Translator: AnubisTL
Zhao Ritian had barely crawled a few steps when he suddenly felt a cold sensation on his forehead.
He instinctively froze, looked up, and saw the man holding a shotgun pressed against his forehead.
"What the fuck is going on?!" Scar Dog demanded, his brow furrowed in confusion as he aimed the shotgun at the beggar-like man. "What the hell do you think you're doing? Who told you to crawl between my legs? What's your game?"
"Uh..." Zhao Ritian stammered, his mind blank. "I'm apologizing."
"Impressive," Scar Dog said, a bitter laugh escaping him. "Where did you learn to apologize like that? Not a word, just crawling between my legs?"
"Well..." Zhao Ritian hesitated, slowly rising to his feet. "If I don't need to apologize, can I just leave?"
Scar Dog stared at him expressionlessly for a moment, realizing communication was impossible. He cut to the chase, his voice flat: "How long have you been in this area?"
"Over three months, I think. I've been here since I arrived."
"Lucky you. Do you know of any mechanical race cities nearby? Have you seen any mechanical race players? They're similar to human players, but some have mechanical organs while others don't. And..."
"Oh, oh, I've seen one," Zhao Ritian said, nodding frantically like a chicken pecking at rice, cutting Scar Dog off before he could finish. "There's a mechanical race city not far from here, built inside a volcano."
"I almost died there."
"What?!" Scar Dog's eyes flashed with surprise, momentarily stunned. He hadn't even dared to hope for an answer, yet here it was.
Even Chen Jiang showed a hint of surprise. "You're saying there's a mechanical race city inside a volcano?"
"Uh, yes." Zhao Ritian glanced at the visible excitement on the faces of the group before him, a flicker of dread crossing his mind. Could these people be here specifically for the mechanical race city?
Are they crazy? Who knows how many mechanical race players are in that city?
"Don't go there to die! I've seen plenty of ape-man race players wander in and get killed without even knowing what hit them."
"But for some reason, those mechanical race players never leave the volcano. If they did, we'd all be dead by now, reincarnated countless times."
"I ask, you answer." Chen Jiang slowly drew a 110cm-caliber turret from his chest, aiming the barrel at the human player before him. "Understand?"
Zhao Ritian stared at the cannon barrel before him, large enough to swallow his entire body. After a long silence, he rasped, "Big Brother, ask away."
A moment later, Chen Jiang's eyes narrowed thoughtfully as he nodded.
About three kilometers away stood a massive volcano, and the mechanical race city was nestled within its crater.
That was all the information they had.
But it was enough.
Chen Jiang gazed at the distant, faintly visible outline of the volcano. After a moment of contemplation, he said, "Find a secluded spot to rest for half a day."
"Yes, sir."
This was mainly for Li Hao to rest.
Without Li Hao, they were as blind men. But with him, they transformed into satellite-guided precision strike teams, hitting targets with pinpoint accuracy.
Li Hao quickly spoke up, "There's a mountain valley less than a kilometer away. It's surrounded by mountains and completely deserted. How about there?"
Zhao Ritian's lips twitched slightly as he lowered his head, saying nothing.
Had his perfect hideout been discovered so easily?
The place he had painstakingly occupied for over three months was now about to be handed over to someone else.
"Hmm, let's go there then."
The next moment—
A phantom gate materialized abruptly in the air.
In the blink of an eye—
The group materialized in the mountain valley.
"Tsk," Scar Dog clicked his tongue, surveying the surroundings. "This place is truly remarkable. If we'd landed here from the start, the first three months would have been much easier. But how can such a perfect spot be completely deserted?"
Chen Jiang remained silent.
He pulled a rocking chair from his inventory and settled into it, his eyelids drooping slightly as he pondered the tasks ahead.
There was much to be done.
First, after half a day's rest to allow Li Hao to recover his mental power, they would need to visit the mechanical race city.
Next, they had to quickly establish a factory for producing one-star items.
Even during this half-day downtime, he couldn't afford to be idle.
He glanced at his space bracelet, overflowing with one-star items.
It was time to begin reinforcement.
With 42,000 one-star items, he had more than enough.
After mentally reviewing his plans, Chen Jiang retrieved his turret, placed it before him, and began feeding items into it one by one.
[Ding! You have consumed 23 one-star items to reinforce the turret's caliber from +20 to +21.]
[Current turret caliber: increased from 110cm to 115cm.]
Just as Chen Jiang was preparing to continue reinforcing the turret, Scar Dog suddenly spoke up.
"Brother Jiang, I just had an idea. I'm calling it the Automatic Reinforcement Machine."
"What do you think of this?"
Scar Dog positioned the exit of a phantom gate directly above the turret, with the entrance placed beneath the piles of one-star items stacked on the ground nearby.
Immediately, one-star items began raining down from the phantom gate's exit, pelting the turret.
The turret itself flashed with continuous bursts of white light.
In Chen Jiang's vision, a stream of notifications kept popping up:
[Ding! Reinforcement level increased to 22!]
[Ding! Reinforcement level increased to 23!]
[Ding! Reinforcement level increased to 24!]
The notifications scrolled across his vision at such a rapid pace that they nearly filled the screen.
Chen Jiang stared blankly for a moment before turning to Scar Dog with a faint smile. "I have to say, this perpetual motion machine series of yours... I'd rank it in the top three of your design concepts."
"This Automatic Reinforcement Machine is nothing special," Scar Dog replied with a serious nod. "In terms of my perpetual motion machine design philosophy, it wouldn't even make the top hundred."
"Impressive," Chen Jiang nodded, acknowledging the Automatic Reinforcement Machine's capabilities.
This device truly freed up his hands and conserved a significant amount of physical exertion. He recalled how much time they had spent manually reinforcing items in the wasteland outside City 18, exhausting themselves in the process.
Soon, a series of notification panels flashed before him.
"Hmm?"
Chen Jiang's brow furrowed slightly as he glanced at the panels.
The previous notification had read:
[Ding! You consumed 52 one-star items to reinforce the turret's caliber from +49 to +50.]
[Current turret caliber: increased from 255cm to 260cm.]
The next notification immediately followed:
[Ding! You consumed 520 one-star items to reinforce the turret's caliber from +50 to +51.]
[Current turret caliber: increased from 260cm to 265cm.]
"Wait!" Chen Jiang instinctively called out, trying to halt the Automatic Reinforcement Machine.
Something must be wrong!
Reinforcing from +49 to +50 had required only 52 one-star items!
How could reinforcing from +50 to +51 suddenly require 520 items?
What a joke!
Each reinforcement had always required one more item than the previous attempt. How could it have suddenly consumed 520 items just now?
Did it just add a zero to the requirement?
(End of the Chapter)
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