered back to the underground shelter with satisfaction.

"Su Chan, you should go to bed first. I have to interrogate them!"

"Okay!"

Seeing the door close, Su Mo's face suddenly displayed a murderous expression.

Su Chan was very well-behaved, and immediately went down the passageway to the third floor.

"Moore, wake them up." "Oreo, check if they're lying!"

They were his translators and lie detectors.

Looking at the dwarves that were tightly tied up, Su Mo sat in front of the table and first examined the seized items.

In addition to the dwarves' standard daggers, this time, a few other things had been obtained. He focused on the machete and, as a flash of green light appeared, the properties panel popped up. [Dwarven Machete (Excellent)]

[Description: This is a standard weapon forged by the dwarves. It is incomparably sharp and can perform special attacks after the energy within it is activated using a certain method.)

(Creator: Emilie York]

[Attack Power: 15]

(Durability: 12/15]

(Current Energy Reserves: 90% (Recovery Time: 22.6 hours)]

[Special Abilities:

[Absorption (This is a machete created using Old Era Technology. It is extremely sensitive to biological energy. If it is wrapped in blood or flesh, the recovery rate of the machete's energy reserves will increase; the energy recovery rate also varies depending on the living being's level)]

(Sharpness (The sharpness of the machete is affected by energy. Based on the amount of energy supplied, the blade can exhibit different levels of sharpness. The maximum energy output that can be used in a single attack is 50% at one time, which will double the sharpness of the machete.)] (Vibration (When the sharpness of the machete exceeds that of the opponent's weapon by more than 30%, and comes into contact with it, there is a high probability that the opponent's weapon will shatter, break, or suffer damage.)]

[Comment: Ecstasy for vibrating sword lovers!)

The three attributes looked fairly ordinary but, in fact, they should not be underestimated! The first ability, much like the dagger, could speed up the weapon's recovery of energy by absorbing flesh and blood. The second ability was the sharpness boost. If it was used at its maximum output level, it would double the sharpness of the machete.

Last but not least, the third ability was even more unusual. As long as the opponent's weapon was of a lower quality or sharpness level, once the two weapons clashed, it would result in certain victory for the machete wielder.

If they were still in the era of cold weapons, such a sharp machete that could absorb flesh and blood would definitely become a fantasy sword that every martial artist would dream of!

Yet now, after a few practice swings, Su Mo ignored it.

The reason was simple…

Practicality! There were still too few people in the basin area. If they engaged their enemies in close combat, there would undoubtedly be casualties.

Given a choice, Su Mo would prefer to see the technology to increase sharpness in this manner appear on some other special vehicles or tools. For example, the machine tool that would have outstanding cutting ability, the axe that would slice through logs like butter, or the excavator that would cut through iron and stone, and so on.

Only when the technology was used in people's daily livelihood would it reflect the strongest potential use of this technology.

For weapons, the only comment he had was that… it could only be admired, but not used!

He continued to use the system appraisal function and, soon, the remaining properties panels of the other weapons also popped out. However, after scanning through them once, Su Mo did not even have even the slightest interest in trying out the rest of the ordinary items.

The green longbow could reduce the sound of the arrows in flight, and also provide energy to make the arrows fly faster. This ability could even be achieved by upgrading and remodeling the electric crossbow that Su Mo had upgraded before, so it was decidedly unremarkable.

The light-absorbing dagger was coated with a layer of paint similar to Hope One. After activating the energy, it could burst out with a blinding light and impair the opponent's vision.

ves

The funny thing was that this ability did not differentiate friend and foe. After using it, aside from preparing themselves psychologically, the user would also be affected as well, which meant that this thing was a two-edged sword in battle.

He then noticed the last few items as he continued to scan through the items.

When the assault team mentioned the protective shield that could create a white barrier of light, Su Mo had expressed his interest.

(Protective Shield (Good)] [Description: This is a standard piece of equipment carefully crafted by the dwarves. It has strong defensive capabilities. After activating the energy inside using a certain method, the protective shield can create a barrier that will stop all incoming external attacks.]

(Creator: Ackerman Bennett)

[Defense Type: Direct Kinetic Energy]

[Defensive Power: 25 (Can defend against the impact of any bullet with a caliber lower than 7.62)]

[Current Energy Reserves: 21% (Recovery time: 69.5 hours)]

[Special Abilities:

[Absorption (This is a protective shield created using Old Era Technology. It is extremely sensitive to biological energy. If it is wrapped in blood or flesh, the recovery rate of the shield's energy reserves will increase; the energy recovery rate also varies depending on the living being's level)]

(Protection (Activated by energy, an electromagnetic barrier will be created 50cm around the user's body, greatly reducing the damage caused by direct kinetic energy attacks. Note: The protection barrier is a two-way shield; after using it, the user's attacks will not be able to bypass the barrier either.)]

[Comment: A small toy, but its design concept is very interesting!)

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Chapter 490 A Big Piece of Information, The "Safest" Place!

"Huh, this thing is kind of interesting!" Giving the properties of the protective shield a once-over, Su Mo decided to give it a try. He picked a shield up and activated it.

Buzz…

A clear hoot sounded, and a slightly white barrier appeared in front of Su Mo's eyes. On Earth, electromagnetic force fields were not merely a figment of someone's imagination, or conceptual idea that only existed on Powerpoint.

On the contrary, the concept had already been realized on a small scale. It could be attached to the surface of armor to block the attacks of armor-piercing projectiles.

However, the way it worked was not by directly absorbing the kinetic energy of the projectile. Instead, it produced more of a "deflection" effect.

When compared to the white barrier in front of him, it was obvious that the two were

"It's not similar to an electromagnetic force field. Rather, it's a bit more like an energy field!"

After attempting to slam his fist against the white barrier a few times, and seeing the energy stored within the shield gradually drop by 1%, Su Mo came up with an answer from direct observation. Energy shields were commonplace in sci-fi movies.

However, once one looked into the specifics, there were many different types.

The first type was similar to this one now. After it was activated, it would bind and solidify energy into a visible shield.

The second type was a plasma shield. It used electromagnetic force to confine and shape plasma into a shield, and had a strong shielding effect against energy-based attacks such as electromagnetic waves. It was usually invisible and would only turn visible upon receiving an impact for an energy-based attack. Normally, one would find it used as a battleship shield in space-based sci-fi films.

The third type of magnetic shield was even less unfamiliar. Before transmigrating, it had been realized as a tokamak, which was a device that used a powerful magnetic field to confine plasma into the shape of a torus, and was developed to produce controlled thermonuclear fusion power. Of course, there were other versions of such shields as well.

There were also magnetic energy deflection shields, decomposition shields, joint shields, and others, which were either the products of fantasy and imagination, or actual science. These complex and imaginative ideas and exaggerations constituted the fantasies that humans had for the shields of the future. The spherical force field in front of him embodied one of those types.

"If I don't distinguish them by size, this thing is somewhat similar to Ma Fei's sky barrier."

"If I could analyze the theory behind this thing and expand upon it, perhaps it can be developed into a protective barrier that will be large enough to shield the entire territory." If he ignored the energy constraints and requirements, the idea of having an eggshell-shaped barrier to cover the currently undefended territory was a good idea. He continued to test it out in several ways but, given their current circumstances of poverty and the lack of resources, Su Mo abandoned the idea and deactivated the shield.

"Master, they're all awake. Do you want Moore to…"

Seeing the white barrier around Su Mo disappear, Moore's voice rang out. At the same time, within Moore's steel claw-like hands, the dwarf leader was picked up like a little chick and lifted up into the air.

Then, a pail of icy cold water was poured down above his head!

Whoosh!

He was dangled in mid-air and even doused with cold water.

The dual stimulation of his current predication caused the dwarf leader, whose brain was still muddled after Li Hu's stunning smack, to instantly sober up! "Moore, tell him that, if he is willing to cooperate, I can let him go back to his territory. Otherwise…" "Ah, tell this barbaric bear to let me go, or the Cole family will definitely make you pay the price in blood!"

Surprisingly, before Su Mo's sentence was even finished, the dwarf cut in first.

Like the foreign races who used human languages, the dwarf also spoke extremely accurate Mandarin! "Oh? Since you can speak the human language, this'll be much easier to settle!" He gave Moore a familiar look. With a big smile on his face, Su Mo sat down. The next moment, Moore, who had understood Su Mo's intention, nodded excitedly and swung his arms that were thicker than the dwarf's body around and around.

Whoosh!

Whoosh!

Like a large windmill, the poor dwarf was caught in Moore's hands and swung around in circles.

As a result, the gravitational force on the dwarf's body reached 5G.

It was the first time he had felt such pressure.

In less than ten seconds, as Moore swung him around again and again, the dwarf collapsed gloriously.

Unfortunately, right after he passed out, Moore quickly took the pail of water and poured it over his head.

Compared to the previous time, the current temperature of the water was a little higher. However, once it was poured on the dwarf's head, it felt doubly refreshing. Now, as the blood pressure rushed to the top of his head, every nerve ending in his brain was extremely sensitive. Right after the cold water was poured, a loud shout rang out. "Human, human, I surrender! Let's talk things over."

"Quickly, let this heroic bear warrior put me down. I, the leader of the dwarves, Paulie, willingly surrender to you!" Within a second, two complete sentences were uttered in an eloquent manner. The dwarf Paulie's desire to survive was evident.

The next second, he was put down. In his field of vision, Su Mo's smiling face reappeared. "Very good, very good. We have a saying in Huaxia. Those who think and act according to the situation are wise."

"Speak then!"

Without asking any specific questions, Su Mo words posed an open-ended question. However, Paulie's following "forthrightness" made Su Mo a little dumbfounded.

"Oh, human powerhouse, please allow Paulie to present you with the latest news on the dwarf tribe!"

Getting down on one knee, the dwarf Paulie rapidly clambered to Su Mo's feet.

First, he "reverently" kissed the toes of Su Mo's feet with his mouth. Then, with a "flattering" expression, he retreated three feet away. "I hail from the Cole clan, a subordinate of the great dwarf god of creation." "The Cole clan arrived 39 days ago, and the number of our people that arrived was 134 thousand. Before I left the territory, the Cole clan occupied a total of nineteen territories, ranking fourth in the New World!" "The camp I was assigned to was the Black Stone base camp, which is responsible for mining black stones to provide winter resources for the clan!"

With absolutely no loyalty to speak of, he spilled the beans to Su Mo without hesitation. Paulie's explanation answered the few questions that Su Mo wanted to ask about clearly.

It was as if the dwarf Paulie had already prepared a draft speech beforehand.

"19?"

"134 thousand people?"

Paulie nodded frantically. "Yes, thanks to the gifts from the god of creation, our dwarf clan obtained many slots to enter this world. Moreover, during this period of development, our population increased to a certain extent. I don't know exactly how many were added, but the number is at least around 500 thousand."

500 thousand dwarves!

Nineteen territories!

Listening to Paulie's words, Oreo, who was lying beside Su Mo, nodded slowly. Su Mo's face remained calm for the time being, but monstrous waves had suddenly been stirred up in his heart.

Based on the game's reduction measures (disasters), the population of humans had plummeted by half, which brought the total human population down to nearly 2 billion.

If the game wanted to continue inflicting disasters, it had to increase the number of living creatures in this world. Before this happened, Su Mo had already expected that the foreign races would come swarming in like locusts.

However, Su Mo now realized that his estimates had been far too conservative!

The situation in the New World at this time was even crazier than the war of a hundred races that Connie had told him about!

"What about Old Era Technology? Do you know anything specific regarding the research on Old Era Technology?"

He behaved just like the previous dwarf captain.

The moment he heard the words "Old Era Technology" come out of Su Mo's mouth, a strange look appeared in Paulie's eyes. Then, after finding Su Mo's attention on him, he quickly spoke. "Great king of humankind, please forgive Paulie's incompetence. Within the dwarf clan, Old Era Technology is a top-notch forging technique that only the geniuses of the clan can access. Not only do they require talent, they would also need the endorsement of the chief and the approval of the king. With Paulie's abilities, I'm afraid that I would never be able to come into contact with Old Era Technology in my entire lifetime."

The technology had been packaged as a top-notch forging technique by the dwarves. Although it sounded a little outrageous, Su Mo continued to ask patiently. "Ordinary dwarves would never be able to access it?"

Paulie shook his head. "There are regulations within the dwarf clan. There are two ways to access this top-notch forging technique. The first is to constantly accumulate forging experience by crafting more and more equipment with excellent properties, and offer them to the clan to obtain contribution points in order to increase one's own forging level."

"My current forging level is level two, which is far from the geniuses of the clan, who can reach level three not long after they're born. Furthermore, if you want to access Old Era Technology, you have to be at least level eight or above, with the highest level being level nine. In order to reach this stage, one would have to burn through a lot of materials. Ordinary dwarves wouldn't stand a chance."

"The second way is via contribution. As long as one makes a significant contribution to the clan and has a forging level of level six and above, they will have the opportunity to come into contact with the most basic levels of Old Era Technology in order to rapidly improve their own forging level."

As he spoke about the top-notch forging technique, Paulie's face was full of envy.

However, when he spoke about the geniuses of the clan being able to reach level 3 shortly after birth, his face was full of bitterness.

Comparisons only made people miserable. This kind of power gap was common in human society, but it was the same even in the clustered societal structures of the foreign races. "Very good, dwarf Paulie. You did well tonight. I have one last question."

"If your answer to this question satisfies me, then not only will you get a stable environment to sleep and rest, you might even get enough food and water to sate yourself."

Holding the round protective shield in his hand, it rumbled as he activated it. Although Su Mo did not move, there was a sort of invisible aura that rapidly condensed around his body.

Then, as this aura reached its peak, Su Mo turned his head around and stared directly into Paulie's eyes. "Why did you choose to surrender?"

It was a seemingly unimportant question. As the words came out of his mouth, Oreo roused herself from her lazy state and pricked up her ears.

However, unexpectedly, he was just as forthright as when he surrendered earlier.

Paulie the dwarf gave his answer to this question without hesitation. He only paused a little before immediately speaking out. "Respected king of humankind, territory lord Su Mo, please forgive Paulie's presumptuousness. You might not know that, a month ago, word of your greatness and brilliance spread throughout the entire world."

"You're the only powerful figure that can fight against the gods in this world. Your might is something that even the king of dwarves might shy away from!" "Paulie is aware that, if I surrender to a powerhouse like you, I won't have to be afraid even if I'm hunted down by the dwarf tribe."

"Given your brilliance, you would surely keep Paulie safe, right?!" Su Mo was not surprised that the little dwarf had figured out his identity.

Nevertheless, upon seeing Oreo nod, Su Mo became interested.

"As long as you're willing to pledge allegiance to me, you can rest assured that your safety is guaranteed. In my territory, even if the dwarf king comes in person, I will make him pay the price."

"However, your treatment depends entirely on the value of what you can bring me. I think you should be able to understand this!"

Paulie the dwarf nodded immediately.

"Territory lord Su Mo, your wisdom astounds Paulie. No one on this continent would have imagined that you would make such a barren place your chosen territory." "There's not a single tree here, and the land is unsuitable for farming. The probability of successfully sustaining a population here is basically zero." "Also, amid this cold winter, there's nothing on this entire land that can block the wind and rain. It's definitely the worst survival conditions in the entire New World."

"However, it's also the safest place. We won't be surrounded and attacked by the other foreign races atthe beginning, so it's an opportunity to develop the territory!" Listening to Paulie's "shameless praise", Su Mo coughed lightly, looking a little embarrassed.

However, upon hearing his final sentence, Su Mo became alert again. "The safest place?"

Paulie nodded. "Yes, a month ago, the foreign races sent out a simple communication message and planned to launch a surprise attack on you as soon as possible." "Within our dwarf tribe, any dwarf who could provide your whereabouts would be commended by the king and directly rewarded with a promotion to level seven!" "In other words, if I reported your location and raised my forging level to level six, I would directly gain access to the Old Era Technology!"

As he looked on, Su Mo was lost in thought.

Paulie spoke up again. "Territory lord Su Mo, I know the defenses of the Black Stone base camp like the back of my hand. I know all the weak points of the outer white wall, and when they change shifts."

"As long as we have a suitable opportunity, we can break through the base camp in one fell swoop and obtain the rights to mine the black stones. At that time, we'll have enough resources to survive this cold winter!"

In order to show his worth, Paulie had practically exhausted the intelligence data he possessed and all his other means.

Within just ten minutes, he even consciously changed his identity from a captive to a follower. He tried to see things from Su Mo's point of view and started to think about territorial development. Seeing such a change, Oreo confirmed once again that he was not lying.

Su Mo stood up.

"Very good, Paulie. Your loyalty astounds

me."

"Don't worry about the Black Stone base camp for the time being. For now, you'll stay

have an opportunity to display your worth."

"Perhaps in the future, the king of dwarves will have to kneel at your feet and kiss your toes reverently as well!"

He had received an important piece of "insider information".

As for the rest of the interrogation process, Su Mo chose to hand it over to Chen Shen and the others. Paulie, and the rest of the dwarves who could not speak the human language, followed Su Mo out of the shelter with faces filled with gratitude as they headed toward Iron Rock Mountain.

Deep in contemplation, Su Mo strode down to the third floor.

As the interrogation process had taken over an hour, Su Chan, who had been busy all day, had fallen asleep in the guest bedroom.

Su Mo did not choose to disturb her and instead walked down the familiar, yet unfamiliar path, quickly returning to the small nest that he had left behind for four long months!

The blankets and bedsheets had been changed by Su Chan during the day.

Moreover, after being exposed to sunlight for several hours, the entire room no longer smelled musty, which unconsciously put people at ease. He washed his face, brushed his teeth, and changed into his pajamas.

With various thoughts swirling around in his mind, Su Mo covered himself with the blanket and stretched out on the bed.

"It seems like my initial decision to move the basin area and its surroundings to the New World was the right one."

"If I had nothing and came to the New World to fight for territory, I think that there would already have been countless foreign races secretly plotting how they can surround and eradicate me!" Picking up the map of the New World that he had drawn earlier, he examined it a few more times.

Seeing that he had made the correct decision unintentionally, Su Mo could not help but feel a little fortunate.

It was easier to provoke and deal with the king of hell compared to the countless ghosts of hell.

If the territory he had chosen had been where the smaller clans were concentrated, there would have been enemies running all around his territory by now.

At that time, the pressure he would have faced, at every minute and every second, would have been completely different from his current situation.

In addition, if he had chosen the center as his territory, once he was surrounded, he would have no path of escape. There was no way he would be as comfortable as he was now.

"The disaster bought me two months." "During this cold winter, we have to find a way to develop the territory quickly!"

"The day after tomorrow, no, tomorrow morning, I'll activate all the resource cards!" He thought about what Paulie had described as "the most barren place", and "the worst survival conditions".

The light in Su Mo's eyes flashed.

These terms sounded a little harsh but, at this stage, they were the best form of "cover" for the basin area.

If others had these predisposed impressions about the territory, even if the basin area underwent some crazy changes, and developed extensive defensive measures in a short amount of time, it would not attract too much attention.

Once the basin area had these resources and developed rapidly, by the time everyone found out, the basin area would definitely surprise and shock everyone! This period of time was the perfect opportunity to build a fortune!

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My Post-Apocalyptic Shelter Levels Up Infinitely! #Chapter 491 - Level 4 Resource! A Mind-numbingly Terrifying Gain! - Read My Post-Apocalyptic Shelter Levels Up Infinitely! Chapter 491 - Level 4 Resource! A Mind-numbingly Terrifying Gain! Online - All Page - Novel Next

Chapter 491 Level 4 Resource! A Mind-numbingly Terrifying Gain!

Doomsday Month 4, Day 3. It was the final week until the 100-day milestone of humankind's arrival on the wasteland.

The weather in the Deep Ocean was unknown.

In the basin area, beginning at two o'clock, a light drizzle of rain poured down, falling on the tops of the residents' tents with reassuring pitter-patter sounds. After being scorched by the sun for a few days, there were large patches of cracked ground all over the territory.

At this moment, the ground received the nourishment of rainwater and slowly started "healing".

Then, at 5.50 am, not only did this rain not stop, but it became even heavier. The despairing cold winter of the New World had yet to arrive, but the long rainy season had already quietly arrived. Although Iron Rock Mountain's cave network could still be used for now, it could only accommodate two to three hundred people.

Even before the heavy blizzard came, the need for infrastructure and construction work was already placed before everyone!

"Get up! Hurry up and get up! Quickly tidy this place up. We have to dig out a moat before nine o'clock!

"Everyone, wake up! Wash up and eat, then we'll get to work!"

Boom!

Boom!

Boom!

Chen Shen stood halfway up Iron Rock Mountain as he beat a gong and a drum. His voice, through the loudspeaker, could be heard far and wide.

Thanks to his thoughtful "wake-up call", the villagers that were still dreaming all quickly crawled up out of their beds.

They took out their washbasins and collected rainwater.

Amid the cooling rain, in just less than twenty minutes, all the villagers completed their morning routines. On the other side, the cooks of Hope Village also warmed up the dry rations they had brought with them previously. Steamed buns, salted vegetables, and congee. It was a simple and plain breakfast but, on this doomsday wasteland, it gave everyone who queued up to receive it, a long-lost sense of peace!

"Motherf*cker, why did I never notice how tasty this plain congee with salted vegetables was? Now that we're living on the wasteland, it smells so fragrant that I could bite my tongue off!"

"Indeed, indeed. As a southerner, I've never had such a firm steamed bun. Eating two of these has satisfied my appetite."

"Heh heh, I don't know when we'll be able to have some meat. The taste isn't as stimulating for me. I really want to eat some good food." "Zhuang Shi[1, your name means simple, but you are not. Ha ha ha, where in our territory can you even find a shadow of an animal? Even if you want to eat meat, there's nowhere to find any." "Hey, don't say that. Just look at those…" "F*ck me, you even dare to have designs on the lizards we caught yesterday! No, no, I will claim them first!"

Squatting under the canopy, all the villagers chatted with each other as they held their breakfasts in their hands.

Nearby them were the thirty lizards or so that were happily jumping about as they watched the cooks prepare them a grain breakfast. The gazes of the villagers revealed ill intentions.

In modern society, they were used to fish and meats, their meals never lacking in meat, eggs, and milk.

During the civilized era, many people did not need to perform manual labor and, as such, their desire for meat could still be suppressed. However, on the doomsday, after long periods of daily manual labor, the genes in their body had been stimulated, and even a slice of meat would thrill them so much that their scalps would turn numb.

That sensation of consuming protein and fats was something that vegetables and dry foods could never compete with.

"I'm warning you all—these lizards are my babies."

"If things work out well, the scale of our breeding program will increase in a year and a half. At that time, it'll be no problem to give you all some meat."

"Now though, each of you better take a good, hard look. Whoever dares to have any ideas about these babies, you better believe that I'll cut a year's worth of your food!" Overhearing these villagers' chatting, he knew that they were all joking. Still, Chen Shen knocked on the side of his own bowl and gave everyone a warning. Last night, after Su Mo interrogated Paulie the dwarf and locked him in Iron Rock Mountain, Chen Shen did not remain idle.

Along with Shen Ke, Qi Qin, and Zhang Long, they all participated in the follow-up interrogation process. After questioning him in detail for over two hours, thanks to dwarf Paulie's forthcoming answers, they obtained a lot of valuable information!

Among these, the most valuable was about these lizards!

For a normal small lizard, the process from the moment the mother lizard was pregnant to the point where it laid and hatched the egg only required 30 days! Moreover, the time needed for a normal small lizard to grow to adulthood was only 90 days! If managed properly, the number of lizards present in the territory could double to more than a hundred in four months.

If they waited a further four months, these hundred-over lizards could quintuple in number; reaching over 500 was not an impossible feat. Furthermore, if they were allowed to reproduce for up to a year, and given sufficient food supplies, the number of lizards in the basin would definitely exceed the 2000 mark.

By that time, everyone could have one as a mount and could even use them to perform other tasks.

Aside from this, Paulie informed them that the lizards could undergo changes in their bloodline under specific circumstances, which would give them all sorts of strange and unique abilities.

Due to this, for these more than 30 "babies", Chen Shen crawled out of bed early in the morning and specially ordered the cooks to make their favorite food. After his warning, the villagers all reined in their desires and did not speak of the matter any longer. At 6.40 am, work officially started.

The Hope One needed a suitable environment that could support it. Without sufficient materials, the village could not build a suitable frame at the moment.

However, digging a trench that would keep Hope One from tipping over was not difficult.

Looking at the Underground Shelter in the distance that still had its doors shut tight, everyone worked hard; their shovels working up a frenzy.

However, what they did not know was that Su Mo—who was on the third floor of the Underground Shelter-had also gotten up early.

At six-thirty in the morning, hearing the sound of rain coming from the second floor ventilation duct, Su Mo got up, full of energy.

Although he had only slept for six hours, the peace he felt after returning to the Underground Shelter allowed Su Mo to fall into a deep sleep, so he woke up extremely satisfied.

Moreover, the moment he thought about the fact that the basin area would obtain twelve different resource nodes today, as well as about how he could finally access his survival points gains and receive the completely new territory upgrade system, Su Mo was so moved that he got up immediately. He kept clenching and unclenching his fists again and again to relieve the excitement in his heart.

"I hope this territory upgrade is similar to what I'm imagining. Otherwise, even if the basin area gains twelve new resource nodes, it would still take a lot of effort to catch up to the other foreign races' territories!" He used the fresh rainwater to wash his pots and pans. Walking through the passageway on the second floor, he arrived in front of the storage room that had been sealed for a long time, from which he took out a batch of supplies. After a long absence from the Underground Shelter, Su Mo prepared breakfast here for the first time.

The pot started to emit steam. An hour later, when Su Chan-who had still been sleeping-got up from the fragrance of the food that was cooking, Su Mo laughed and lifted the pot's lid. "Hurry and wash up since you've woken up. The beef soup will be done soon. Have a bowl of beef noodle soup, and it'll keep you from being hungry all day!" The meat he used for this dish was the good beef that he had obtained from a treasure chest.

The soup had a mellow taste and had been mixed in with the enhanced psychic energy water that was naturally sweet. The noodles were hand-pulled, resulting in an incomparably chewy ramen that had been stretched to 32 feet before being portioned out.

He added in the appetizing oils and spices, white and tender radishes, and garnished it with some coriander. By the time Su Mo had filled up five bowls, Moore-who stood beside him—had started drooling all over the floor long ago.

Picking up his own serving, Moore slurped down a big gulp of soup, disregarding the heat.

"Flavorful…"

"So flavorful!"

Drinking a second gulp of soup and chewing on the noodles and beef, Moore was so moved that his tears glistened. It attracted Su Mo's attention as well. "Come and rate your brother's cooking skill!" "Absolutely!"

The beef noodle soup that had enhanced psychic energy water added to it had completely overthrown the previous taste of beef noodle soup back on Earth. Thanks to its effects, no matter whether it was the spiciness of the chilis, the umami of the beef broth, or the taste of the coriander, all of those sensations had been increased many times over.

Every sensation massaged their taste buds.

Every bite was an incomparable pleasure.

One full pot of beef broth and noodles contained enough to feed ten people but, in less than half an hour, its contents were completely demolished by the two large and four little ones.

Seeing that the clock hanging in the living room was already pointing at 7.15am, Su Mo put his bowl and chopsticks down.

"Moore, I'll let you handle the dishwashing. I'll head off to work first!"

"Okay!"

As he poured the last bit of soup into his bowl, Moore was not dissatisfied with the task Su Mo assigned to him.

He smiled as he looked at Su Chan, who was still happily slurping down the noodles in her own bowl. Su Mo widened his stride and walked up to the first floor. He collected the psychic energy water and the diesel fuel that accumulated yesterday and stored them into bottles and barrels.

By the time Su Mo had finished dealing with this "daily task" and opened the shelter doors, the clock had just struck eight o'clock in the morning.

Buzz!

An invisible ripple flashed, and the system panel that had been missing for a long time appeared once again.

On the upper left corner of the panel, Su Mo noticed the long-awaited daily system announcements at a glance! Moreover, this time, the color of the daily system announcements button was not the usual white, nor the pale gold from the previous instance, but rather an unprecedented pure gold! As it exuded an eye-catching brilliance, just by glancing at its color, Su Mo was so moved that he wanted to run a few laps right there.

"Adding it all up, it has been more than 20 days since the last round of announcements."

"If I managed to earn a thousand points every day, twenty days would mean twenty thousand points!"

Picking up a black umbrella, Su Mo slowly walked out under the rain.

In the distance, the villagers noticed Su Mo's figure immediately and greeted him with cheers.

Chen Shen, who had kept watch at the door, also came up to him. "Leader, you've come. Hope One's trench will be finished soon. We will probably be able to move it in at nine o'clock!"

"Good, not bad. What I'm looking for is this kind of efficiency."

Taking the blueprint design from Chen Shen's hands, he examined the details of the trench's design, after which he nodded in satisfaction. With professionals among the villagers, he finally did not have to manage these minor matters personally. Still, after recalling the changes that were going to happen very soon, which he had noted down, Su Mo paused and then said, "Right. Call the villagers over and tell them to prepare themselves for a surprise later!" "Ah? A surprise?" "Could it be that you're actually planning to slowly develop this destitute basin area?" Clapping Chen Shen's shoulder, as he gazed at his seemingly knowing but disbelieving expression, Su Mo laughed. He picked up the pace and walked toward Iron Rock Mountain. In the eyes of those around him, he was someone exalted to the point that he seemed to be out of this world.

Su Mo's steps were not just steady, they were also very quick. In less than three minutes, he reached the path heading up to Iron Rock Mountain.

After twenty minutes, when the first muffled sounds started echoing, as Chen Shen began briefing the villagers, the basin area started exploding with activity. The 1405 villagers were…

Shocked!

It was as if heaven and earth had opened up, and an earth dragon had rushed through the territory.

The originally cracked ground seemed to gain some luster at this moment.

Before everyone's eyes, the ground centered around the Underground Shelter suddenly began to change.

The cracks disappeared… No traces of the dried yellow dirt remained either…

It was as if this land had never suffered the baptism of the ocean water. Within just the span of a few breaths of time, the land returned to the wasteland's usual appearance.

Moreover, within an extremely short period of time, its color began to deepen. Just one glance was sufficient to tell them that the land had become fertile. "Has the basin area been revived?"

When the first villager raised such thoughts, a second loud rumbling sound immediately followed.

A towering mountain no smaller than Iron Rock Mountain appeared at the border of the territory in less than ten seconds.

Even though the sky was overcast, everyone could clearly see this mountain. There were a large number of green plants, and they could even see spots of red among the green. For the poverty-stricken basin area that had been either charred yellow or black, this change of color was like the sweet advent of spring In an instant, the entire land no longer seemed that dark. It even possessed some vitality. However, just like the first time, before everyone could voice their shock at this mountain, a third…

A fourth…

And a fifth… roar sounded again!

Like the roar of loud cannon fire, it was as if the entire land was about to split open, both the mountains and the land shook.

There were even bits of iron debris that fell off the cliffs of Iron Rock Mountain.

However, at this time, Su Mo—who stood at the top of the mountain-did not move at all, almost as if his feet had been rooted to the ground.

Moreover, like the villagers below, Su Mo's face was full of joy! [Record): Congratulations to player "Su Mo" for successfully using the Level 1 random resource generation card. You have received: fertile land (five mu)*1.

[Record): Congratulations to player "Su Mo" for successfully using the Level 2 random resource generation card. You have received: fruit tree mountain (40 meters)*1. [Record: Congratulations player… Twelve resource cards. Without any hesitation, after taking them out of the storage space, Su Mo chose to use them all. There were eight Level 1 cards, three Level 2 cards, and one Level 4 card. The sounds that heralded their appearance was enough to shock everyone in this land. However, fortunately, the curtain of rain acted as a natural barrier.

Even if those outside the territory were curious, they could not clearly see the changes that were taking place inside the basin area.

Once the final Level 4 resource card was activated, disregarding the water pooling at his feet, Su Mo immediately sat down cross-legged and summoned the game panel to examine his gains. [Land resource (fertile land)… Level 1] [Tree resource (Chinese red pine)… Level 1] (Tree resource (Scotch pine)… Level 1) [Mineral resource (copper ore)… Level 1] (Water resource (freshwater lake)… Level 1] [Vegetation resource (dense green grass)… Level 1] [Animal resource (yak)… Level 1] [Animal resource (sheep)… Level 1]

(Land resource (fruit tree mountain)… Level

[Food resource (carp)… Level 2)

[Mineral resource (heatstone mine)… Level 2) [Mineral resource… (high-quality tungsten ore)… Level 4)

Wow!

From top of the list to the bottom, after noticing that every single one was very useful, Su Mo involuntarily laughed like a maniac.

The reason why these were so important was because, firstly, the basin area had become so barren that even five mu of green grass was an extremely rare resource node.

Secondly, there were enough people in the basin area to rapidly maximize the usage and potential of each of these resource nodes.

Based on the game's rarity and usefulness ranking, after categorizing the resource nodes, Su Mo tapped on the first few resource nodes and took a serious look at them.

esource

[Mineral Resource (high-quality tungsten ore… Level 4)

[Mineral state: Complete; yet to be mined; at full capacity]

[Mining value: Four stars (Maximum: Four stars)]

[Special ability: High quality (the purity of the mined tungsten ore will be higher)] [Mining difficulty: High-Very high) [Remaining reserves: Four million tons] "Ss… there are actually four million tons, my goodness!"

The tungsten ore that originated from the Level 4 resource card, which he had obtained from the God of the Ocean title promotion ruins, had given Su Mo a great surprise from the start.

In the civilized era, a single ton of tungsten ore would sell for 60 thousand!

r

Moreover, anyone who knew a little about steel and the military would be aware of the importance of tungsten.

Hollow-point bullets, traditional armor-piercing bullets, the blades on lathes, metal-cutting blades, drill bits, super-hard die casting, and more, all required tungsten! If steel was like the meat that was regularly eaten at the dining table, then tungsten was like the knife and cutlery used to eat it. Without them, it would be very difficult to

eat.

They now had a reserve of 4 million tons of the hardest metal in the world. This meant that Hope Village, with regard to the development of metal production and its derivative industries, had…

Boundless potential!

"Originally, I was still worried about how to deal with the issue of the cutter head on the machine tool. With this tungsten ore, even if it is very difficult to mine, I can still find a way to get my hands on some in an emergency."

"Truly worthy of being a Level 4 resource card!"

Exhaling a long breath of air, after closing it, Su Mo looked at the remaining resources that he had obtained.

[Animal Resource (Yak)… Level 1] [Special ability: Cold resistance (Resistant to the effects of cold weather up to negative twenty degrees)] [Remaining reserves: 10 adults (equal number of males and females)]

[Animal Resource (Sheep)… Level 1]

[Special ability: Fluffy (Wool growth speed 30%)]

[Remaining reserves: 10 adults (equal number of males and females)]

[Food Resource (Carp)… Level 1]

(Special ability: Growth (Time to maturity: -25%)]

[Remaining reserves: 2000 adults (equal number of males and females)]

[Land Resource (Fruit Tree Mountain)… Level

[Resource state: Peach trees, persimmon trees, apple trees, hawthorn trees, cherry trees.]

(Harvest value: Two stars (Maximum: Two stars)]

(Harvest difficulty: None] [Special ability: Tasty (the taste of fruits growing on the mountain increases by 15%)]

[Remaining reserves: 100%]

[Mineral Resource (Heatstone mine)… Level

Resource state: Complete: yet to be mined

Level 4 Resource! A Mind-numbingly Terrifyin… growing oli me 110urlLalli HICIEases Dy 1570)

[Remaining reserves: 100%]

[Mineral Resource (Heatstone mine)… Level 2]

[Resource state: Complete; yet to be mined]

[Mineral introduction: A type of ore that can absorb heat. After a large amount of heat is absorbed, the heat inside will be slowly released to its surroundings over a protracted period of time.)

(Mining value: Two and a half stars (Maximum: Two and a half stars)]

[Mining difficulty: Medium]

(Special ability: Durability (number of repeated uses 50%)]

[Remaining reserves: 50 tons] (1) è zhuāng shí; the # in his name is the same character as EF "l?oshi" which can mean honest or simple-minded

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Chapter 492 New Points! The Beginning of the Great Construction!

Even in the modern era, things such as resources would at many times allow a poor region to instantly obtain a chance at having a new beginning. Investments, factory buildings, and the mushrooming of apartments were all signs of an elevation in the rate of commercial consumer consumption in the region. Many would be so excited to the point that they could barely blink when 'resources' were involved, so much so that they could not bear to wait any longer to dive headfirst into it and join the crowd.

However, these were all merely great outlooks that could only be fully exploited by a strong industrial-based modern society. It was the same as the coal mines of the black stone base camp. Were it not for the dwarven tribe and their initial investment in building a tunnel to facilitate the mining activities, it would be nearly impossible to retrieve two tons of coal from a coal mine that was buried at least thirty meters underground.

After the initial excitement, Su Mo, who was seated on the peak of Iron Rock Mountain, began to calm down as he scanned through all the resource nodes that the game had listed out.

Of the twelve resource nodes the territory obtained, the ones that could be immediately utilized to improve the condition of the territory were limited.

Resource nodes like the fertile land, trees, vegetation, and the freshwater lake could be considered life-saving, as they helped transform the territory into a livable region, unlike before.

The animal resources, the yak and the sheep, would not be an immediate asset to the territory, much like the lizard coolies. For the time being, they would be liabilities that would exhaust large amounts of resources since they would need to be fed daily with large amounts of fodder.

Only when these animals began to bear offspring and grow in population would they start providing a return on investment. On the other hand, the 2000 carps were not too shabby but, awkwardly, the territory was currently about to experience a long winter season, and the carps would definitely not lay eggs during such cold temperatures. It would be at least three to five months before there would be a harvest of carps.

As for the remaining three mineral resources, the copper mine, tungsten mine, and the heatstone mine, they were all buried at various depths underground, and mining the ores would not be an easy feat. This was especially true for the tungsten mine, which was 40 meters underground and was currently at the stage where nothing could be mined at all.

The copper mine was 20 meters underground, and digging for ore using King Kong could be considered a temporary solution. The heatstone mine was the easiest to mine since the ores were only 5 meters underground, though the ores were sparsely distributed

There were 50 tons of heatstone ores distributed in an area ranging from 5 meters, to 100 meters apart from one another, with the total coverage area exceeding 30 square kilometers.

Before any scanning equipment could be invented, the returns would be pretty scarce even if all of the villagers were sent out to mine the ores for a few days. "After speculation, the resource that could be used immediately to improve the living quality of the villagers greatly is actually the fruit tree mountain in the distance."

Su Mo got up, glanced at the greenery of the mountain in the distance, and shook the water droplets off his umbrella. Even though he said these things the way he did, the pressure he felt weighing down on his heart was slowly fading.

Having trees around meant that the construction of living quarters for the villagers was basically assured.

Having fertile land meant that the cold-resistant plants that he had gotten from the God of the Ocean ruins could be immediately planted. Having fruits on the fruit tree mountain meant that everyone's vitamins would be sufficiently replenished. Having the yaks, sheep, and carps meant that the territory had some form of continuity in terms of resource expansion. Having the tungsten, iron, and copper mines meant that the territory would become self-sufficient for a long time in the coming days, even if the borders of the territory were to be shut!

In other words, the twelve resource nodes had successfully revived Su Mo's territory in the New World. No longer was it barren and poor, but it was now a region that possessed a potential that rivaled the rest of the New World!

After taking a few deep breaths, Su Mo, who was standing at the peak of the mountain under the rain, summoned something. This time, he did not summon the game panel, but the mysterious system panel instead.

After delaying for half an hour, Su Mo was still excited to see the golden envelope notifications again, but he could now properly suppress his excitement from overflowing.

His will took shape and gently tapped on the envelope icon. A dazzling bright light burst forth from the system panel, and it suddenly morphed into a familiar, yet entirely different panel in front of his eyes! [Doomsday Calendar Month 4, Day 3... Friday] (Territory Lord: Su Mo (Host)]

(Territory Status: Barren; a wasteland that is not suitable for living beings to live in for a long period of time. To develop here is like having hell mode activated.]

(Territory Area: 150 square kilometers (Not considered small, but not large either. You have enough living space, but lack strategic options and depth)]

(Territory Resources: Iron mine, petroleum, geothermal steam... (The territory possesses basic resources required for industrial development, but is extremely lacking in terms of life-sustaining animal and plant resources)] (Territory Potential: 0.15 (Current New World average is 9.69; highest New World score is 1489.67)]

(Weather Forecast: The drizzling rain in the area will intensify to mild rainfall tomorrow, with the temperature ranging from 12 to 29 degrees. There will also be Force Two winds (Beaufort scale) from the northwest. (There will be large variations in temperature. It is suggested that inhabitants prepare extra clothes to avoid catching a cold)]

(Territory Residents: 1405 people (Expand )] (Territory Residents' Loyalty Level: 100% (Stable loyalty levels means that your policy implementations will not meet any resistance) [Territory Residents Attitude: Pessimistic (More than 70% of your territory's residents feel pessimistic regarding the future development of your territory. They think that it would be really difficult to develop and establish a great human civilization on this barren land)] (Territory Residents' Health Level: Very Poor (72% of residents have health levels of 40-50, 14% of residents have health levels of 50-60, 11% of residents have health levels of 60-70, 3%70)]

[Territory Residents' Work Efficiency Rate): 26% (Most people find it hard to focus fully on working due to poor resting conditions and health concerns, causing the daily work efficiency rate to drop)] [Territory Residents' Needs: Living quarters, meat consumption, hot shower.] [Tip: Fulfilling their wishes may greatly increase their work efficiency rate.]

[Economy: Zero (Your territory has no trading partners and you have no trading policies set up internally. All residents are still using the primitive barter system)] [Technology: Zero (You have no technology under development in your territory at the moment)]

[Medical Facilities: Zero (There are no medical supplies or professional doctors, so your residents can only submit to fate if they get sick)]

(Law Enforcement: Very Poor (The unwritten rules are not comprehensive enough to full ensure law and order)]

(Architecture: Zero (No infrastructure at all. This is a cultureless, lifeless, temporary gathering place)] [Civilization Level: Primitive Age (Upgrade requirements: Not fulfilled)]

(Voices of the Wind]

"The place that Shelter Leader stays in is his safe underground shelter, and what he eats are the delicious meals cooked by the private chefs, while we are staying in tents and have to eat buns with pickled vegetables. Even though I know it's wrong of me to think this way, he was the one that said that we would eat and live in the same manner, yet he's the one going against his own words!" "Su Mo, you cursed human! How dare you scheme against us to destroy our underground transportation tunnel?! Just wait till we discover your location! We'll come up with countless methods of destroying your territory and make you pay ten-fold, no, a hundred-fold, because of what you've done!" "Today, the prices that the Moon Wolf clan quoted for the sale of nectar dropped again. One kg of nectar for only half a New World dollar! No, we have to supply a large quantity of nectar to the Earth Dog clan tomorrow! What a disgusting thing to do, deliberately disrupting the supply and demand of the market like this!"

(Points Acquisition Rating: Good (Expand )]

Whoosh!

Tens of new selection notifications popped up once Su Mo tapped on it, and it looked completely different from the usual daily system announcement panel. The panel displayed the basic attributes of the territory and the different items that were resident-related, as well as the developmental progress of the territory. The amount of details that the system had provided had completely exceeded Su Mo's expectations.

"The daily system announcement came at 8 o'clock in the morning. I had not yet used the resource cards then, so the condition of the territory was not updated accordingly!"

Even if he knew that the state of the territory before this was absolute trash, when he read through the different ratings and comments the system had provided, Su Mo could not help but chuckle sheepishly, even if there was no one around him. The more he examined the panel, the more Su Mo's interest was piqued, especially when he saw the columns named 'Territory Potential' and 'Weather Forecast'.

"I have a large oil field and an iron mine in my territory, yet somehow these only contributed to a 0.15 rating of the territory's potential? Of course it could be related to the fact that the ground here is completely unsuitable for any farming, but for the highest rating to surpass 1400, that's a little ridiculous!"

1400 and 0.15... One was greater than the other by at least 9000 times!

Even if one could not simply measure the strongest region in the New World as one that had an oil field that was 9000 times larger, from this figure, Su Mo could roughly gauge the difference between his territory and the other party's. The best-case scenario would be that his territory would still be hundreds of times lower in terms of potential, if not more! "It looks like the foreign races have really given it their all this time, otherwise the difference in the average value and highest value cannot be explained at all. However, this doesn't matter for now since, even if they have all these resources right now, it's unlikely that they would be able to immediately utilize all of them for territory development!" "This weather though... It will actually intensify to mild rainfall tomorrow. That's not good news!"

After thinking deeply about it, and as he thought about the amount of infrastructure construction the territory required, Su Mo had somewhat of a headache, but he still could not think of a good solution to this issue, so he could only read on further. "It's not unusual for the loyalty level to be at 100%, and the attitude is to be expected as well given the current situation. However, the health level and work efficiency rate numbers are rather concerning!" Before 8 o'clock, had it not been for the system, the twelve resource cards, and his confidence toward the future, even Su Mo himself would feel a deep sense of helplessness when he looked at this land. The attitude of the residents was pessimistic rather than hopeless, which might be the result of their spoils from the raid on the coal mine yesterday. Moreover, the big problem at hand was the low health level. Most of the territory's inhabitants had not been very healthy even before they arrived at the wasteland to begin with. Coupled with the three months of constant turmoil and chaos, and the lack of nutrition, this problem was something that had been brewing for some time.

"Living quarters, meat consumption, and hot showers. All these could be considered as basic living necessities." "To fulfill it isn't such a..."

"Difficult thing to do!"

Different from his helplessness regarding the territory's development, resolving the residents' living needs was an achievable goal.

After making a mental note of the tip given, Su Mo looked at the four huge sections below.

Economy, Technology, Medical Facilities, and Architecture. These were all rated at zero.

As for Law Enforcement, the establishment of the wartime statute on Hope One previously had managed to earn the territory a 'Very Poor' rating. Su Mo also temporarily could not upgrade the Civilization Level since the territory had not fulfilled the necessary requirements. "Voices of the Wind?"

"What's that?"

Su Mo tried tapping onto each message as soon as he realized the messages could be activated.

Immediately, a voice slowly rang out in Su Mo's ear.

"This is... Hu Ren's voice?"

In an instant, Su Mo's excellent memory managed to recognize the owner of the voice, which was Hu Ren.

Hu Ren was an A-ranked talent in the territory who was good with numbers. He was one of the elites of the auditing field. He was usually a quiet person with very few things to say, and he looked very docile.

When Su Mo tapped on the voice message once more, he could not help but feel a little down.

Hu Ren looked like he did not have many things to say, but Su Mo did not expect him to have so many complaints in his heart. "The excitement of being home and the reunion of my sister made me forget that I had to comfort and reassure the people who have just arrived this time."

"If dad was here, he certainly would not have done things like this. Looks like I'm still too young after all!" Su Mo's experience in people management came mostly from studying and observation.

After realizing and acknowledging the mistake he had made, Su Mo nodded slightly and quickly tapped on the second voice message. The owner of the voice had a thick baritone voice, with a percussive tone. The way he talked was like Paulie the dwarf, which was properly enunciated English, and he was clearly a foreign race that possessed a talent with languages. "Underground transportation tunnel? Was that what exploded last night?"

After connecting the dots together, Su Mo could already roughly guess what had happened.

Ignoring the meaningless threat from the other party at the end, Su Mo listened to it again before he tapped on the last voice message. The last voice message was by a female, and the owner of the voice was no stranger to Su

Mo.

It was someone whom he had not communicated with in a long time after trading with the person long ago. Feng Mengyue! The first time he traded with Feng Mengyue, he had obtained the glass for the Underground Shelter's ventilation duct.

The second time he interacted with her was on the livestream during the blizzard disaster, where Feng Mengyue stood up for him.

There were no more interactions after that.

Su Mo did not expect to hear his old friend's voice on the new function of the system panel two months after their last interaction. "Moon Wolf clan? Earth Dog clan? Nectar? New World dollar?"

"Looks like the relationship between humans and foreign races is not as tense as I thought it to be. Seems like a lot of foreign races have started engaging in large-scale trading transactions!"

st ta

Su Mo could not help but smile and nod approvingly, as he had received substantial amounts of information and intelligence, especially regarding the "New World dollar", which was evidently a currency of some kind here in the New World.

If this new "Voices of the Wind" function were to bring him three pieces of information daily, even if the basin area were to be temporarily cut off from the outside world, when that time came, Su Mo would still be able to generally grasp what was going on in the outside world and would certainly not be blindsided.

That was incredible news!

"Looks like this last section will be my shortcut to earning more survival points! Now that it's all clumped together, things are definitely more convenient now!" The system panel updated increased the number of its practical functions. As for the 'Good' rating on the points acquisition section, Su Mo was at ease as he tapped on it gently to expand the section. The section unfolded once again, and so did the smile on Su Mo's face.

(You have successfully survived more than three months in the Doomsday wasteland and have increased the length of your lifespan (Survival points 1000)]

n

[You have gotten yourself a territory in the Doomsday wasteland, making you feel more secure (Survival points 5000)] [The greatness of your name has traveled far and wide to every place where the wind blows. All living beings know of your great name, and all foreign races are afraid of your capabilities. You are no longer a hero, but rather a living 'legend'! (Survival points 25000, Territory points 5)] [You are a wise leader. People under your leadership have reached a history-making loyalty level of 100%, which is every leader's ultimate goal (Survival points 3500)] (You have obtained more than 5% of the wasteland's authority. From a pawn that anyone could've moved, you have become a chess player with some influence and power. Your position and status have experienced a drastic change. This may just be a small step, but it is also a large step toward the future (Survival points 5000, Territory points 2)] [Milestone: Billionaire (The system's billion-level function has been unlocked. However, it was not unlocked in the usual manner, so the rewards for this achievement will be temporarily locked)]

(Milestone: Leader of Thousands (You have more than 1000 under your command. Survival points 1000)]

[Milestone: Foreign Race Killer (You have cumulatively killed more than 10 million beings from the foreign races (including actions that indirectly caused their deaths) Blue survival points20)] [Milestone: Guest from Outer Space (Flew a million meters into space. Blue survival points15)]

[Milestone: Alien (You have cumulatively traveled more than 500 thousand kilometers. Blue survival points25)] [Scanning Host's territory condition, analyzing territory points, obtained 0.3 territory points today.]

[Final points calculation: White survival points 41500, Blue survival points 60, Territory points 7.3]

(Survival points balance: White survival points – 44456, ...] Just like the new functions that appeared after the system had been updated, Su Mo had seen the different types of rewards recorded on the system panel. It usually listed the regular survival points earned by developing and upgrading his shelter. This had now changed from his shelter to his territory, with a new category of points being awarded, namely territory points. The system also further separated the survival points into white and blue survival points.

It looked complicated at first, but after tapping on the tooltip at the side, Su Mo fully understood it all within 5 seconds. The three milestones were very difficult to achieve.

The first milestone was the result of his annihilation of the Gods of the Five Royal Clans, and indirectly causing the death of the entire batch of foreign races that had entered the wasteland previously. The second and third milestones were the result of his successful launch and journey into space using the psychic energy shuttle rocket.

White survival points could only be used to upgrade items, and could not be used on living beings. Blue survival points, on the other hand, could be used to invoke certain degrees of change to a living being's attributes, and were considered to be quite powerful.

As for territory points... Closing all the panels and returning to the upgrade panel, the previously locked territory upgrade option had also been unlocked. The black lock icon was gone, indicating that tapping on it was possible.

Su Mo tapped on it immediately and, when he saw the first section of the upgrade function, he could not help but ball his fists and howl in excitement!

"F*ck, territory points can actually be used to change the weather?! That's awesome!"

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Chapter 493 Soaring Potential! A Brand New Territory!

Before the territory upgrade function was unlocked, Su Mo had once thought that the billion-level civilization upgrade function was the killer ace that he would have up his sleeve and that, as long as he could continuously upgrade his territory's civilization level, and improve the skill and knowledge levels of its residents, he could rapidly develop his territory and technology tree and overpower the other inhabitants of the New World. However, after seeing the system panel on the territory upgrade function, Su Mo realized that he had it all wrong! Instead of the slow and daunting road of civilization upgrade, this territory upgrade function had come at the perfect time, and it would be the most important aspect in his conquest of the New World in the future!

(Territory: Su Mo's Basin Area] (Territory Weather: Drizzling ()] (Territory Area: 150 square km ()] [Territory Potential: 7.12 ()]

[Territory Resources: Tungsten mine, iron mine, copper mine, geothermal steam, fertile land… ()]

(Territory Terrain: Rugged and full of holes ()]

[Locked): …

[…: …

At the current moment, the territory upgrade function only had 5 unlocked sections that were glowing with a cheerful green light. The tens of sections below it were still in a locked state, and no one knew what they held.

However, from the 5 unlocked sections, Su Mo was confident that even if the basin area's potential was still vastly inferior to the that of the region with the highest potential, in 6 months' time, through the constant accumulation of territory points, the basin area would develop at a speed that other territories could only dream of! "I currently have 7.3 territory points, and enhancing one attribute will consume one territory point." "Regarding the weather, the drizzle we're experiencing now will not only dilute the concentration of salt left in the ground, but it will also water the fruit tree mountain, so I'm not too worried about this section for now."

"As for the area and terrain, it's the same as well. Now, since everyone's still concentrated in a small area, the upgrade would not be as significant or effective as it would be later

on."

"The choice I have to make is whether I should upgrade the territory's resources or potential!"

Every upgrade presented a difficult decision for him to make.

Given that he had limited territory points, Su Mo reverted to his ultra cautious and careful self like when he had first arrived at the wasteland!

Before the data was updated, the potential of the basin area was rated at a feeble 0.15. After obtaining the 12 resource nodes, this value had increased to 7.12.

This was nearly 50 times its original value!

Su Mo tapped onto the resource panel and scrolled to the very top.

He read through the description of each and every resource node the territory possessed, their different upgrade options and methods, as well as the points required. Su Mo then nodded discreetly. He continued to scroll down, making sure he memorized all of the upgrade options of each resource node by heart.

When he reached the bottom, Su Mo closed the panel unexpectedly without making any changes to any of the resources. "System, add all territory points to potential!" His choice was swiftly made. As soon as he finished speaking, the 7.3 survival points disappeared in a flash. A faint green plus sign started to swirl around at the end of the territory potential section.

After 3 seconds, the points addition process was completed.

The 7.12 potential rating from before had risen to 14.42 after the addition of the territory points! Even though there was still a huge gap between this value and the highest possible value in the New World, it was still a small victory when compared with the average potential value of the territories of the New World.

The change in potential did not create any visible effects.

As Su Mo looked at the misty, rainy territory in front of him, even if it did not look very different from before—the gaping cracks and crevices still looked as ghastly as the devil's smile—he knew deep in his heart that, over the course of the next one month, this territory would experience a complete transformation.

"Leader, leader, that mountain…" "We're rich! That mountain over there is filled with fruits… ripe fruits that we can eat right after we pick them!"

Holding three freshly-picked, radiantly gleaming, apples in his hand, Chen Shen stumbled up the mountain, shrieking in delight as he ran toward Su Mo from the foot of the mountain.

Su Mo could clearly see the excitement on his face as he watched Chen Shen run like a madman in his direction.

Taking a rain-soaked apple from him, Su Mo cleaned the surface of the apple with his shirt and took a bite. "Tsk, not bad. Such a juicy fruit! Send my orders down. Everyone that partakes in the fruit-picking today will have their share of fruits."

Chen Shen was dumbfounded, "Err, so… Leader, every single one of us will have some fruits?"

"The fruits on the fruit tree mountain may be abundant, but if all of us were to have our share, we won't have many to go around… Why not wait until some of the villagers perform well and use the fruits as…"

Su Mo shook his head. "No, let's do it this

way."

"All of us haven't had any fruits for three months now. It's time for our tastebuds to be stimulated once again!" Su Mo thought about Hu Ren's silent complaints and made the decision right away.

"Also. bring a few men and… You know what, just come with me!"

Standing at the top of the mountain, Su Mo pointed at a few places and started marching down the mountain.

Chen Shen, who was behind him, was initially stunned. Then he leaped three feet high in excitement as if he had just won the jackpot of five million dollars.

He had suddenly gained a deeper understanding and revelation from the things Su Mo had mentioned earlier. He had also felt fiercely hopeful about the future of the territory. 'Our territory may be poor and broken, but we have the strongest human, Almighty Su, with us!'

What else was there to say about the future?!

With excitement and a tinge of lamentation in his heart, Chen Shen picked out 40 men at random and followed Su Mo into the distance with umbrellas in hand.

The long-awaited walk across the basin area now carried a totally different feeling, as they trudged along in the rain. The group did not walk very quickly but, led by Su Mo, a commotion of exclamations broke out as soon as everyone passed the hillside and the open land came into view. "F*ck, quickly, look there! What the f*ck is that?! It's moving! Could it be a foreign race that snuck in?!" "That's no foreign race! Isn't that… F*ck, isn't that a f*cking sheep?"

"Quick, look there! Since when did we have such an open field of grass? Bloody hell, there was nothing there at all when I looked around yesterday!" "Sheep, quick, let's go catch some sheep. Don't let them escape!"

"Attack!"

Splat!

Splatter!

At that moment, no one cared about the umbrellas in their hands any longer.

Everyone, including Chen Shen, looked like children that had just gotten their hands on a new toy as they howled excitedly, running toward the sheep. The poor sheep that had arrived in the New World not too long ago did not even have time to react as to why they had suddenly appeared here before they were tightly hugged by the humans who had endured the trials and tribulations of the Doomsday wasteland for three months. Hugging the sheep gave them a sense of comfort that they had not experienced before, not even on Earth. "One, two, three, four… ten! We have ten sheep!" "F*ck, what are those?!" "The f*ck, could those be wild yaks?! Sh*t, what a fortune! Has our territory been invaded by animals?!"

"Who wants to catch some yaks!"

"Sun De, you go! You were the fastest to capture a sheep just now. Why are you still here?"

There were ten yaks that now existed in the territory. The male yaks were burly and strong, with fur that glistened healthily in the gloomy rain, whereas the female yaks were muscular and healthy, as if each muscle on their backs were packed with power. These hefty-looking animals weighed about half a ton each. If they were to go berserk, only Su Mo would be able to bring them back under control. As for others, if they did not have their weapons with them, they would not stand a chance. "Calm down, everyone. These babies are precious assets to develop our territory's agriculture and farming in the future. Don't scare them off!" "Let go of the sheep. This is their home, so why and where would they run to anyway?" With a bounce in his steps, Su Mo briskly walked down the hill and stopped in front of the strongest-looking bull of the herd before everyone's eyes.

This was the pack leader.

With these types of bulls around, the other bulls and female yaks would automatically follow its lead in forming a harmonious little herd.

It was also this type of bull that was more hot-tempered than ordinary yaks. There was video footage of pack leaders like these charging solo into a herd of wolves, headbutting and killing wolves while disregarding the attacks and bites of the other wolves within the herd.

However, as Su Mo stretched out his hand, the pack leader did not charge aggressively at Su Mo like how everyone else was worried that it might.

Instead, it laid its head in Su Mo's hand gently and moved its head around affectionately so that Su Mo's hand could caress its head.

With Su Mo taking the lead, the others looked down and were surprised to find the sheep they were hugging did not have confused gazes like the sheep they had seen back on Earth, but rather had glittering eyes that sparkled knowingly. As everyone watched, some braver male sheep bleated a few times, looking adorable and polite.

As the sheep were released from the grips of the men, they strolled leisurely around the grass field in the rain, occasionally lowering their heads to chomp on a mouthful of grass while bleating in satisfaction. If the people did not see this with their own eyes, they would not be able to relate the scene that was unfolding before their eyes with the poor, sad-looking basin area they had seen yesterday.

Even so, as they looked at the greenery around them, they were still flabbergasted and so dumbfounded they plopped down onto the ground and started laughing. "Haha, did you think that this was all there is?"

"Get up, everyone! Follow me to the next place! If you can't even take a surprise like this, how are you gonna develop our territory in the future?"

Patting the pack leader's head gently, Su Mo gestured for the yak herd to move to one side as he brought the residents that were still on cloud nine and resumed their journey.

This time, the destination was slightly further away; about 15km away.

Once they were within ten kilometers of their destination, everyone could already see the gigantic freshwater lake from afar.

The size of this lake was at least 3 square mu, which was equivalent to about 2000 square meters.

It looked like a pristine mirror on the ground, glistening a soul-moving blue! "Leader, why not move our base of operations here? This place looks like it was made just for us to live in!"

"Indeed, it's still best to live near the mountains and water sources. If only we could move the fruit tree mountain over here, then it would be perfect!" "My eyes might be playing tricks on me, but why do I feel like there's something moving in the lake?"

"No way… F*ck, I see it too!"

As they approached the lake, the people started allowing their imagination to run wild as they gazed at the clear blue lake. When they finally saw the carps that were leaping into the air to get some fresh air, they… could not believe their eyes!

Even though they had prepared themselves mentally, when they actually came face-to-face with the lake that was teeming with so much life, they felt like their presence there seemed… "out of place".

None of their mental preparations could have prepared them for the surprise given to them by reality.

It felt like opening your wallet to find a lottery ticket you did not buy, but just as you were prepared to throw the lottery ticket away, you walked past the lottery ticket booth and realized that you had won five million dollars!

Unexpected surprises like these would throw anyone off their feet, including Chen Shen! "There are two thousand fishes here. Not too many, but later, after we return, Chen Shen, pick out some people who can swim and catch around…"

"Three hundred fishes."

"Tonight, we will mobilize and begin the briefing for the infrastructure construction project and, by the time we're done, I want to see everyone enjoying a bowl of hot fish soup!"

After Su Mo made his decision to pick the fruits, Chen Shen no longer voiced any objections when Su Mo announced this and only nodded quietly instead. This time, when the other residents that were around finally snapped back to their senses, they exploded with joy! Their voices echoed and rang out as their excited facial expressions were reflected on the surface of the lake.

The carps were not only unafraid, they were leaping up and down the lake like a 'dance' performance.

After these two surprises, when Su Mo introduced them to the rest of the things, the residents managed to better contain their excitement.

Chinese red pine forest. Scotch pine forest. These two did not take up as much space, but they were just as majestic as a regular forest would be, and were located 14km in front of Iron Rock Mountain, which would make the wood harvesting process extremely convenient.

The copper and tungsten mines were too deep underground, so Su Mo did not bring the residents there. He only brought them to where the heatstone ores were located.

According to the terrain, there were hearthstone ores scattered within 30 square kilometers in the vicinity.

At the current moment, if they wanted to mine the ore, it was purely a game of chance. "Everyone, take out your shovels and dig the ground where you are standing. See if you can find any surprises?"

"It should look something like a pure black

rock."

Opening his storage space, Su Mo took the shovel he had kept in a corner, threw his umbrella aside, and started shoveling aggressively as well. Even if Su Mo was the one who had activated this resource node, after 30 minutes digging, the whole lot of them had only managed to find a single palm-sized rock. Heatstones looked very unassuming. The black stones exuded cold air as they quickly absorbed the heat from their surroundings and stored it internally. As they stored the heat, the color of the rock would gradually change from pure black to light black, then to a cream color, until they finally became pure white.

When they were pure white, they would slowly release the heat they had stored at the same speed at which they had absorbed the heat.

They were the equivalent to a natural… powerbank! "Let's go. Stop digging over here. I'll get someone to drive King Kong over here and give it a go. The efficiency of us digging here like this is too low!"

Unaware of the function of the heatstones, everyone kept their shovels and stopped digging after hearing Su Mo's words. Then they went back the way they came.

As they walked past the fruit tree mountain, Su Mo went over to take a walk inside out of sheer interest.

In just two hours, under the influence of the doubled territory potential rating, though it might have been difficult for others to notice, Su Mo realized immediately that changes were starting to take place on the fruit tree mountain.

The soil was firmer and the trees were sturdier. Even the fruits grew a size larger, and were juicier and more nutritious. 'Not bad, not bad. When they are picked later at night, the increased potential would have fully showcased its effects.'

On the other side, it was not just the fruit tree mountain that displayed a gradual change, but even the land below their feet was changing little by little as well. The residents that were working on it may not have noticed it, but as Su Mo made his way down from the mountain, the salt content of the ground was rapidly diluting, and the many cracks and crevices on the ground were also beginning to close up.

The change that was happening on a microscopic level was even greater.

The microorganisms that were living in the salty environment were changing rapidly under the influence of a mysterious power. The biological constraints that were restricting the growth of living organisms were quickly being removed, and the microbes that were beneficial to the growth of microorganisms were quickly growing and multiplying All in all, even though this land had not regained its former glory, it would no longer hinder the planting and growing of ordinary plants and crops! In reality, the invisible benefits were far greater than the visible ones. The air in the basin area had become clearer and fresher, the water quality of the rain had increased exponentially, and even the concentration of iron in the iron mines of Iron Rock Mountain had also increased by a percentage at a gradual pace. The increase in potential signified that all parts of the basin area were increasing in terms of quality as well. When compared to upgrading individual resources, those 7 points could be considered to have been very well

spent!

"Leader, the trench is ready!" The residents that had been working from 10 in the morning could finally take a break.

Su Mo looked at the residents who were chit-chatting on the floor while keeping an eye on him. He did not slow down his pace but made long strides forward.

Instantly, a miniature version of Hope One appeared in Su Mo's hand. As he threw it forward, Hope One started to increase in size, like the soldiers appearing right out of a fairytale storybook. Within 30 seconds, the familiar ship had appeared and sank into the trench after losing its magical power.

All the people that were seated on the ground exploded with excitement!

"Go on and carry our things down." "We will build our very own houses, and our very own city on this land!" After verifying the captain's authority, the OS opened the doors to the second level, and Su Mo, after observing the hopeful faces of all 1000 of his territory residents, lifted up his hands, and bellowed at the top of his lungs! Those simple few words sounded like lightning and thunder as they rang in the residents' ears.

Unbeknownst to them, once more, another page had just been recorded in the historical annals of the New World. From then on, the hope of all humans, at the core of this wasteland world would…

Rise from the ashes once more in this very place!

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Chapter 494 The Four Neighbors, "Affluent" Basin! (Two In One)

About 40% of the supplies that had been loaded onto the ship before setting sail had been used up during the voyage to the New World.

The originally plentiful food supply had now been severely depleted.

Based on meal size estimates, the remaining reserves would only last 1405 people five months before being completely exhausted.

If they included the food required to feed the lizards, yaks, and sheep into this equation, the food reserves would likely be exhausted in four months at most.

However, this data was based on the calculation of everyone having three meals a day to fully satiate themselves.

meals, and the meal size was cut by 60%, the

year.

"Let's remain generous with the distribution of food! Only when everyone gets their fill will they have the energy work. We shouldn't let our people go hungry while we still have food."

"When it comes to planting crops, let's also hold our horses. We'll first wait for the heavy blizzard disaster to pass and only make preparations when the soil is fully nourished with nutrients."

Standing behind the railing and looking down at the villagers below, who were behaving like ants moving their nest, Su Mo's words expressed very little concern. Naturally, the leadership team beside him had no objections. They nodded and approved of his plans regarding the distribution of food. Next, Pei Shao, who was sitting on the second spot from the left, stood up, took out a small notebook, and began his report. "Chief, based on dwarf Paulie's intel, our territory is surrounded by four foreign races." "They are the Northwest Dwarfs, Northeast Ents, Southern Demon Race and, finally, the Southwest-humans respectively!"

Judging based on the intelligence data that he provided, Paulie had done an excellent job.

Even though they were limited by the scope and range of their territory, and could not go out to explore, the basin area still successfully obtained intel regarding their enemies.

"Humans? They aren't from Earth, correct?" Pei Shao nodded. "Correct. Based on what Paulie said, these humans aren't from Earth, but rather from a nation called the Light Empire." "These fools' nation has such a pristine and honest-sounding name, but they are home to such despicable trash." "Just take a look, you guys!" Pei Shao handed over the notebook after flipping over to the next page. After examining the information on the notebook page with a frown, Su Mo returned the notebook, and the entire leadership team passed it around while discussing. "Huh? Did these people modify their own bodies? What route are they even taking? Are they mad orcs or cyberpunks?" "Some even have avian characteristics with wings? This one's pretty good, they would naturally have air superiority!"

"They even replaced one of their arms with a shield? The idea's impressive, but which madman thought of it?"

"They cut off their legs and replaced them with wheels! Are they cosplaying Hot Wheels?"

Ten so-called "humans" with differing forms could be seen from a glance, inciting lots of discussion from everyone present. The pictures were drawn so realistically and vividly that, other than the blurred expressions on their faces, all the details of the important parts were clearly visible on the notebook page. "These humans from the Light Empire number around sixty thousand, which may increase as they develop. Their strength is no

joke."

"Based on what Paulie said, within this society of strange humans, authority and power are decided by one's level of body modifications."

"Those who only modified their limbs occupy the lowest level in their society. Their bodies are extremely weak and susceptible to external forces, and they are not that different from normal humans," Pei Shao explained while shaking his head, pointing at the first two examples of those who modified their own legs and arms. Continuing on, Pei Shao pointed at those who modified their bodies and organs and said, "These ones are one level above the previous examples. Their bodies have exceeded the feeble limits of normal humans. With bodies as strong as metal, their four limbs have an absurdly high potential for modification and, other than the weak point which is their heads, these humans can slaughter any foreign race creature without special abilities. Their speed, strength, and reaction speed are terrifying." Not only were there images, but Pei Shao also listed down three key data points. 100-meter sprint, 8.9 seconds. Bench press, 210 kilograms. High jump, 2.9 meters. These modified humans could easily surpass the thousands of years' worth of human evolution back on Earth. Furthermore, these modifications were holistic, without weaknesses, and could be described as humans transformed into precise killing machines. "Of course, the only caveat was that these kinds of humans would only be able to function on the battlefield as individual soldiers. Once the scale of the battle grew, their weak heads would become an easy target to exploit by the masses." "However, the ones from the third kind onward are the real threats that we have to pay attention to!"

Pointing at the humans with modified wings and those that had their entire lower bodies replaced with tank tracks, Pei Shao's tone held a trace of caution. "This kind has had a wide range of modifications performed on their bodies. To a certain extent, they've ascended beyond the categorization of humans. Avian people like these can fly up to 40 yards per second, and have a maximum round-trip flight range of 200 kilometer or so. The crawlers, on the other hand, don't get tired and, if they are supplied with enough energy, they can keep moving endlessly." "Their heads are enhanced and strengthened to the point that they can resist our pistols' bullets!"

Once Pei Shao's voice quieted down, Zhang Long quickly followed up with another question, "What about the rest of them? I see no spectacular modifications on their bodies. They can't be the strongest ones, right?" Pei Shao nodded. "Yes, from the outside, their physical features don't differ much from ours but, in reality, these people hold the highest status in their society, and the greatest power." "Every part of their bodies can be simply replaced and refitted, except their heads. Just like a cutter head on a machine tool, the parts can be swapped to suit any requirement." "They can add wings to soar freely in the sky, or change their arms into missile launchers to bombard the ground below, or even switch their legs with wheels for greater speed and mobility. It wouldn't even be an exaggeration to say they can even add a bunch of scanners and transform themselves into humanoid weapons!" They were just like the humans from a science fiction setting. Pei Shao got more and more excited as he continued on, as he most likely had similar ideas regarding self-modification in the past, and perhaps intended to join the "cyborg" division of some futuristic human army.

As he reached the end of his report, he noticed the frantic look in the eyes of people around him. He could only shrug and say, "The good news is that these modified humans have an extremely friendly attitude toward Earth's humans. If we head over for trade, it's unlikely that we will encounter much resistance. Even if we want to modify our own bodies, as long as we pay an appropriate price, even their most advanced technology can be availed of."

"However, the bad news is that they're very greedy and only look at high-value objects and items when it comes to trading. They don't look highly upon things like food, grain or normal minerals!"

Once he heard that the opposite party was willing to sell their most advanced technology, Su Mo, who was quietly leaning against the railing, grew interested and a faint gleam in his eyes.

This kind of body modification technology was not foreign to humans. Most of the AAA masterpieces in video gaming back on Earth frequentlyfeatured modified humans as playable and non-playable characters. Even in movies, these kinds of humans weren't rare.

Even though these things cropped up every now and again, the ethical restrictions of the time meant that any practical development of such concepts was destined to face resistance.

However, there were now actually living beings who had made it that far ahead and were willing to sell their expertise.

He figured that he still had the system as a backup if things went south. After a brief period of deep contemplation, Su Mo coughed twice to silence the whispers and chatter of the people around him. "Since they seem to be friendly with us Earth humans, we can try and go over and interact with them once the heavy blizzard passes." "If they really are willing to sell their modification technology, we might just be able to cobble something together to make it worth their while, and see if we can decipher and reverse engineer their work and modification technology!"

Chen Shen nodded as he noted down Su Mo's big plans. "Regarding the other two races other than the dwarves, is there any intel on the demon race or the ents?" Pei Shao replied, "Yes, there is. There's more information about the ents and less about the demons." "The foreign races from the last summoning were mostly animals with human features, so they hadn't exactly broken away from the limitations of their form. Even the Five Royal Clans, based on what Paulie said, were only supported by True Gods with average levels of strength or power." "However, among the current group of foreign races, the ancestors of races like the ents are True Gods of the upper-tier, while the forefathers of the demon race are—Main Gods!"

After talking to the God of the Ocean, Jiang Chu, Su Mo gained a certain understanding of how the levels of gods from different regions were divided and categorized into.

On the whole, this system still followed the level distinctions of the western mythology back on Earth, and the gods were divided into

-quasi gods, demigods, lower-tier True Gods, middle-tier True Gods, upper-tier True Gods and, finally, Main Gods. The Heavenly Dog Pseudo God from before would be categorized as being in between a demigod and a True God which had never possessed any authority. His power would only allow him to act violently in his own domain, but once he was outside his doman, he would be weakened and thrown into disarray. Once one reached the tier of True Gods, it marked the first step to becoming a living being that could possess authority. The downside was that this authority would not be the wasteland's authority, but that of other "small compartments" in the incubator.

They would be like Phaethon, who flew too close to the Earth and was struck down.

Since they weren't the closest to the exit of the incubator, a small compartment's authority would be taken back by the game in an instant once its reduction measures were implemented. Who could bear the consequences? This caused the gods of the small compartments to not feel safe and be forced to work for the game.

Only when they reached the level of Main Gods would their situation change to a certain extent.

The level of Main God represented the fact that this being possessed 20% of a small compartment's authority, at which point they could put their race's growth and development under their protection.

Just like strong ants, they could travel to other compartments and still retain a certain degree of power. Their race would be superior to a normal True God's race by a large margin, owing to that protection. Their abilities would also be weird and unpredictable. "If we calculate the authority I possess, I would probably be considered an upper-tier True God in the small world."

"Factoring in the fact that my authority originates from the main world, my power would not be below any of the Main Gods of these small worlds."

"The most important thing is that I'm not controlled by the game. The game can't decide my fate, or whether I live or die, on a fundamental level!"

The game's version update clearly indicated that no gods from other races could ever enter the wasteland. As such, Su Mo, who possessed insider information, was not worried. Those leaders who did not possess this intel would probably now be bewildered and clueless as to who or what these so-called main Gods could be.

"The Ents are a friendlier race, whose current strength and power is unclear. Based on an analysis of their behavior, there's a likelihood that we can initiate communication with them and establish a trade and commerce relationship."

"They seem to be very interested in high-level plants. If we could cultivate some special plants, we might be able to trade them for manual labor that they're currently exporting." "Their ability to work cannot be denied. They don't even need food to function. They are truly nature's workers!" "Regarding the demon race, however, their abilities are… perplexing!" Although he was stationed at Black Stone base

intel about the outside world.

His ambitions weren't minuscule, so much so that every time he was tasked to deliver coal for trade, he would try to get his hands on valuable intel from the conversations he had with his own kind.

Different from other living beings, those mysterious races under the Main Gods' protection had very little information circulating about them.

Even tens of thousands of dwarves would not dare to rashly approach or establish contact with them. It could be clearly seen that their power and influence was immensely strong!

"The demon race possesses human technology, but also has strange magic of their own, along with a bunch of weird talents and abilities."

"Not much is known about them at this time."

"There is still some good news though, the demon clan and the Light Empire are lifelong enemies, so we don't have to worry about them becoming an imminent threat for the time being."

"They also dislike the cold, so they won't start a war during winter that could extend into our territory." The work of gathering and presenting enemy intel had to be precise, and yet fully honest and accurate. Pei Shao withheld some of his speculations, choosing to instead jot them down in the notebook before passing them to Su Mo. "Are those demons just like the ones from horror stories?" "Where in the daytime they maintain their physical forms, yet during the night they transform into spiritual bodies that are impossible to defend against?"

"They are able to climb walls, travel underground, fly in the sky, generate electricity from their mortal bodies, even summon and manipulate water as they desire?"

After seeing the speculations made by dwarf Paulie, Su Mo could not stop himself from laughing before closing up the notebook.

Like humans, dwarves tended to speculate on things from the perspective of horror when it came to the unknown. This line of thinking would cause ghastly frights, and would be difficult to shake off. "Enough. Don't let these speculations cloud your thinking."

"If the demons were really as strong as he speculated, they would have long conquered the New World and would not be held at bay by some puny modified humans!" "Anyhow, since they are enemies with the modified humans, we can still rest easy. We can start by interacting with the ents, and try our best to use their hard labor to help us complete the base's infrastructure construction work!"

There were advantages and disadvantages of choosing a territory location surrounded by larger forces. The good thing was that the one thousand people in the basin area would not be worth mentioning in comparison with the opposing forces' tens of thousands of people.

There was absolutely no need to worry about becoming entangled in conflict during these early stages.

In addition, due the opposite forces' size and scale, the basin area would inadvertently benefit from interactions, trade and commerce. The development of a relatively smaller area would be sped up to a certain extent.

The bad thing was that, if conflict broke out between one of the major forces, it would result in real trouble.

In comparison to the dwarves that overly expanded their territory, and were scattered all over the place, at least their territory's terrain gave them enough of a buffer zone to make sufficient preparations to deal with any situations.

If they were to come into conflict with tough opponents like the demon race, or the Light Empire's humans, the basin area would be faced with an extinction-level destructive event once things spiraled out of control. "To prevent such a situation from occurring, it's both simple and difficult at the same time."

"It looks like I'll have to devise a plan. I might have to personally visit these Ents and try to talk them into an alliance."

As he listened to the leadership team continue to report other information, Su Mo thought long and hard about the territory's future development route.

Regarding the high-quality plants the Ents were looking for, Pei Shao and others had no clue how to cultivate any, nor how to find them.

On the other hand, Su Mo knew that, back in the Underground Shelter, there were two items worth retrieving that would guarantee a successful trade.

The first was psychic energy water. This one was the absolute killer; no living being could ever reject psychic energy water. A substance like this that could cause a change in the fundamental nature of living beings was something no normal living being could ever deny. The second were the energy fruits. Irrigated by psychic energy water, fruits with powers like these could enlarge a shelter, and also provide living beings with the chance to evolve.

Using these for trading would be a safe bet.

What was unfortunate was that, given the current weak state of the basin area, taking these two things out to trade would be akin to giving someone a reason to invade them. With the limited firepower of the basin area, it would be impossible to guarantee that the Ents would not be consumed by greed and rush over to steal the items. "It looks like we have to quickly make use of culture mediums and psychic energy water to ripen some of the high-quality crop seeds." "Even though the basin area has a lot of good things, the things that are valuable enough to trade are virtually non-existent."

"From another perspective, while you could also say that the basin area possesses some wealth, it really isn't much when compared to others!"

He thought about the valuables hidden in his storage space and Underground Shelter…

Then, Su Mo heard Zhang Long's vocal complaints that the basin area had too few materials at the moment to finish constructing the territory's infrastructure, and started laughing. If one equated basic materials with strength, speed, and physical fitness, then the underlying heritage of knowledge represented technique, experience, and one-of-a-kind secrets.

Those who only possessed the former could only be considered second-rate players in the world. They would end their lives without ever reaching the true peak.

Those who only possessed the latter would become peerless old "masters" who could not display their fullest potential, and could only end up as beggars and road-sweepers. The current basin area would be counted among the latter.

All these beggars and road-sweepers wanted to relive their hot-blooded youthful days, and reclaim their status as the top players. This was a challenge that was almost insurmountable.

The basin area had to improve and strengthen its foundation before it could use its heritage to enter the realm of first-class players. However, it would only be a matter of time!

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Chapter 495 Unique Architecture, Special Development Route!

After the reporting came to an end, Su Mo adjourned the meeting. In an instant, the group of the over twenty-something members of the leadership team filed out, leaving behind the robot controlled by Su Deben on the main deck.

Rolling up to him, a smile was evident upon the robot's face as it said, "Su Mo! You really are the most incredibly unique leader I've ever

seen!"

Su Mo raised his eyebrow and replied, "Oh?" Once he was finished, he noticed Su Deben's laughter echoing from the side, and then he also started laughing out loud. On some level, Su Mo himself was "unique".

What set him apart from normal territory lords on the leadership team was that Su Mo could transparently say he had no personal ambitions for power. Waking up to the possession of unrivaled power under the wide sky, or falling asleep on the laps of countless beauties... Whether it was the thought of having everything as far as his eyes could, or dreams of seeing everyone bowing at his feet...

He never had any of those.

It was actually the opposite. As the light drizzle of rain moisturized his face, as he rested his weight on the guardrails of the deck, looking out at the people below working hard tirelessly, and sniffing that earthy scent of dirt that came and went.

Su Mo enjoyed this unique feeling of bliss, almost like an outsider, which gave him an inexplicable sense of pleasure. "You're right, I am indeed unique. It's just that this world keeps driving me forward." "If there was ever a day I could rest, I'd really like to just lie down here, enjoy the cool breeze, savor a good pot of wine, and admire how the wind blows and the clouds move."

"Without anything to get in the way, I'd sit and stay here alone. How cool would that be?" "No, you're wrong!"

Su Deben extended his hands to feel the few falling rain droplets, and then shook his head saying, "Su Mo! This life you speak of is precisely the kind that only those people you talked about before would be able to enjoy!"

"In all my years, among all those I've met, you're still very unique!"

"I've not seen even a sliver of potential to succeed within you, but I've always seen the belief for success within you."

Su Mo smiled. "Belief? Is it due to my overconfidence?"

Su Deben blinked his eyes, "No, I don't think it's that. There are many out there with the potential to succeed, many who could pursue their ambitions with reckless abandon, many who could handle things with care and caution, and many who had the bravery and courage to push forward with no fear whatsoever. There are so many of these people that I could talk about them for an entire day."

"On the wasteland, however, they've all been defeated without exception!"

"That is because they don't have that absolute belief in success. Even as they rushed forward into war with other living beings, and contested the world before them, they still lived in fear and doubt every night within the crevices of their hearts." "You are different."

"I can see that from within your soul..." "Victory?" Seeing a dumbfounded expression on Su Mo's face, Su Deben came up beside him behind the guardrails. "The faith for victory can be transmitted to others. When you look at those villagers below, can you see a shred of despair about the future among any of them?" "When you look at this leadership team, even though they are aware that the basin area is surrounded by tens of thousands of foreign races lurking about, do they exhibit any signs of cowardice?"

"We can build houses and homes, and we can set up defensive structures and measures, as well as make preparations to invade our enemies. These are all things we can plan and develop step by step." "Despite that, faith really is the most valuable thing!" The way Su Deben spoke was free and full of emotion. Though Su Mo wanted to point out that, just a few hours ago, the messages and words picked up by the system panel from some of the villagers were still mired in "pessimism", in the end, he contemplated the idea behind Su Deben's words, and balanced it with the information he received from the system.

Su Mo still managed to hold back his words because he understood what Su Deben was trying to say.

"Uncle Su, you don't have to worry, I won't fall so easily. I know you're afraid that the pressure might come crashing down on me all of a sudden, and that our territory would suddenly fall apart, right?" "You can rest assured on this front. It's just a few foreign races. I really don't even hold them in high regard. They aren't worthy of being our opponents!" Some thousand men were up against tens of thousands of foreign races.

However, seeing Su Mo's confidence, Su Deben smiled without making a sound and heavily nodded.

"On the other hand, even though we obtained two tons of charcoal to tide us through this winter, our situation's still looking rather

grim."

"At the moment, we don't have enough construction materials to make enough houses for our population of a thousand people or so. Even if we start logging for wood now, the poor weather will delay the drying of the wood, which means that it won't be ready in time to construct the houses."

"If we use concrete, that could possibly work, but things like rebars require materials we can't afford or don't possess. This may prove to be quite troublesome."

On Doomsday Calendar Month 4, Day 18, the New World's first disaster would strike.

There were fifteen more days until the heavy blizzard disaster.

Excluding the day of the disaster itself, there were only two weeks left to build the necessary.

Within this period of time, the villagers would have to finish building their shelters, while also building the camp's enclosure, basic defensive structures, and the basic work structures as well.

Time was of the essence!

Coupled with the fact that there were still some who lived in tents, housing was the most critical and urgent issue to be resolved.

"It's going to rain tomorrow, so even if we logged the wood needed, the weather won't give us enough time to dry them adequately." Building houses with wet logs would make them easily susceptible to insect infestations, and the logs could end up warping, cracking or shrinking

Even though the wood from the basin area's resource nodes was of great quality, it would still need at least half a month to process before it could be used for construction.

"When it comes to concrete, things are easier since we have the relevant tools and machinery. I have the complete set of blueprints with me, and it'd be really easy to modify them to suit our needs."

"The difficult bit is the supply of materials for the later processes. We don't have a stable or sustainable source for concrete aggregate, not to mention concrete houses would still require quite some time to dry even after being fully built." "It wouldn't really work given the current rainy season."

Su Deben said, "So, our only remaining option is to build dirt houses?"

"Dirt houses would be easy to build and have good insulating properties. The problem is that it's difficult to renovate and remodel. You would have to tear them all down in the future."

Dirt houses were an integral part of Huaxia's architectural history. In the olden days when technology was lacking, reinforced concrete could not be made, production capacity was low, and bricks and wood were prohibitively expensive. People were poor, and they could only afford to eat what they foraged from the mountains and forests on a day-to-day basis.

Stone was relatively scarce in the northwestern plains, and it was inherently difficult to process, while other forms of bricks were also unreasonably expensive. However, the northwestern plains had thick layers of earth, with large amounts of soil that could be easily molded and cast. Farmers could use molds to make mud bricks cheaply.

Thanks to this, mud bricks became the primary building material for walls among the poor.

Even up to the eighties, the northwest still had villages that built houses and walls using mud bricks.

Only after the economy took off did they slowly transition to brick houses, and then to concrete houses.

It was a shame that its weaknesses were also readily apparent. Mud bricks also needed a long time to dry. If not, when they got wet afterward, their strength would reduce and would potentially cause the houses to collapse easily.

Given the current weather, dirt houses were also not a viable option that the territory could consider.

When it came down to it, there was only one other option outside of using the game panel to create a shelter...

"Uncle Su, are you aware of prefabricated houses?"

It was a familiar yet unexpected term. Seeing that Su Deben shook his head, Su Mo tried using gestures to show what he was talking about. This time, realization dawned upon Su Deben and he nodded. "You're talking about those modular homes with steel frames?"

"Yes, that's the one." "It would be no issue for us to manufacture steel, and we could even work out additional design factors that would add some insulative materials to the structure."

"The important thing is that the steel frames are very convenient in terms of mobility and renovation."

"In addition, we can connect the houses to the central boilers to ensure sufficient heating during the winter. Furthermore, using prefabricated houses would also prevent differences in design and construction in terms of the build specifications of the houses, which would otherwise potentially cause difficulties in standardizing the heating system."

Su Deben used a mere ten seconds to digest the two overarching plans sketched out by Su Mo.

In the meantime, his robot eyes glowed brightly as they scanned the ground below to collect data. In the eleventh second, the robot sighed as a human would

"This plan could work and it would lay a stable foundation for our territory. We just need to do a little work to prepare the ground to build the houses on."

"What would be difficult to accomplish would be manufacturing the steel frames and putting up the actual structures..." Su Mo shook his head. "That's not a problem!"

"By tomorrow, or the day after tomorrow, I'll figure out a way to communicate with the Ents. If they're willing to provide labor to help us, the construction process will not require the use of machinery!"

He looked as if he had no plans but, in reality, everything was under Su Mo's control.

Way before he even reached the New World, he had made speculations regarding the map's geography and figured things out. For now, the Ents were nothing but a pleasant surprise.

If he really could get his hands on cheap, affordable labor to replace machinery, the basin area's development would progress past the initial stage and step squarely onto the path toward civilization.

Then, on this wasteland, these villagers would really be able to showcase their innate potential. Their ability would widen everyone's perspectives.

The moving work lasted until six o'clock in the evening

Once the glass brain box and the whole slew of other research instruments and devices were transferred into the garage of the Underground Shelter, Su Mo walked out again holding an umbrella as he wiped away the sweat and rain droplets from his forehead.

Just as the system's weather report predicted, the drizzling showed no signs of stopping and would only get worse as time went on.

On the mountain path of Iron Rock Mountain, there were densely packed villagers working to transport their food reserves.

Thanks to their preparation beforehand, the interior of the mountain was resistant to moisture, making it a good temporary storage facility for food and grain.

Once Hope One had its contents unloaded, it swiftly became smaller and disappeared from everyone's sight. Even though Su Mo wanted to stall for time to allow everyone to enter the ship's cabins for a good night's rest on this rainy evening, the game would not be so forgiving.

Everyone just assumed that Su Mo had stored the ship away again, but only he knew that the thirty-day period of the Thousand Realm Traveler ability had already begun.

Hope One had been confiscated just like that!

"Leader, the ground is very wet. If you factor in the rainwater, our tents aren't equipped to shelter us from this kind of weather conditions. We can only move up the mountain!"

"Between the fruit tree mountain and Iron Rock Mountain, both mountains should be able to accommodate the majority of the villagers!"

With a fire in his belly, Chen Shen rushed over from afar wearing a raincoat and carrying a waterproof flashlight.

Bad things always came in pairs, if not more. The basin area's previous alkaline soil had cracked open. Even if it possessed the potential to be slowly restored, with such heavy rainfall, the soil could only loosen up and become damp inevitably. Even if there were waterproof tarps covering the ground, things would still be tough. The only solution was to move to higher ground. "Where's the rice? Quick, get the stove on the heat! We have to prepare hot food for everyone to eat. If people start catching colds it would be bad!" "I'm on it! I'm on it! We even caught all the fish we needed! With all the cooks on duty, the dishes will be ready to serve in an hour or

so!"

Pointing at the smoke from the cooking condensing on the waterproof awning, Chen Shen violently wiped off the moisture off his face. After that, two people headed toward Iron Rock Mountain hastily.

On the way, they could see all the villagers drenched from head to toe, yet still displaying expressions of eagerness and perseverance. He thought of the messages and words communicated by the system to him earlier that day, which showed the villagers' eagerness for their mundane, yet joyous future.

Su Mo opened his mouth, but before he could speak, it transformed into a long sigh.

The pressure weighing on one person's shoulders could not be compared to that of a thousand people.

Of course, he could return to the warm Underground Shelter and feast on some fish soup to ward off the cold. He could flip through his books delightfully and leave everything else to the leadership team.

However, once he thought of the tired bodies and shivering bones of the villagers, who had worked through the rain and still had to rest in a damp tent at night, he just could not sit idly by!

"No wonder the system gave me the option to change the weather. This rain can really lower one's morale in the same way a tough battle could!"

He marched and marched until he reached the top of Iron Rock Mountain, and then gazed upon the curtain of rain that reached the skies and beyond.

He clenched his teeth, and then summoned the game panel. In exchange for the confiscation of Hope One, the game had provided three different options for specialized architectural structures. These were a weather observatory that could accommodate 20 people, a farm tool manufacturing center that could house 300 people, and a training ground that could accommodate up to 450 people!

Among these options, because he had the system, the weather observatory would naturally be the first option he would pass on. Regarding the other two options, Su Mo had previously had some reservations.

However, now, because of the open-air layout of the training ground, the only feasible option was the farm tool manufacturing center. "I choose the farm tool manufacturing center. It shall be positioned... there!" His finger pointed towards a place not far away from Iron Rock Mountain, which was also situated at a high altitude.

Seemingly reacting to Su Mo's wish, a green building displayed by the game panel on the map synchronized with its construction in reality. Right after that, five seconds after he confirmed his choice, the game panel vanished. What replaced it was—shuddering sounds of rolling thunder! Almost immediately, every villager on the mountain path stopped in the tracks and tried to figure out the origin of the sound curiously.

Tragically, not everyone had the abnormal visual acuity of Su Mo.

Under the dim lighting, all they could see was a blurry image of a building being built incredibly quickly out of nowhere!

"Leader... Leader...We..."

"I'm aware, rest assured. When everyone finishes moving the stuff, we can gather up over there. Tonight, for everyone outside Iron Rock Mountain, we can squeeze together a bit and live inside there temporarily."

Seeing Zhang Long frantically running up the path, Su Mo smiled and led the crowd to walk downward.

The straight-line distance between the two locations only required less than ten minutes to traverse.

From a high vantage point, the way the structure was built seemed ordinary but, from close up, it made Su Mo gasp at the power brought about by authority.

The whole center extended to an area of about a thousand five hundred square feet.

In its description, it was stated that it could house three hundred people. However, in actuality, more than a thousand people could fit inside the structure.

The main entrance of the compound had a huge plaque that read "Agricultural Tool Manufacturing Center", those four words.

It had eight steps, and two solemnly built stone lions, giving it the feel of an administrative office from ancient Huaxia.

When they went inside, things felt a lot more ordinary. Other than the brick and stone ceiling used to shield against rain, it was just an empty compound. When the wind blew, it felt like a haunted house from a horror movie.

"Go! Carry our generators and lights over here!"

Calling for Qi Qin and ten others to quickly leave the premises, with a flashlight in hand, Su Mo explored the entire compound.

Remarkably, the center really had a center. Ignoring the surrounding walls and ceiling above their heads, the structure's interior resembled a huge plaza. Other than the lines drawn on the floor, which were outlined in five-square-meter grids, of which there were 300 such grids, the game was so stingy that it did not even provide them with any tools.

On the other hand, the fact that this courtyard was as empty as it was became the villagers' "life-saving straw" to shelter from this unfortunate weather.

After the generators were brought over, and the lights arranged so that no corner remained unlit, the busy villagers then followed his command and inquisitively came over with umbrellas in hand.

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Once within the premises, one could feel the warm, dry interior. Without exception, everyone's eyes became wet and moist. What followed was a tacit understanding between everyone that emerged from the bottom of their hearts.

Everyone did not immediately fight for their own spots, but quietly stood in front of the building to change into brand new, dry clothes and shoes before walking inside carefully.

Seeing Su Mo and the leadership team standing in the middle, the villagers surrounded them in a circle of their own volition.

Other than leaving a path for the ones at the center to walk out, it took less than half an hour for the compound to be filled up with over a thousand villagers. "Such a blessing! The days ahead can only get better!"

Su Mo could see a simple "happiness" on the face of every villager. This was to say they were still happy despite not yet possessing proper shelters, not being able to eat meat, and even not getting to take a warm bath after all that work.

It was just that, given this terrible weather, simply having a dry courtyard to rest their feet, with warm walls around to heat them up, was already a step up from sleeping in a wet tent.

This was already the greatest blessing! "Let's go! Let everyone rest! We, the leadership team, will bring fish soup over for everyone!"

Picking up the raincoat on his side with everyone's silent gaze set on him, Su Mo led by example and walked out. After he walked out, no further than ten meters, the compound that had been silent, where only breathing sounds could be heard, became noisier, just as expected. "Thanks, Leader! In this kind of weather, hiding out here is so freaking awesome!" "After sleeping in that tent last night, my whole body was covered in goosebumps from all that shivering. I can finally have a good night's rest tonight!" "This is so cool. It's not even a little wet inside here. Even lying on the floor seems as comfortable as lying on a mattress."

"If only we could have some hotpot to eat. Just imagine it! Getting to eat hotpot in this weather..."

"Hey! Stop dreaming! In this kind of weather, having meat soup would already make my heart soar with happiness!" "I can almost smell it already! It smells like fish soup. It's so fragrant that I can barely think clearly anymore." "Are you serious? Fish soup?"

The villagers' words were filled with joyous thoughts of the future.

Hearing their words, Su Mo did not stop walking, but a subtle smile emerged on his face.

After a while, the first barrel of fish soup was carried to an empty spot within the compound; the intense fragrance of the soup seemed to spread out for miles.

Everyone started to cheer in excitement.

For the first time, Su Mo felt a heavy responsibility weighing down upon his heart, yet at the same time, a feeling of exhilaration was bursting at the seams of his heart!

Compared to the cold, mechanical statistics and data of the population in a simulation game, within this compound, Su Mo felt something completely different, that is to say —a collective sense of pride!

SC

It was an emotion rooted in the genes of every human present.

"Maybe this is my actual transformation from lone wolf to territory lord."

"This feeling really does move me somehow!"

He issued the command and announced that everyone could start eating. Seeing the smiles on everyone's faces, the shivering of the hands holding their precious bowls of food, Su Mo sat on the raised platform with his thoughts flying all over the place.

Before this, he still had not decided what path to lead the basin area down, or what merchandise to trade with the foreign races at the borders.

Right at this moment, watching villagers gulping down the fish soup with faces full of contentment, Su Mo abruptly decided.

If the basin area was to be developed, it could not use ordinary methods. It had to follow a path of its own making, which incidentally was the path that Huaxians were best at!

"Delicacies!"

"We'll use our best dishes to conquer all the foreign races on this continent."

"Attributes, taste, and effects will be our selling points! Since no one's tried this path before, I'll be the first person to eat crabs!" (T/N: Being the first to eat crabs means using a method others deem foolish; taking a daring risk and being the first person to do something new)

"With the wasteland authority's assistance, I don't believe that there's no door I can't open in the New World!"

Su Mo chowed down on the fish soup Shen Ke passed to him, silently envisaging a scene in his imagination where the foreign races from all over the New World would seek after the basin area's delicacies.

Su Mo started to laugh heartily!

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Chapter 496 Ancient Ents, Level Five Alliance Agreement! (Two-In-One)

Almost all Earthlings striving for survival on Wasteland knew about the savagery of the Non-Human Clan.

Limited by the fixed impressions of living beings outside their purview, everyone chose not to be cooperative in the first place, but to…be cautious and be guarded!

Su Mo thought he had a lot of guts, even though he had not gotten a clearer picture of the circumstances.

He started making plans with the other races, to use conflicts between other parties to his advantage.

Little did he know that the Ents which he was planning to work with, possessed valor.

Perhaps it was about the complexity of the situation.

The rise in the number of dwarves, Light Empire, and Demons could form a great force. The Ents worked a step ahead by sending something over to their neighbors who just moved in as a gesture of goodwill. The fourth of April was the ninety-fourth day when humans arrived at the Deep Sea.

As soon as the clock in the living room struck five, Su Mo who was in deep slumber did a kip-up and sat upright with his eyes opened. A light green-colored panel appeared before his eyes and illuminated the pitch-black bedroom in the next second.

Oreo who was vigilant hurried downstairs upon hearing a slight movement.

Once he discovered Su Mo had woken up, he went down on all fours near the edge of the bed and closed his eyes. Su Mo heard the rain pattering outside from the second floor.

It was raining heavier than yesterday!

The moderate rain which was verified by the system was somewhat unconventional.

Based on the current rainfall intensity, it should be considered a rainstorm! "It's a good thing you released the farm tools production center last night, or else with the current rainfall, it would be a catastrophe for the villagers living in tents!" His heart sank as he drank the psychic energy water that was placed on the bedside table.

Su Mo set his eyes on the game panel as he leaned against the headboard and not feeling sleepy anymore. With most of the functions locked, the presence of the game panel had shrunk to an unprecedented low. A green-colored letter appeared in the middle of the interface as well as a tree sapling stamp on the top right corner before sunrise. Su Mo wore a solemn expression on his face.

With a change of mind, he tapped on the screen lightly to open it.

After the game verified the identity of the Lord, the sapling gradually disappeared from the screen while the letter was elongated and formed a different shape.

"Is this a video?"

Su Mo was a little surprised when he saw the familiar triangle cursor click icon in the middle of the screen. He clicked on it.

The space around the edges of the screen disappeared in a split second, as though he just wore the VR headset and experienced immediate changing viewpoints and perspectives. "Wow…these…are these the Ents?"

Su Mo lifted his head instantaneously and looked around his surroundings as he stepped into the unfamiliar and strange space.

He stood frozen.

Trees from tens of meters high on Earth were not something Su Mo had not seen before.

He was able to get a sight of trees that stood close to a hundred meters tall a few times and experienced that sensation of being a small speck in awe of nature.

Su Mo once thought if trees were any taller, humans would not experience awe and fear due to sight limitations.

However, he was proven wrong.

His heightened sense of alertness drove him to tense up as he looked up at the tree which stood more than three hundred meters high.

"Welcome, human king Su Mo from faraway Earth. I am the ancient Ents clan leader, Zhuling." "It's a pleasure to know you were able to claim your territory here! If you are willing to, we can be good friends!" Leaves, branches, and even dirt quivered when the Ents was speaking. It felt as though the bass voice was ringing in his ears.

He seemed to suddenly realize he had an extremely large body.

The Ents swiftly diminished in size in the next moment and stood tall at 10 meters.

"Zhuling? Ancient Ents clan?"

"Are you related to any one of us on Earth?"

He pondered what the Ents had conveyed. Although Su Mo had his doubts while looking at the human faces in tree trunks, he continued watching the video.

"You're the eighth lord that claimed the territory on the eastern front." "The Dwarves Clan, Non-Human Clan, and Demon Clan who are within our vicinity, are indeed strong and restless neighbors."

"We, the Ents are born to advocate peace. We firmly believe that we come here not to make enemies and not to attack others. Our main purpose is to work hand in hand to survive disasters."

He lifted a thick branch and waved it in the air.

A small map appeared in the void.

Su Mo found his position immediately which was indicated by a grayish-black marker, upon following Ents Zhuling's instructions.

The green parts on the Ents lit up thereafter. Curved green-colored lines intertwined and eventually formed a line in the next moment.

[Record): Lord Su Mo, ancient Ents clan leader Zhuling has applied to form an alliance (Level Five). [Record): On New World, territories can set up alliances with each other once the level of its core shelter reaches above Level Five.

(Record): The current parties: Ancient Ents (Level Five), and Su Mo's Marshland (Level Six), can initiate a Level Five Alliance.

[Record): Once the Level Five Alliance is established, it can last for thirty days. Within this time frame, both parties have to abide by the terms of the agreement. Any violation from either party would be subject to punishment set by the agreement. Please consider carefully the establishment of this relationship. The content of the agreement: One, Subordinate members of both territories under the agreement would be able to visit each other's territory for expeditions, commercial trade, education, interaction, and other purposes with permission. They would not face any interference from the local territory and would be able to move about freely.

Two, Both parties were to instruct members not to intentionally inflict damage on each other's territory, including and not limited to the attack of locals, destroying resources, stealing resources, and a plethora of other offenses, or else it would be regarded as a violation. Three, Both parties would be able to initiate private trading as well as trading which was witnessed by the game (Private trading is not protected by the agreement, witnessed trading shall be protected by the agreement provided a certain amount of disaster points was contributed.) Four, Immigration between territories can be performed by selling subordinate members to other territories, and said members would enjoy the property enhancements of the new territory. (Note: Members inducted via this article's eligibility would not be restricted by the first two articles, please choose members wisely.)

[Record): Punishment for violation of terms (First offense would cost a million disaster points, or, the core shelter of the territory shall be permanently removed.) As the most basic alliance agreement, only four articles were drawn up for the Level Five Agreement.

In the first article, whatever pressure one could face would be eliminated when entering another territory.

In the second article, it would be guaranteed on some level after a member entered the other territory, they would not turn hostile all of a sudden and result in death. As for the third and fourth articles, they were listed to complement the trade deals.

"This Alliance Agreement is very well done! It feels as though someone sends a pillow over when one is about to fall asleep."

"I hereby agree to work together with the Ents on the Level Five Alliance Agreement!"

After reading the front section of the Alliance Agreement, Su Mo gave his approval without hesitation after skimming the violation and punishment section behind.

It would be too unrealistic to rely on this simple Alliance Agreement for his self-protection.

Su Mo thought of numerous debug methods when he was contemplating the rules. This agreement could open up a 'sea route' and serve as a prerequisite for trading between both parties if there was no other choice.

Based on what Ents Zhuling said earlier, something about advocating peace and not getting involved in any conflicts. Su Mo did not believe a word of it.

Life was hard enough as it was, he could not burst his bubble.

Living in the New World and striving to stay alive would surely mean the need to band together to embezzle others' interests.

Su Mo believed the Ents could take down other neighbors once the opportunity arose. The seemingly friendly clan of Ents would surely become war maniacs and attack their enemies' territories. They were certainly self-taught in burning, pillaging, and killing others! "The changes in Marshland yesterday caught the attention of the surrounding neighbors." "Before they can learn the ins and outs of my background, Zhuling who is very intelligent extends the olive branch by expressing his desire in forming an alliance. He plans to be the first with the courage to try out something new."

"If I didn't agree, or displayed any weaknesses, perhaps…"

After the signing of the Alliance Agreement and the video disappearing gradually, Su Mo gave a guarded look.

Su Mo was mentally prepared and ready to handle the competition with these other massive-sized foreign races when he chose to create and mark his territory there.

Under these circumstances, every step resembled walking a tightrope. Once a choice was made, it might trigger numerous chain reactions of events. Although everything was just an imagination, Su Mo still had a huge appetite for power after he stood up! "Hmm…Su Mo! It's only six o'clock, why did you wake up so early?" "I couldn't sleep because of the noise from the rain outside. I'll check out what's going on outside later!

Lu Kuan was still busy carrying out his experiments in the garage. Due to the restricted use of limited resources, he was not able to operate the heavy machinery.

However, he was able to make use of this opportunity by having more time to do his research on the smaller divisions of different fields.

Su Mo returned to the third floor to wash up after wandering around.

He picked up today's supply of psychic energy water for safekeeping. He poured the extra diesel fuel into the oil tanks of a few dormant machineries on the first floor.

It was just past six o'clock when he completed the work. Su Mo went down to the first floor, put on his raincoat, took out his winch, and started pulling up slowly.

Wow!

A gust of wind blew in from the northwest direction and hit his pant leg as the door was ajar. Su Mo could hear the pattering of the raindrops clearly without the soundproofing.

Su Mo continued to pull it open until it reached half his height before he bent down and bolted out. The soil in front of the shelter was already hardened and formed mud after the rainfall.

Su Mo stepped firmly on the ground and put down his winch.

Su Mo walked up the slope heading towards the shelter and let out a gasp as he looked at the view from afar.

Many cracks visibly appeared on the ground that was once soaked by seawater and sun-dried for many days.

After yesterday's repair that caused a spike in potential value, most of the cracks had recovered despite the splash erosion.

However, there were more cracks on a few lower grounds. There were many spiderweb-like cracks and white salt encrustation on the soil surface.

If the terrain did not undergo treatment, the white salt crusts on the surface of the soil would enter the soil and cause secondary damage after the rainy season ended.

"This is going to be troublesome! If we're going to work in this weather, we have to be mindful of the potential danger risks we may encounter."

"No. Today's score must be added to the weather once the clock struck eight!"

"If we can't stop the rain, we still have to quickly find ways to prevent it from getting heavier, or else the foundation may collapse!" He walked through the mud while walking down the steep slope, leaving a trail of footprints behind. Su Mo who was covered in mud reached the entrance of the farming tools center fifteen minutes later.

The group of yaks that were taking a leisurely walk the day before were brought to the surrounding of the center and resting under the eaves.

Ten sheep laid down comfortably at the entrance. Rainy days provided more comfort to these mammals.

Su Mo nodded at the two soldiers who were guarding the entrance before he tip-toed into the center.

Everyone was lying all over the place along with the divided partitions in the center.

Some were snuggled in the covers while some had only two pieces of used clothes as a cover.

Most chose to huddle together to reduce the heat loss and keep warm.

The coldest time of the night was when the body lost its heat faster.

Chen Shen, Pei Shao, Shen Ke, Zhang Long, and other members of the management team woke up feeling exhausted.

"Chief, you came!"

"How's everything?"

"They're doing fine. Twenty or more people have contracted mild fever after getting caught in the rain. Most of them had a mild cold and sore throat. They should feel better after the rain stops and everyone can move around!"

Chen Shen pointed at the feverish bunch who were shivering in the corner and made a nonchalant remark, "humans are incredibly adaptable but weak." The group of twenty or more people was mostly ladies. They looked thin and feeble.

Everyone barely raised their heads and mustered a smile when they saw Su Mo.

Many were having a cold and sounds of coughing could be heard from another corner. "What about breakfast? Is it ready?" "It'll be ready soon, we can start eating in half an hour. Once the porridge is boiled, there are steamed buns and salted vegetables as well!"

Shen Ke led the way and was followed by a group of people to the end of the center where the shabby-looking kitchen sheltered by an awning was situated.

The interior of the center looked bleak.

The smell of cooking from the kitchen on the other hand aroused one's appetite. Thick black smoke billowed into the sky with the use of a manual blower from the burning of the damp firewood. The smell of the porridge in the pot released a hunger-inducing aroma that made people's mouths water. The head chef immediately set the table under the canopy and served breakfast upon seeing Su Mo and the others coming over. There were crisp and fresh pickled cabbage, grayish-black salty pickled shredded radish, three steamed buns, and a bowl of white porridge. The head chef served everyone equal food portions as he knew Su Mo did not like formalism or special privileges. "Everyone here, please have a sip. The rest of the drink will be poured into the pot of porridge." "We shall let those with cold and fever drink more."

Su Mo was handed a 5-liter bottle before eating

The plastic bottle looked nothing out of the ordinary

It was filled with psychic energy water which was upgraded twice. Charming blue-colored light spots were seen floating above once the lid was removed.

Everyone followed Su Mo's orders and poured a mouthful of the drink into their bowls respectively. The psychic energic water was a stimulus to the white porridge which made it smell and taste richer.

It was so fragrant that the other chefs who were at a distance glanced over with their eyes widened, completely lost in thought. "That's enough. Eat up, the food will turn cold soon in this kind of weather!"

Su Mo chowed down on the big steamed white bun, a mouthful of salted vegetables, and a spoonful of the white porridge that was about to spill out from the bowl with much satisfaction. Everyone else followed suit.

Chopsticks were raised in unison while the porridge was gobbled down in an instant. The comforting warmth emanating from the stomach was spread to every inch of the body. When the pot of porridge which was filled with psychic energy water was brought into the compound, it acted as a good wake-up call for the others immediately.

Those who were in deep slumber woke up immediately upon smelling the rich aroma of the porridge and reached for their bowls without hesitation.

The power of the second-generation psychic energy water was not ineligible despite it having been diluted a hundred times.

There was a drop in the body temperature of those who were feverish and having gulped down their porridge, they were in good spirits.

The others who were having a cold also recovered swiftly after having their porridge as though they never fell sick. It turned out the psychic energy water was a better remedy compared to ginger soup in getting rid of a cold! "It's a pity that once we perform trading with the parties outside, the usage of the psychic energy water will be increased and the reserves available will need to be consumed carefully!" Su Mo who was standing at the door for a while, gave a nod before he turned and left. Although there was a heavy downpour, the villagers would commence their work after they completed their meal.

As a territory lord, the only thing he could do was…to do everything in his power to manifest better circumstances for them! He brought the extra breakfast back to the shelter.

He was thrilled to see Su Chan, Moore, and Oreo enjoying their meal as well. Su Mo sat on the couch in the living room, beaming from ear to ear.

He kept staring at the clock until it struck eight and the system panel was switched on.

A white envelope appeared after one click.

Without noticing the changes above, Su Mo scrolled down and entered the score acquisition interface.

"Very well, once the territory's level undergoes an upgrade, we will receive 1.1 of the territory's earnings. "This damned rainy season is finally coming to an end!"

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Chapter 497 Change of Weather, A Daring Proposition to Deceive! (Two In One)

With the level up, 12 new resources were found, along with a 14:42 rise in basin's potential value had been reflected in the daily system announcements.

For a 0.3 territory point to rise to 1.1, it meant that within the next year, basin would provide more than three hundred territory points.

If the level kept rising in the middle, the point would increase exponentially, the number could even exceed five hundred. There's not a shred of doubt that those points would be thrown into the weather section as soon as possible.

Seeing that the moderate rain had displayed a progress bar that showed the weather going back to sunny, Su Mo exhaled a huge breath of relief.

"Looks like the system's encouraging me to steal other people's resources and territory, the more I snatch, the faster basin levels up.

"We must accumulate more territory points, only this will give basin's development the foundation it needs!"

Amidst his pondering, Su Mo clicked successively to return to the frontmost page of the interface and started reading from top to bottom.

[Doomsday Calendar April Fourth-Monday]

(Territory Lord: Su Mo (host) (Territory State): A more exceptional resource-oriented territory, containing many rare and normal resources or materials, but because resources for survival are scarce in nature, it is not suited for living beings' long-term residence.

(Territory Area: 150 square kilometers (Not big or small, your living space suffices, but with no strategic depth) [Resources in Territory): high-quality tungsten, heatstone, petroleum, high-temperature steam, fruit tree mountain… (Containing very little quantities of rare material and low quantities of normal resources, enough to sustain life within the territory for the short term, but still lacking important resources for survival in the long term)

[Territory Potential: 14.69 (Current average value over the continent is 10.48, the highest value is 1502.12)

(Weather Forecast: For tomorrow's weather within the territory, the rainy weather will switch to cloudy weather at a temperature of 19-33 degrees, and wind will come from the east at a strength of level two. (High-temperature weather, any work done under the sun should be done without direct exposure, be careful to protect yourself against heat strokes)

(Territory Members): 1405 people (Extended)

(Territory Member Loyalty: 100% (A measure of stable loyalty means political policies receive no resistance whatsoever)

(Territory Member Attitude: Satisfactory (Your territory's members have felt satisfaction from the conditions inside versus the weather outside, they look forward to a brighter future.) [Territory Member Health: Very poor (72% of members aged 40-50 are healthy, 14% of members aged 50-60 are healthy, 11% of members aged 60-70 are healthy, 3% 70) [Territory Member Work Efficiency): 19% (Most people are obstructed by the weather and slow physical recuperation speed, making daily work efficiency decrease, it is hard to give their all into their jobs right now.) [Territory Member Needs): Shelter (Urgent), Healthcare (Urgent), Warm baths, meat (Territory Member Reminders: The weather factor has severely influenced work efficiency, please take note to evade extreme weather in time.

[Economy: Very poor (Your territory has added a normal ally, but before trading can happen, the territory has no standardized product or goods for trading on the inside) [Technology: In development (Current advancement in technology: Simple solar energy transfer technique) (Healthcare): Zero (No related medical setup or professional doctors, all members' ailments are left to their own devices)

[Code of Law: Very poor (Generalized rulemaking that cannot fully constrain anyone)

(Architecture: Close to none (One building with extremely simple functions, but currently without use, production value zero) [Degree of Civilization: Primitive Era (Condition for upgrade: Unfulfilled) [Voices From the Wind):

"It is unthinkable that human king Su Mo's territory would burst forth with such incredible vital power within a day. Looks like the previous probing is unnecessary, we must ally with them before both Light Empire and Demon Race notice. However, what could possibly be traded to get some of this vital power?"

"Black Stone base camp's defense level is already at a maximum. On the other end I've arranged a secret army underground. If Su Mo dares to pull a sneak attack, he'd have no way to go back to where he came from!"

"These damned demons are sly monkeys. If our modified sections could achieve a cooling effect, they would not deploy these kite tricks in war. Pass my order, no matter at what cost, you must find something or some way to increase the speed of heat dissipation as quickly as possible. We must get rid of these disgusting poisonous tumors within the shortest amount of time!"

[Point Collection Rating: Passed (Extended) "Hmm, territory potential has risen a bit without adding points. It was 14.42 yesterday, but now it's 14.69.

"Even so, the average value has also increased to 10.48, it looks like all beings in New World are growing exponentially!" He looked at the content from up to down. Su Mo immediately noticed the discrepancy between todays and yesterday's territory potential value.

After a whole night of rainstorm, basin's soil had its salt content washed out, giving the alkaline soil a much-needed substantial symptomatic relief.

In the first moment, the potential value had changed.

What was tricky was that as basin was changing for the better, other places did not stall their feet at developing either.

Even in the beginning, Su Mo knew clearly that these numbers would vary intensely from day to day.

However, when he saw the average value raise by 0.79, while the highest value leaped by 12.45, his heart still became frantic.

Wherever potential value was at its highest, would be where the people could depend on a huge tree to supply many good things, for them to occupy the best territory possible. This territory's spike in potential value, would not influence the larger scheme of things normally.

As long as the average value was the one to spike, it would reflect every species on this continent's increase in average combat power.

If ever basin's value was lower than average, it would mean they were walking behind everyone, naturally putting them at a disadvantage!

"This cannot do. I mustn't be anxious, these people got to increase their potential value by calling upon their subordinates to crazily go out and occupy others' territories and embezzle even more resources. "I cannot do so; basin's population isn't very high in the first place. If I extend the battlefront too far, when enemies are met, it'd be hard to take care of everything!" When moving basin around, Su Mo clearly recalled in a quick glance that New World still had up to 60% of its surface as no man's land that belonged to no one. If he could occupy more land, it would mean the territory's influence of power would be enlarged by another landmass. Accordingly, potential value would increase by what that piece of land was worth. This kind of advancement would be very different from increasing basin's quality. When it came to war, it would mean that in just a few days, basin would lose too much of its territory, which would cut its potential value in half!

It was just not worth the loss! After thinking through this point, Su Mo's restlessness slowed down a few. He proceeded to keep scrolling down and reading. Under the storm's effect, work efficiency had decreased by another margin. What was unexpected to him was everyone's desire for shelter and healthcare. The three voices blown here by the wind did change a bit from yesterday. For the first one, as predicted it came from ancient Ent Zhuling's voice.

No one knew how the system actually transmitted these messages disguised as voices from the wind, but outside of Zhuling's voiceover, Su Mo could even hear the other ents gossiping in their whispers. "Annex Su Mo's territory, take his secret!"

"Kill him, take over his land, might belong to us ancient ents!"

"No can do. This Su Mo had fought with real Gods' incarnations and held the upper hand. Once we offend him, we definitely can't repel their retaliation in our current form!"

"Using this alliance, we can trade to obtain their power in a scenario where both of us win. The dwarfs' expansion is too great, if we don't find a way to sanction them now, what happens later on would be hard to deal with!"

"We can continuously produce labor ents as long as he agrees to exchange it for vital power, we would not have the short end of the stick!"

More than ten voices in disarray mixed together and only after hearing it seven to eight times did Su Mo understand what everything they said meant. Just as he thought during the morning when they established the alliance, these ents were expectedly not easy to deal with. Within their conversation, one of the ents called for a start to territorial war, for them to force themselves over to attack basin.

The good thing was that most ents still had some basic ability for judgment and did not dare to act rashly, knowing about his previous war effort with the five deities' doppelgangers. Eventually, they settled on the path of an alliance. Su Mo closed the first voice, then clicked on the second, which was the dwarf's voice he heard yesterday.

Listening to the dwarf's arrogant tone in the voice for Black Stone base camp to increase its defensive strength, Su Mo smiled without remembering it to heart.

From the front to the back, he did not plan to have a conflict with any outer power before basin could recover its weapon production. The current hiding strategy would give his enemies no way to properly estimate his strength, which was the best course of action for now.

Or else, once he crossed fists with the enemy, it would be best to defeat them on all fronts but if they lost—the situation would get infinitely more complicated. "Hmm, for the last voice-It couldn't be someone from Light Empire?" Compared to the standard dwarvish translation tone, the last voice had a distinct sense of emotion and an accent to it.

Su Mo could hear obvious rage in the first half of the sentence, yet helplessness and desperation in the other half. "I really didn't think that—Light Empire's modifications would have problems with heat dissipation. When I think about it though, human activity would always release heat and that'd be even more apparent and worthy of caution when modified into machinery.

"As for that item they needed for cooling…" After browsing through all the messages and seeing that survival points had risen by 1105 points to a total of 45561 points, Su Mo closed the system panel while being deep in thought.

With a flick of the wrist, a black stone from near his chest appeared in Su Mo's hand.

In contrast with yesterday, the current color from the stone had faded by a bit, but still retained a much purer color than many other shades of black.

Based on the attribute, this mysterious heat stone had absorbed the heat from his palm, leaving an icy cold feeling in his hands.

Although he did not know the upper limit of how much this stuff could absorb, by the looks of it now, it would be a useful heat cooling item.

"If we could up the production of heat stone, plus adding some processing of its limits. "If we sell it to these cyborgs for heat cooling before recharge, it could then be sold back at a lower price after recharging to dissipate heat."

Coming up with an impractical idea, Su Mo laughed out loud. Afterward, seeing the few people turn around in surprise to look at him from the dining table, Su Mo waved his hand before getting up and walking out. The system showed its weather progress bar as only having reached 23% by now. According to this efficiency, in just a little bit, the rain would become lighter very quickly, basically akin to yesterday afternoon's standard.

"This rain stops so weirdly, based on my scanner's hypothesis, it should still last about another day at least. "Nonetheless, the rain stopping would be a good thing. If things were to drag on any further, our foundation building would be hard to expand."

Same as he was doing before, Lu Kuan controlling a robot curiously looked outwards while standing at the entrance.

With both of them standing and how the rain became lighter so fast, this unusual change had evidently surpassed the boundaries of his cognition.

Neither spoke, they just stood at the gate silently. Lu Kuan's mathematical ability kept improving via calculating the changes in the rain, while Su Mo was both happy and leisurely sitting on the recliner, waiting for the rain to stop quietly. Half an hour passed by. When the dark clouds in the sky went away, what followed was the first sign of sunlight. No matter how far, Su Mo could still hear the ecstatic cheering coming from the gardening tools center.

The rain had stopped.

Through the system's prowess, the rainstorm that covered the skies and ground had now been replaced by the marination of water vapor, after just forty minutes.

"This little bit of spending sure was worth it!

"Looks like I have to save up on these territory points in the future, just in case something happens."

Seeing sunlight after its absence for more than a day, Su Mo's heart started flowing with joy. Those villagers in the center on the other side had already prepared themselves at record speed to have their tools in hand and form twenty groups of fifty people, where they then hurried out in different directions based on Chen Shen's previous orders.

They set out to the low-lying areas where pits filled with saltwater had those in charge of digging dug, while those in charge of setting things up did just that. Everyone was working at lightning speed so much so that even before the temperature had risen back to normal, fifty kilometers of land had their salt filtered out after having finished its processing. For the rest of them, they came together to huddle in front of the underground shelter where they started to follow orders and smoothen the terrain, taking advantage of the soil's moisture. "Chief! Our initial idea is to have the newly built villagers surround the underground shelter in the middle, then follow a 3*3-kilometer area basis where two main roads would then extend out to four branches with the perimeter being protected by an enclosure.

"The facilities for water drainage would use gutter drains as a temporary solution!" Taking hold of a previously drawn territorial structure map, Zhang Long and Liu Neng struck a conversation together.

"Based on the building requirements for prefabricated homes, our first rule of thumb is to make the house a size of eighty square meters, split into four compartments of twenty square meters where eight people would live in each compartment. With these calculations, we'd need a total of 44 houses in total.

"Each house would need 4X6 of square steel for the frame, colored steel would be needed at a length of 7.5 cm for the exterior, and 5cm for the dividing wall between compartments respectively. An estimated 15 tons of matching still would be needed then." All the expenditures had basically been measured accurately to a precise number. After Su Mo voiced his needs yesterday, those in charge of architecture had made out a basic sketch and framework within one night.

"Fifteen tons eh? "That's not a problem! First, level the ground, leave the rest to me!" Su Mo received the blueprint and noted down the steel needed before turning his head and returning to the shelter pondering. Steelmaking was an extremely technical craft.

From the ancient Huaxian's primitive ways of making steel using a furnace to the Han dynasty's refined steelmaking, Huaxian always led the pack.

This type of practice, however, was not amiable to basin.

For one, the steel could not be standardized, for another, it wasted time and labor.

If they used the modern ways of steelmaking which were converter steelmaking, basin had the underlying heritage for it, the furnace used for it could be made here.

It would be the spray gun used in the furnace, plus the later rolling that would be the problem.

Without a stepwise process and before restarting machinery production, this method could only be put on hold. "Thirteen tons of square steel, two tons of steel panels, at maximum firepower within the furnace would take about nine hours. "As for spending a thousand five hundred points!"

Furnaces were excellent quality tools where just a short three hours of usage would cost at least 500 disaster points.

Glancing at how he only had thirteen thousand points of allowance left, Su Mo switched on the machinery without hesitating.

The points were meant to be spent when needed.

Instead of stretching out a furnace, thinking of ways to upgrade the spray gun and make the mold, he settled on using a thousand five hundred points, which made things way more convenient and time-saving.

Thanks to the resources saved up, the copper iron ore they had were completely sufficient for the amount of steelmaking they intended.

As the resources got put in the input end, the button was pushed for the furnace to switch on, where it then started making rumbling noises from the inside.

Once the three-minute wait was up, a new batch of fresh square steel came out of the oven.

"Tch! This really is produced by the furnace; the quality is that good!" Su Mo felt satisfied after knocking it a few times to feel the heavy weight and texture.

However, the steel had not yet been brought out for on-site testing by Su Mo. From afar, small team leader Su Yuan who led some villagers to clean up the salt ran over while screeching out. "Chief! Chief! When we were on the edges of the territory, we ran into a group of…a group of ents!

"They told me that their kind had established an alliance with basin. They asked to be let in, so they'd be able to tour around for educational purposes!"

Su Yuan's voice was sonorous, it captured everyone's attention in an instant.

Besides that, he had in his hand, a massive leaf half a human's height that reflected a light green glow under the sunlight. "Wow! So fast!"

Just the day basin's storm had just passed, their exploration team had already set foot on basin's border.

It was obvious that they noticed basin's unusual weather pattern. "What's going on?" Hearing the cheers, Lu Kuan put down the work in his hand and walked out.

"Quick! Help me think, in what way can we fool those people? Sorry, fool those ents.

"Right now there's a bunch of foreign races that want to come into our territory. We can't afford to deny them entry, so we must think of a clever way of convincing them to go back willingly."

Taking over the leaf in Su Yuan's hand, Su Mo swiftly returned to the shelter to sit down with a calm look on his face.

This move could really be counted as suffering a loss unknowingly.

In his original plan, Su Mo had thought to have basin settle down stably before finding a way to make alliances with others.

He would first send people to visit and observe other territories so that intel could be brought back about those places.

Who would have thought that the ents' unorthodox move in the morning had short-circuited him from remembering to make a move as important as taking the initiative.

Now, the other party's people were already waiting at basin's border. If rejected, it would be a show of weakness on some level, the consequences would be dire!

"They're already waiting at our side, wanting to come in to learn about us. The time is too short, even if we were to put on a show, it'd be too late.

"Unless…"

"Unless what?"

Hearing the hesitation in Lu Kuan's words, Su Mo tilted his head up aggressively.

The next second, when Lu Kuan looked like he had a hard time speaking out, Su Mo suddenly came back to reality, just as an epiphany was realized in his mind.

"It'd be too hard, human genetics took us six years of testing to reach its current form."

Concentrating on the virtual reality machine in the corner, Lu Kuan let out a long sigh.

Applicability would forever be virtual reality setup's Achilles heel.

It was exactly this point that stranded them in their original tracks, making it hard to develop many multifaceted hand tools. "Even if we have the ents' genetics, which can be used for immediate testing to find a match, to make something usable, it'd take three to five months at least, it's fundamentally…" "No, enough! We have the ents' genes, plus time for testing. "On the machine! I'll test for the parameters right now!"

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Chapter 498 Unprecedented Shock! The Southern Heavenly Gates Project! (Two In One)

"Elder Zhu Chuan, the territory of the human Su Mo has been slow to let us in. Is it because their strength hasn't even reached one tenth of ours……" "These sentry clansmen, none of them look like strong men, be it the looks or the weapons they use, could it be…"

The weather in the basin had turned into a gratifying sunny day. Yet strangely, it was still pouring rain along the boundary of the basin. Standing in the torrential rain, the six treefolks shook off the accumulating water on their bodies from time to time and whispered into each other.

The shortest among them was also more than seven meters high, and the leaves were shattering and falling wildly as they spoke, making a rustling sound. The tallest was the tree man called Elder Zhu Chuan, who seemed to be at least twelve meters in height, and his body was covered with broad, green leaves. "Zhu He, you idiot, I think you've forgotten the pain of the healed scars, right? How many times have I said that the fighting power of humans and dwarves is not determined by their physical appearance, their real strength is the use of tools and weapons! Use your stupid brains to think about the appearance of us coolie treefolks then think about what weapons they are holding and how they are dressed! These days, I have done a lot of research on the structure of human society. None of you should have the slightest bit of contempt, these people are the bottom feeders of the human race. They are beneath even us coolie treefolks! Besides, if Su Mo's strength was just as what we could identify through his looks, how could those vengeful dwarves stay put after their pathway got destroyed by him the day before yesterday?!" Pulling out a thick branch, Elder Zhu Chuan slammed it on treefolk Zhu He, making a deep mark.

The latter was in pain, groaned, and did not dare to speak again.

Depending on the height of the trees, it was easy to tell the status and strength of everyone among the treefolks. Just like animal groups, in the group structure of the treefolks, the hierarchy structure was something to be followed strictly!

The moment Zhu Chuan got mad, all the other treefolks also hurriedly shut their mouths, for fear that they would be whipped too.

Fortunately, this stalemate did not last long.

After receiving the order, Su Yuan returned with a full smile.

Treefolk Zhu Chuan also put on a self-kind smile and hurriedly greeted him. "My esteemed king of human beings, Su Mo, I, the ancient treefolk Zhu Chuan, once again apologize for our abrupt visit." "Please forgive our rudeness!" After learning the ways of humans, Zhu Chuan was like a gentleman who taken straight out of a textbook, full of elegance. On his tree face, a huge amount of apology could be seen. "Dear treefolk ally, your politeness is really surprising. Compared with the rude foreign races, you are the most elegant gentleman." Seeing that Su Yuan also greeted him with a smile on his face, and seemed not to understand the meaning behind those words, Zhu Chuan was stunned, "Human ally, may Lord Su Mo agree to our visit request, if not, it's okay to…"

Su Yuan, "Oh, Brother Zhu Chuan, we are all allies, how can there be any disagreements to be made?"

"As the first ally of our basin to visit, our director very much welcomes your visit, and has prepared a very high-level reception ceremony for you." "But…"

"We have a rule in Huaxia, this is something you must have since it's your first visit here, or the rule will be broken…"

With a wave of his hand, Su Yuan put on a warm smile.

By the way, from the angle that only Zhu Chuan saw, Su Yuan rubbed his thumb and index finger with his other hand a few times, the meaning was very obvious. With the mission of delaying time, he was not worried that the treefolks would not understand.

On the contrary, he still had a lot of time to explain the ancient culture of mankind.

Unfortunately…

"Oh that, yes I know that this is your unique rule, and we treefolks shall naturally follow the customs of the territory."

"Here, Brother Su Yuan, this is a gift for you!"

Benefited from studying human culture for a long time, seeing Su Yuan's performance, Zhu Chuan was not angry but happy, and hurriedly laughed and winked at the dazed treefolks behind.

"The Hell King is easy to mess with, but the little devils are hard to deal with. These greedy scavengers must be fed, otherwise we will have to pay more if we ruin the overall situation! Hmmph, those old folks in the clan don't know anything about human culture but expect to trade valuable things with the other party? Fortunately, I am smart enough to prepare everything beforehand." Zhu Chuan did not pause his movements despite feeling triumphant. He immediately took over the gift that was being taken out by one of the treefolk from the storage space on the branch. "Brother Su Yuan, this is a piece of rice leaf produced by the best part of our plantations. It might look ordinary, but it holds a huge amount of energy, and it is the most popular item among the foreign races. Ten pieces of rice leaves are more than enough to replenish the daily energy usage of us treefolks; and this one piece here, should be more than enough to sustain for two days. Even if it's during the cold winter, as long as you eat this rice leaf, you won't need to eat any food to keep your body warm for two days!" The rice leaf that Zhu Chuan mentioned was only the size of a palm. Different from the large leaf letter that exuded green light before, the color of this rice leaf was dark red, and it looked abnormally thick. Plus, its efficacy was surprising enough. Just an ordinary leaf yet it could support the consumption of a normal human for two days. Such a 'precious' gift could definitely settle the 'little minions'!

Two steps forward, and one step back, Su Yuan had a 'surprising' expression on his face, "Oh, this can't be done… Such a precious gift…"

Zhu Chuan laughed, "Oh please don't refuse my gift…" Su Yuan continued to wave his hand, "I can't do it, if the Chief finds out that I took such an expensive gift, I can't…" Zhu Chuan understood, "Brother Su Yuan, if you don't tell me, I won't say it, no one knows about it, just relax, Lord Su Mo will never blame you for accepting gifts…"

One side was a treefolk with a height of more than ten meters.

The other was a human being with a height of 175cm.

Looking at the human and the treefolk, it looked like the scene of refusing each other's New Year money in Huaxia. Neither party felt anything strange in this way, but others only feel that it was weird. Under these circumstances, the villagers who followed Su Yuan were dumbfounded and the treefolks standing behind were also stunned. "Brother Zhu Ling, this gift… I've accepted it!"

After two or three minutes of refusal, seeing the back and forth of several pulls, the treefolks were so slick that it was difficult to get rid of them.

Su Yuan rolled his eyes and took the gift, seemingly showing off to the villagers in the back, but in fact he quietly winked at Zhang Liang, the deputy team leader behind. They all came from the same dormitory back then, the latter understood immediately and stood up happily.

"Brother Zhu, we have an old saying in Huaxia called… whoever sees it has a share, since our team leader has a gift, how about…" "Yes, you have it too!"

Zhu Chuan threw out a branch and touched his 'leaf beard' on the chin, he then showed an expression indicating that he was in control of the situation. The next second, another rice leaf was handed over.

"Oh, I can't take this, it's a gift for our team leader, that's too precious. Brother Zhu Chuan, please take it back…"

"Don't worry about it, everyone should be treated equally…"

It was another familiar refusal.

The treefolks in the back were still stupid, but some of the villagers had come into their senses, and there was a sudden realization in their eyes.

Because of the example from Su Yuan, Zhu Chuan was very familiar with the process of refusal.

This time, Zhang Liang only persisted for two minutes before he got defeated and took the rice leaves.

However, the villagers who followed did not even wait for Zhang Liang to turn around, and then greeted him again.

This gesture instantly made Zhu Chuan's face, who was still smiling, stagnate. Fortunately, the treefolk rice leaves were originally an item that replenishes energy, and there was no shortage in terms of the stock. Wait until the forty-sixth person in the group comes forward, seeing Pei Shao rushing from behind appeared at the end of his field of vision, Su Yuan breathed a sigh of relief and winked at the remaining four. "Brother Zhu Chuan, you are really generous allies, and we will definitely become best friends in the future!"

Watching Zhu Chuan cooperating very well and distributing rice leaves to the remaining four, even Pei Shao's share was ready, Su Yuan laughed and hurried forward.

In the next second, he took the paper that Pei Shao handed over and gently tossed it at Zhu Chuan, the treefolk.

As Zhu Chuan received the paper, both sides showed satisfied smiles.

"Please!"

"Thank you!"

Just like the leaves used by the tree people to send messages, this paper was ordinary, but it was filled with Su Mo's will and is protected by the game. Sticking the paper on his chest, Zhu Chuan walked into the territory first.

Surprisingly, the huge pressure imagined did not appear at all.

Although, there was a hidden warning telling Zhu Chuan that once he launched an attack, he would be severely punished. However, the original purpose of the treefolks was to investigate, and they did not intend to do damage at all.

From the northeast boundary of the basin, back to Iron Rock Mountain, the distance in the middle was about 100 kilometers.

As there was enough time, there was no need for everyone to delay.

Leaving the remaining forty people to continue to clean up the salt that had precipitated out of the basin, Su Yuan and Pei Shao took the lead and hurried away with the treefolk.

"This place is really barren, how can there still be such an ordinary area in the new world? I really don't know why Su Mo chose this poor place!"

"Although the trees are lush, they are ordinary plants and have no value at all." "Even if it regains its vitality, this land is still not suitable for any large-scale high-level plant cultivation, which is a pity."

"Could it be that Su Mo is only faking his strength with his looks? Otherwise…"

The more he walked into the basin, more doubts began to appear in Zhu Chuan's heart.

Although he spoke plausibly when he was teaching other treefolks before, his ideas were also based on Su Mo's prestigious deeds, and he had not witnessed it with his own eyes.

At this time, after walking a full half of the journey, and yet to see any improvement, Zhu Chuan's facial expression suddenly sank.

"Ally Su Yuan, may I ask how far we are from the territory?!"

Between the words, the friendly brother's name disappeared instantly, and Zhu Chuan also brought a hint of coldness in his tone.

"Come on, we are almost there, go over this mountain, and you'll be in the territory soon!"

Zhu Chuan was in a bad mood, as expected.

Yet what he did not know was that Su Yuan, who was comforting him, actually turned up a storm in his heart.

If it were not for Pei Shao next to him still leading the way with a calm look, watching the dozens of mountains that suddenly appeared in the basin, he would definitely exclaim immediately. 'How is this even a basin!'

'This is clearly a reduced version of… the Qinling Mountains!' "Stop, honored guests, please hold on and wait for the Chief's decree!"

This was after the group climbed over a mountain again and turned abruptly. Standing in front of an unremarkable mountain rock wall, Pei Shao stopped, with a serious look on his face.

Subconsciously, Su Yuan, who had been looking around all the time, quickly stopped his footsteps. However, several treefolk who had thoughts in their hearts, including Zhu Chuan, did not react in time, and slammed into the cliff.

Bang!

The imaginary cliff wall collapsing did not happen, on the contrary, all the treefolks bounced off more than ten meters away as if being struck by lightning. In the panicked eyes of all the treefolks, a stream of golden light appeared on the cliff that had no response initially, and a gap opened from it. Two voices came out one after the other, "Hey, how bold of you!" "Which being dares to break my Heavenly Southern Gates, report yourselves!" Like thunder, the 30-meter-high cliff opened up bigger.

After the entire rock wall was completely dyed with golden light, two figures came out. Different from ordinary humans, these two figures were extremely tall, even Zhu Ling, who was 12 meters tall, was one head shorter than them

"This… Zhang Long, Liu Neng…" Su Yuan had never heard of the figure's appearance, but he was extremely familiar with their faces.

It's just that before Su Yuan made a sound, Pei Shao on the side moved forward respectfully again. "Reporting to the Northern and Southern Heavenly Generals, the trespassers are not intentional. They are really unfamiliar with the terrain of our territory, which is why they committed such a reckless move. They have already been approved by the Chief and they have the decree!"

He turned his head quickly and winked at the treefolk Zhu Chuan.

"Oh, we have a decree, we are allies, this is the order issued by Territory Lord Su Mo!" Suddenly, Zhu Chuan climbed up from the ground, took off the paper on his chest, and handed it over respectfully. In front of the other treefolk, he was a prestigious elder. Yet in front of these two figures, he became a 'dwarf' again. The suppression brought about by height and power eroded Zhu Chuan's entire mind in an instant.

The previous speculation was also dissipated at this moment.

"Even if you have the decree, you can be forgiven for the death sentence, but you shall still receive punishments."

"Wait…"

Seeing that the figure in the golden armor also made a 'familiar' gesture like Su Yuan, Zhu Chuan, who was still smiling, nodded crazily after being taken aback for a moment. "Understood, we understand!"

The rice leaves given to the villagers before were all provided by ordinary treefolks. Yet for the needs of Zhang Long and Liu Neng, Zhu Chuan quickly cut open his storage compartment and took out a thick stack.

At first glance, there were more than 50 pieces of rice leaves. As if afraid that it was not enough, with a hint of pain, he took out ten light purple leaves again and took them together.

"Very good, worthy of being an ally of our heavenly court!"

"Please come in!"

Stuffing the thing into their chests, the two golden-armored men gave way to the door.

This time, all of the treefolks did not move forward in a panic but turned their attention to the 'short' Su Yuan and Pei Shao who were standing in front. "Let's go, we have the decree from the Chief, rest assured!" They took the paper back and handed it to Zhu Chuan.

Seeing the latter sticking cautiously to his chest, Pei Shao was amused, but his expression remained serious and continued to walk forward.

Buzz~

Buzz!

The golden Southern Heavenly Gates seemed to have extraordinary detection technology, exuding bursts of roar. With anxiety, looking at the two who had disappeared in front of the door, Zhu Chuan was nervous and walked in bravely.

The treefolks behind him looked at each other and had no choice but to follow along.

At this point, there was no turning back. After seeing the Southern Heavenly Gates and the golden-armored figures, everyone no longer had any doubts about the strength of Su Mo and the basin. If it was not for their mission, they even wanted to run back to the territory and quickly tell the patriarch Zhu Ling of this important discovery.

Among the treefolks, Zhu He, who had ridiculed the strength of the depression before shutting his mouth completely and fell silent. It was a pity that the silence did not last for long when he really stepped into the gate and got to see things clearly again. He exclaimed in reflex!

"This…this is…"

"The Heavenly Court?" Unlike the barren outside, everyone was stunned as soon as they entered the world inside the door.

It was like stepping into a paradise. Outside was the 'barren' land with dark yellow mountains and full of dilapidation everywhere.

Yet when you went inside, you could only see…vitality!

"It's this kind of power, it's this kind of feeling… The God of Tree, the vitality of this Heavenly Court can actually reach such a level!"

From the distance, you could see the huge lake, with smoke rising from the village. On the ground, you could see herds of cattle and sheep, grazing and walking leisurely. The imaginary darkness did not happen, and the sun was still there overhead!

Even the clouds were floating in it!

Standing in this place, Zhu Chuan could feel the excitement of his whole body and the slight increase in strength with every breath he took.

If not for the warning and deterrence of the previous golden armor figure. At this moment, he even wanted to take root on the ground and feel the terrifying vitality force ten times that of his own territory, and the strength growth brought by it! "I'm sorry to ask you to hide your divinity, this look may scare our residents." "Our Chief doesn't like to look up to others as well, please forgive me!" After a while, in the field of vision, the two teams of guards in cyan armor holding the 'Ordinary Long Spears' came from afar. As if being stared at by a poisonous snake, he glanced at the spear in the guard's hand. Zhu Chuan's heart sank again, and he quickly took the lead in shrinking his figure.

Eight meters.

Five meters.

Three meters.

1.7 meters!

Not knowing how tall Su Mo was, and with the height reference of the guards, Zhu Chuan lowered himself as much as possible before stopping. Behind him, the other treefolks also had a similar appearance, reducing their height to 1.5 meters!

"Generals who work hard to convey information, this is a little courtesy, please accept it with a smile."

Seeing that he and the others had lowered their heights, the guards were still standing in place, Zhu Chuan felt bitter in his heart, and repeatedly signaled to the rear of the tree.

All of them gave whatever they had where possible.

Five stacks of rice leaves were handed over, and the number was not less than three hundred, which was extremely precious! "I didn't even see him yet, but I already gave half the expected supplies. Fortunately, I prepared in advance and brought a lot!" "Su Mo's subordinates are indeed a group of greedy monsters!" The guards smiled and began to lead the way. Zhu Chuan complained wildly in his heart, but his footsteps did not change. He was indeed still too 'young'. In the next half hour, on the way to meet Su Mo, the visiting team met successively… Claiming to be practicing the formation technique, titled Thirty-six Heavenly Gang, Seventy-two Earth Demon, but in fact it was just a group of entertaining women. 'Eight Immortals' who looked even worse than the scavengers, their bodies were in tatters, but their weapons exuded deadly threats.

'Four Heavenly Kings' with a 100-person phalanx that were practicing the formation. "Five Star Lords' who fell gently from the sky but could not even carry a trace of dust.

The four-to-five kilometers "visit" road into the village, a group of people walked "live like a year".

As if he had obtained ptsd, every time he saw a group of people, Zhu Chuan trembled and handed gifts mechanically.

The expected gifts were all delivered.

The rations on the way back and forth had also been delivered.

Even some of the supplies at the bottom of the box were about to bottom out, under Zhu Chuan's almost crying expression. At the gate of the village, four people came out.

"It's a great pleasure to have friends from

afar!"

"Three people… treefolks walking, one of them must be my teacher!"

"Generous ancient treefolk allies, welcome you to… my territory!"

It was like a voice from the sky, at the same time as a magic voice that filled the ears, watching Zhu Chuan's feet soften, and he fell to the ground straight.

Su Mo quickly stepped forward with a kind smile and kindly 'helped him up.

"Allies, look at my Southern Heavenly Gates plan!"

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Chapter 499 Goodbye Epic! Marshland's First Foundational Crop! (Two In One)

"Ally Zhu Chuan, please remember to get more people over for a field trip, okay! We Huaxians are very hospitable, so when you come, you will be welcomed with the highest regards!"

"Oh right, if the weather these two days are good, I will probably send more people over to your side for a field trip as well."

"If possible, I'd like to commence the trading line between us both as soon as possible, so we can hold the fort and defend our lands together from the greedy enemies that are eyeing us!"

Standing at the edge of his territory, Su Mo reached out his hand after he was done speaking and pat Zhu Chuan the Ent affectionately on his shoulder.

Even if the pat was a gentle one, it shook Zhu Chuan the Ent from his core, waking him from the trance he was in.

"No problem, don't you worry, Chief Su Mo, I'll be sure to deliver your message across." "I hope to commence our trading lines as soon as possible as well. With our genuine partnership, it'll be quick for us to show them the downside of expanding too quickly!"

Waving his branches excitedly, Zhu Chuan the Ent who was 170cm looked like a silly-looking mime.

After a few hours of the field trip, even if all the 'reservoir' of the Ents were all squeezed dry, Zhu Chuan no longer sounded cold, courteous, and polite, but filled with immense enthusiasm.

Who would have thought that in the short time of dwelling in the Heavenly Courts, after tasting some "Fairy Peach" and "Fairy Wine", his abilities would have an immense increment of…

5%!

The 5% should not be underestimated, since Ents have long lives, so their improvement in abilities would be extremely slow.

If it was according to usual progress, at where he was right now, he would need to absorb at least 6 more months of nutrients from the ground to have such improvement.

As for other ordinary Ents, they had greater improvement than he did since the level of their abilities was much lower.

Zhu He, whose level of abilities was lower had not only been healed of the whip injury from before but also had a whopping 15% of the increase in abilities. What a huge leap!

Standing behind Zhu Chuan, they were waving their branches excitingly as well as joyful, contented smiles appeared on their faces.

"It's time to say goodbye!"

"Set! It's getting late, I'll part ways with you guys here then. Safe journey back to your territory, stay safe!"

Zhu Chuan nodded obediently. "Thank you for your generosity, Chief Su Mo! The Old Ents will be Heavenly Court's loyal ally. We hope to taste the greatness of Heavenly Courts again the next time we come around!"

Su Mo scoffed. "Next time! For sure, for sure!"

Despite the discord earlier, the scene that had unfolded at the edge of territory was a rather harmonious one.

Watching how Su Mo gestured for them to leave, Zhu Chuan led his troops and marched away.

After passing the borders of the marshland, in three to five seconds, all the Ents had regained their usual mode of being sky-high. However, different than before, even if they had grown tall, their faces were still full of respect and humbleness.

They bid their goodbyes lingeringly with Zhu Chuan turning back for a glance every three steps he took. They had left reluctantly, hoping for Su Mo to say something to hold them back.

Alas, even until Su Mo and his people slowly disappeared from their line of sight, all that was left in their minds were…

Su Mo's smiling face!

"Su Mo, the king of humans is such a generous leader! Not only was he big-hearted, but he was also strong and powerful! No wonder he stood out from so many people.

His previous arrogance was swept clean, and his murmurs had gotten instant agreement from all the other ordinary Ents.

"That's right, this Heavenly Court may not have their development completed yet, and that's normal, they have arrived for merely a day or two, that's all. If they could develop very quickly, something would be very fishy about it."

"Their Father Thunder and Mother Lightning's powers are really strong! So strong they could have certain control over the weather in their territory! If only we have someone like this, then we won't have to worry that we don't have enough sunshine!"

"You know what, to me, their Fairy Peach is still the best. Its effect is almost identical to the Ten Thousand Leaf!"

"Elder Zhu Chuan is so well prepared to have presents ready! If not, according to how greedy the monsters in their territory are, we won't even get to see the generous Chief Su Mo!"

"Elder Zhu Chuan is so clever…"

ILII

The group of Ents was just lamenting about Su Mo's generosity and the Heavenly Court's formidability, but as they talk, their topic swayed slowly towards Zhu Chuan. This type of indirect bootlicking would call for Zhu Chuan's yelling normally, but at this time, he accepted it with a chuckle. "All of you are just too young. But those old folks in the tribe have been living for so many years."

"The humans have a saying that was right, which was 'To know your opponent's well is half the battle won'. For us to regain the Ent God's former glory here on this land, we need to know our enemies well enough."

"Also, look here, see what this is?" Signaling his troops to stop walking, Zhu Chuan turned back to make sure the territory borders have disappeared, he casually fished out an item from within him like a magic act.

When compared to his body size, the item he had pulled out looked very insignificant, but from the looks of it…

"Hiss, isn't that the pit of the Fairy Peach we ate?"

"I think so too, mine was kept by the server right after I was done. I was thinking of bringing it back too…" "I remember Elder Zhu Chuan's pit was also kept back, right? This is…" "Could it be stolen? No right… If Chief Su Mo found out…"

A small peach pit had attracted all the Ents' attention.

Zooming in on the ordinary peach pit, even if it no longer had flesh on it, all of them could still feel the energy pulsating from the pit. Even if this pulsating energy could not be directly used, it still represented the greatness of potential it carried. If it was traded, after seeing the ready product, the Ents would go all out by hook or by crook to obtain such a meaningful "seed".

However, for now… "I told you, you are all still too young. All you think about is the war and fighting that the older ones have mentioned, and you scheme against this and that."

"The times have changed, we need to learn to acquire new knowledge, learn new rules."

"Haven't you forgotten… How did we get to finally meet Chief Su Mo?" Caressing his 'beard', Zhu Chuan did not get mad at the rest for their speculations.

A natural sense of superiority swelled in his heart. The overpowering feeling knowledge have given him had him feeling arrogant and proud.

"How we got to meet… We had to give presents… Wait, Elder Zhu Chuan, could it be…"

After hearing what he had murmured, Zhu Chuan nodded delightfully. "Not bad, you learn fast."

"At many times, you don't need to use violence to achieve your goals."

"All I did was pay a little price to exchange this little pit from the greedy monsters."

"So foolish. He did not even know what a great price this pit could fetch if it was traded. I've gotten my hands on it for a fraction of the price!"

As he kept the pit, a flash of pained expression fleeted through his face when he mentioned the price paid.

Quickly after that, his pride was filled up once again when he saw the Ents exhibit a shocked expression on their faces. He shook his head slightly and continued his large strides back.

"That old man Zhu Ling, all he knew was to side his own relatives. Only the Reservatives were allowed to make decisions all the time." "Wait till I, Zhu Chuan go back. I'll sure show them through what I've gotten this trip what it means to be capable!"

With a sneer, Zhu Chuan could almost imagine the shocked, yet helpless faces of the old people in the territory.

What he did not know was, that the marshland that he had just left had become a sea of joyous celebration!

"Haha, Fu Zi, you've really put on a good show there! Let me tell you, those naive Ents, when they visited our territory, it's really like they're just all height and no brains! All thanks to Chief, all I did was glare at them in the corner of my eye and they were terrified!"

"Hey, so what? I've got a whopping amount of eight Food Leaves from them! That idiot was completely wrapped around my little finger!" "Chief is indeed the best. They were so fooled in our virtual reality scene it's heartbreaking!" "A huge harvest! These Food Leaves could feed us an entire week!"

Even though there were large plots of land around the underground shelter, there were still puddles of water and soft soil even after the villagers' urgent work was done.

However, since work was done on it to make it uniform, its uniformity made the land pretty pleasing to the eyes. In front of the door of the underground shelter that had only a few rare pieces of Dark Red Food Leaves was now a huge harvest of about three thousand pieces of them!

If calculated based on one leaf providing a person with 2 days of energy, these were enough to last more than 4 days!

There were leaves of three more colors that were gleaming delightfully other than the Food Leaves.

Even if their numbers were lesser by a whole chunk when compared to the Food Leaves, in terms of numbers, it was a no-brainer to know that the value of these leaves would be more precious than the Food Leaves.

No doubt, the marshland had just welcomed a stunning harvest with handsome rewards.

On the other side, the seven of them who were in the Earth Tiger had the same experience.

"Su Yuan, you've done your part and you've done it well. 10 Food Leaves for you!"

"Pei Shao, 10 for you. Zhang Long, Liu Neng, Li Hu, Chen Shen, 5 for each of you!"

All were rewarded according to the tasks given to them.

On the co-driver seat, every time Su Mo would call out a name, the others would hiss enviously.

However, no matter how many rewards were given out, there was still unsuppressed happiness on each of their faces.

Even Su Mo himself was chuckling in delight. Just like Zhu Chuan who had gotten an energy fruit pit, there was a palm-sized, dark red ball in Su Mo's hand.

The surface of the ball was etched with many curvy patterns that would emit a dazzling light as Su Mo toyed with it. Su Mo looked at it intently and under the analysis of the system, the ball's attributes appeared automatically.

[Primitive Food Leaf Seed (Epic-quality / Plant / High Potential)]

[Description: In the vastness of the universe, there was a tree-shaped planet that was unlike other round planets. On this tree-shaped planet were billions of plants. Their food source was not each other, but something special called a "Food Leaf". In the circumstances of the absence of sunlight, if they were rooted, they would be able to get sufficient energy and nutrients and had gained the ability to move around freely.

(Grade): Primitive (This is a primitive-grade seed. It was not affected by external measures. A high level of life and stable genetic sequences were still well maintained on the inside. This seed is the best for planting and to cross-plant with to create new species)

(Planting Requirement: High nutrient soil, sufficient sunlight, high quality water, isolated area

(Quantity Produced): 20-45 per plant

(Unit of Quantity Produced): Pieces

(Growth Time): 25-120 Days (Depending on the condition of the plating requirements) (Special Abilities:

Dark Red Food Leaves (1 Leaf /2 Days / Humans that has minimum activities, low-grade food ration source. The Food Leaves did not get to continue growing and absorbing nutrients because of the limitation of the planting requirements. Caution: This grade of Food Leaves contains purely energy and does not include any minerals or other requirements needed for any living being to survive. Long-term consumption will lower the quality of living being's body.)

Light Red Food Leaves (1 Leaf /2 Days / Humans that have moderate laborious activities, entry-level grade food ration source. The Food Leaves did not get to continue increasing in grades even when the absorption of nutrients continued because the planting requirements could not be fulfilled in the long term, causing the energy gathering within the Food Leaf to be unstable. Caution: This grade of Food Leaves contains only a small amount of minerals, just enough to fulfill the requirements needed for any living being to survive. Long term consumption will cause problems like messed-up gene issues from the lack of variety of food)

Dark Yellow Food Leaf (1 Leaf / 2 Days / Humans that has heavy laborious activities, continuous-upgrade grade food ration source. An error has occurred in the energy formula in the Food Leaf due to a single item error from the planting requirements, causing an imbalance in minerals in the Food Leaf and a halt in growth. Caution: This grade of Food Leaf contains the minerals of a balanced meal; long term consumption can fulfill the basic living needs of the living being with no side effects. Can be used as a meal replacement)

Light Yellow Food Leaf (1 Leaf / 3 Days / Humans that has heavy laborious activities. Second-best grade food rations. All the planting requirements were fulfilled, but because it was not immediately consumed and kept for some time, the quality had dropped, causing the minerals within to have some losses. Caution: This grade of Food Leaves contained all the minerals needed for a living being to survive, and it included chlorophyll that could improve the health of living beings in the long run with constant consumption.)

Dark Green Food Leaf (1 Leaf / 7 Days / Humans that has heavy laborious activities. First-grade food rations. All the planting requirements were fulfilled with an explosive amount of minerals within. Caution: Long-term consumption of this Food Leaf could drastically improve the health of the living being and could help improve the chains of genes within to achieve many unthinkable effects.)

Light Green Food Leaf (1 Leaf / 30 Days / Any living being. Top grade food, theoretically, this Food Leaf could replace all the energy needs of any living being, including plants that do not have self-awareness. After consuming said Food Leaf, even plants would awaken with special abilities 100%. Living beings that consume this would get a 100% buff. Caution: Light Green Food Leaves have many benefits, but the exact benefits would require validation after obtaining them)

[Comment: Grass! (A type of food)

A primitive-grade Food Leaf seed represented endless possibilities.

All he needed to do was plant it and supplement it with its top-notch planting requirements. The first planting would determine the grade of the rest of the Food Leaves.

As for Light Green Food Leaves of the highest grade, Su Mo did not hold too much hope in that after contemplating.

However, thinking about the psychic water he had, Su Mo held very high hopes, as high as 80% of certainty for the Dark Green grade!

As soon as he had succeeded, he would nurture it. Then, the marshland would not only have storage of Food Leaf seeds, but they would also successfully obtain a large amount of high-grade food source.

They could also sell it to other tribes after a system was set in place to get a scary amount of profit/

Compared to the energy fruit trees that could only grow after watering them with psychic water, these Food Leaves were undoubtedly another type of "money producing tree"!

"I was still contemplating on what I should plant here at the marshland, but it seems like such an easy decision now."

"As long as I can create a sufficient growing environment, in a month's time, the need for food here in the marshland would be significantly reduced!"

Su Mo was planning for the future. He would never have thought that 100ml of psychic water and a seed from the fruit Oreo had eaten would be able to exchange for such a treasure.

As much as Su Mo wanted to stay calm, he could not help but grip the ball in his hand tightly as his heart was filled with excitement!

It only took 5000 survival points to extract the Ents' genes from the letter, and it only took 21000 survival points to upgrade the virtual reality devices to pair them with the Ent.

26000 survival points were spent, and under the work of the machines, the Ents had basically no resistance before they were pulled right into virtual reality.

Through the boost psychic water could give to living beings, the marshland mimicked a fake scenario where its capabilities had been upgraded and had successfully pierced through the last mental barrier the Ents had. "Now, what I need to worry about is when there are beings that want to survey the territory from up in the skies and they would find that the marshland was still being developed."

"But it's still okay since this whole fiasco would buy me at least a month or two until the marshland had developed enough to have basic defense systems…"

"Even if the Ents were to realize, I won't be afraid of them seeking revenge, since I have in my hands…"

The building of the territory had basically gone up the right path as soon as the weather factor was out of the picture, and it could be run by subordinates or even by the management team.

Even if Su Mo were to be involved, it would only result in an insignificant boost.

On the contrary, after testing the influence of psychic water on the Ents, Su Mo already had the following trades in mind.

However, to make them into reality, he would still need to see how developed the Ents' territory was, and what ace they had in their hands.

After taking into consideration that this was the first important step that the marshland took to open a tunnel to the outside world, a bold thought started to brew in Su Mo's heart like an impending storm!

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Chapter 500 The Swell In Ambition, The Unstoppable "Tank"!

According to Maslow's hierarchy of needs theory, from the most basic physiological needs, safety needs, love, and belonging, up to the noble esteem and self-actualization, a person would be chasing these five levels unceasingly, so much so they could give their lives away.

Su Mo thought that all the residents of the marshland had surpassed the hurdle of the most basic physiological needs and would strive to climb towards the other levels, but as the building started, he realized he was wrong.

The segment of physiological need would never be fulfilled, and this hurdle would never be crossed.

As long as one was alive, the passion humans have for this segment of need was terrifyingly high!

Since sending the ents away at 1 in the afternoon, as the residents who were out collecting the salt residues from the land came back, the land that was 5000 square feet in front of Iron Rock Mountain had started to have fleeting changes.

In the Civilized Era, it was easy to build a sturdy house.

Generally, it would first be to use a strong degrasser for a thorough clean-up, making sure that the land the house would be on would not cater for any plant growth, ruining the foundation.

Then, it was to draw the horizontal line using the leveler, making sure the height of the land was consistent and leveled throughout, so the problem of lopsided land ruining the strength of the building would not occur.

After the ground was leveled, it was time for the cement concrete and the bricks to come in to form the foundation of the house.

Then, one would work their way up and proceed to build an entire house.

This was a way that saved time and energy/ It would not take long for a house to be built, even if they had to build it themselves.

Sadly, in the Doomsday Wasteland, there were no limestones and cement, so everything had to be kept simple.

Even so, from the knowledge of their forefathers and with teamwork, the villagers had thought of many good ideas.

Firstly, it was to level the ground, so they picked out all the rubble and roots residue they could see, and it was quickly done in about one hour thanks to all 1000 people and their help.

Secondly, it was King Kong's job to step in in partnership with a rotary tiller and was able to efficiently dig out the entire land, making all the hidden rubble and roots to be exposed once more.

This time, many shattered roots and rubble would be taken away. Even if the rest were to lurk in a corner, it would not cause much harm.

Thirdly, it was the joy-inducing "press"!

It was totally okay even in the absence of machinery to help press the land down.

The villagers found a few huge rocks and after chipping it with the excellent-quality chisel to become a cylindrical shape, the Earth Tiger was able to pull this cylinder around.

Even though this method could not achieve the same as using professional machinery, since the ground was still soft after the rain, it had gotten a surprisingly good result of 60%!

Just a few rounds back and fro and the ground was visibly more leveled.

Su Mo felt the most when he stood and watched from up the hill.

Far beyond, it was puddles galore.

Near to where he was, it was flat land that smelt nicely of soil.

Wherever his gaze would reach, he would see smiling residents that were walking in a crouch, using their own body weight to stomp on the ground!

They had worked from 2 pm to 4 pm and had no breaks in between.

The most astonishing was that no one complained of tiredness throughout the entire process, and no one was lamenting about how difficult things were.

Everyone gave their 120% for a place they could call home!

"Hah, the virtual reality is really a double-edged sword. If gone wrong, it would take months or up to years to recover."

"However, if it's used properly like this, it could achieve amazing things!"

Lu Kuan, who was controlling the robot and standing on top of the hill as well sighed.

The pros and cons of virtual reality that was being used had more than exceeded the founders' initial estimation of usage when they first invented it.

To the outside world, the virtual reality technology could make lies extremely real, coaxing the opposite party to go towards the path of death.

To their own people, virtual reality could mimic real-life training, or even mimic a 'future' to ignite the 'want' in people.

It only took 2 hours in virtual reality for the villagers to have such a huge change in enthusiasm.

Work efficiency rate instantly fulfilled full bar.

"No, Lu Kuan, the village in the virtual reality was only a part of the catalyst. The real reason why this change happened was that…"

"There was a sense of accomplishment!"

Lu Kuan was stunned. "A sense of accomplishment?"

"Yes. Look there, what different about him?"

Su Mo pointed at one of the villagers that played one of the five Star Kings.

Many things that were grown in the garden were never sown.

In the morning, Su Mo was still fretting about how he could quickly fulfill everyone's needs so he could pull the work efficiency rate up.

When it came to the afternoon, after having some people involved in some 'acting', he had inadvertently achieved what he wanted.

"He… There's a change in his spirit. If it could be said this way, he merely wanted to survive before this, but now…"

"He wanted to become stronger?"

Su Mo nodded lightly. "It's easy to go from frugal to extravagance, but it was difficult the other way around. When you have become' someone who is way stronger, and you're forced to go back to being ordinary, you would have a great sense of divide."

"In our universe, there was a show that aired in Huaxia which generally was to get village kids and city kids to exchange lives."

"Like expected, the village kids would work really hard after coming back from the city. They would make and achieve their goals, where city kids would turn over a new leaf and improve themselves when they're back from the village."

Lu Kuan stopped. "That's good, right? Everyone achieved what they wanted!"

"No!"

Focusing his eyes on the villagers that were trying their best to level the ground, Su Mo shook his head regretfully.

"It was like this initially, but after a certain time, the city kids would revert back to how they were like before, and the village kids would eventually accept reality and would fall quickly back into their slump."

"Once stimulated, it shouldn't stop, because if the momentum is gone, it would need at least tens or hundreds more to prick the same enthusiasm!"

"The marshland before this could really stop developing at any time, since no one had any ambitions before this, and all they wanted was to live peacefully in this land."

"But now, the marshland is only starting to become a real tank that could only march forward. Once it stops, only you and I can remain true to ourselves. As for the others…"

Many people lived their lives thinking that they had no big dreams or ambitions, but it was all merely limited to the knowledge and exposure that they had.

Even the village kids who were a part of that program went back and had ambitions to change themselves and be the creme of the crop one day.

Needless to say, these villagers were considered the 'elites' that were above average in society before.

The wasteland was not the materialistic world where ordinary people would find it hard to climb up.

Here, things have changed.

As long as you have enough 'ambitions', things would change.

"Is this a good thing or a bad thing then?"

"You've made me confused!"

Different from Su Deben, who had seen all types of men and understood how people really are, Lu Kuan the scientist would only scratch the surface of things even if he was somewhat involved in the psychological field before.

He got confused when he saw Su Mo shaking his head and sighing for a moment and shaking his fists in excitement in another.

"It's considered a good thing, I guess. At least for now, as long I'm the person holding the steering wheel, and that I can hold it tightly, our development speed would have at least a 5 to 10 times increment!"

Confidence oozed out of Su Mo's eyes as he looked at Chen Shen, who was smiling and walking toward him. There was a smile on Su Mo's face as well.

The history of Huaxia had proven it.

To be the ruler of the world, what was important was for the subordinates to stay in their own lane, be able to control their desires, and focused on the future.

However, to be the ruler of the world, what it required was for everyone to be greedily ambitious enough to march forward with boldness without a slight sense of hesitation, even if there was nothing else but a cliff before them, they would have to march on with conviction.

Su Mo did not tell anyone about the impending zombie crisis, but he believed that the marshland three months later, in the sowing of hardwork from everyone, a steel fortress would rise up from the ground!

Then, the fight of the New World would truly begin by then!

"Chief, we have collected a huge harvest today. They've really given too many Food Leaves, totally enough to feed us for half a month."

"Oh? That much?"

Su Mo had briefly storied about the different grades of Food Leaves in the car on the way back.

Ordinary Dark Red Food Leaves could not provide the minerals needed for living beings and could only sustain a human with minimal activities for 2 days.

According to the workload in the marshland right now, it would need at least 30000 Food Leaves to supply everyone with food for half a month.

What a huge difference!

"Chief, didn't you say that eating too much of the Food Leaves was just like eating too many potatoes, and it would make people weak? How would we dare to eat it?"

"So, I've tried. Who knew the biggest liabilities food-wise in our territory had absolutely no side effects after chomping them up happily?"

Chen Shen pointed at the bunch of lizard coolies and sheep that were sunbathing leisurely and also pointed at the yaks that were helping the villagers with work.

The happiness on his face grew.

"We have a total of 4200 pieces of Dark Red Food Leaves."

"420 pieces of Light Red Food Leaves."

"80 pieces of Dark Yellow Food Leaves."

"And 10 pieces of Light-Yellow Food Leaves of the highest grade!"

"We will save the Dark and Light-Yellow ones as backup for us. The lower grade Dark and Light Red ones could all be fed to the lizards. If it's according to what Paulie said, lizards couldn't care less about minerals. They would be able to survive for 4-5 years even if they ate rocks, so if they eat these energy substances that could easily be digested, it was more nutritious to them than eating meat!"

The lizard coolies were hardworking and willing.

At the same time, they eat a lot. To ensure they could be properly bred, they were eating 8-people portions every day. For 36 lizards, they would have consumed 288 portions daily.

The price paid when calculated by months would make anyone grimace in pain! However, with the Dark Red Food Leaves, three of them could supply a lizard's energy intake for a day.

4200 pieces of it were enough to last for at least 120 days.

There were still Light Red Food Leaves that could bump the number up to 5 months.

When the 5 months were up, the second or third batch of Food Leaves from the marshland would be able to seamlessly continue filling in this gap, and it could be said as the perfect plan!

"Very well, since it doesn't harm the lizards when they eat these things, and it being benefits to us all, try to feed them well every day."

"When we have our next batch of Food Leaves to continue this supply, we can probably start our breeding plan then!"

After calculations, Su Mo snapped back to his senses as excitement colored his eyes.

Su Mo had already thought of the different types of modification he wanted to achieve to these beings that could be bred into different breeds that carried different attributes the moment he got it if it were not for the shortage of food and the limitation in magnitude.

It was still not too late at that moment. Everything would have supple time on its own.

"The ents are really such treasures! They only came once and have given us such immense profit."

"Heck, when it's our turn to visit, I'll bring people over and… Do it again! We'll get another round of profits from them!"

Like what Marx said in his book Capital, people would become brave when there was an appropriate amount of profitability.

When there would be 50% of profit, people would dare take risks.

When there would be 100% of profit, people would dare to break all rules known to men.

When there would be 300% of profit, people would be willing to anything, even crime, and was willing to risk their lives!

Now, the profits that the ents had given was more than 300%, or even 3000%!

Under the great profit obtained, even Chen Shen, who was usually calm had bloodshot eyes even after saying what he said.

"That's too huge a risk… If we were found out, if our virtual technology fail the next time…"

"No, we've got to do what we've got to do."

After hearing Su Mo interject Lu Kuan's "careful" speech, Chen Shen and Lu Kuan both raised their heads at the same time and looked into Su Mo's eyes.

Alas, they did not see excitement nor the longing towards the unbelievably high yield in profit.

All they saw was calmness.

It was the same calmness when he ordered for the cannons to shoot back at the kobold castle.

After making sure a few more times, Chen Shen roughly had a thought in mind, but he still shook his head in disbelief.

"Chief, could you be…"

"That's right. When it's our turn to go to their territory, I'll go with you. It's not enough to have just you guys around to maximise the profit gain, and to ensure safety."

Woosh!

The ordinary few words that came out of Su Mo's mouth dropped like a bombshell in Lu Kuan and Chen Shen's hearts.

Even if Su Mo did not exude a gambler's vibe one bit, it was still as if a king would want to become an assassin and sneak into enemy camps. Such ridiculous act had the both of them implode immediately.

"No, Chief, please done! Let's not talk about how huge the risk of you following us is. You see, if you leave and the underground shelter collapses, how could we continue developing?"

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"Su Mo, it's at these urgent times where you cannot be hasty in your decisions. Think about it. Our virtual reality worked so well just now those ents that returned would become our tools in breaking through successfully. Even if you're not there, we would have a great rate of success!"

"On the other hand, if they found out, we would definitely not be able to bear the consequences of you being in danger!"

As compared to Chen Shen, Lu Kuan was more realistic with his words.

After witnessing many people dying in the wilderness, after losing his own body and could only be a brain in a box, Lu Kuan knew better than anyone else what risk management meant.

In other words, in Lu Kuan's heart, even if everyone on the marshland were to be gone, as long as Su Mo was still around, this was still a place of 'Hope'.

However, if Su Mo were to be missing from the equation, be it him succumbing to trouble or death, this marshland, as huge as it would crumble in days.

"Don't have to talk me out of it. I'm already prepared."

"Besides, the game had limited me, it would not let me go! If I were to go, then only I could go through…"

Su Mo pointed at the cables sticking out of the robots behind all the way to the data cables that connected the robot to the brain box and did a spreading gesture.

Chen Shen was still confused, but Lu Kuan had immediately understood what he meant.

Subconsciously, Lu Kuan wanted to blurt out that the conscious uploading technology was nothing easier than the virtual reality technology, but when he remembered Su Mo using only a mere 10 minutes to extract the DNA and to do a successful match, he was dumbfounded.

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