173: Chapter 173 All 30,000 men board the ship! The Iron Hoof Legion's life-or-death countdown begins.

It was exactly two o'clock in the afternoon.

The elevator doors in the cockpit opened.

Lin Xiao walked in, with Zhao Tiezhu following behind him.

Beyond Lu Chen's expectations, he had only notified Lin Xiao; Zhao Tiezhu had been brought along by Lin Xiao.

He glanced at Zhao Tiezhu.

Zhao Tiezhu stood straight beside Lin Xiao without offering an explanation, meeting Lu Chen's gaze.

Lin Xiao took a position next to the co-pilot's seat and stood still.

"City Lord Lu Chen, is there an emergency?"

"Yes," Lu Chen said, holding a notebook. "The timeline for the Iron Hoof Legion has been updated. I'll get straight to the point."

"Go ahead."

"Yesterday, Zhou Yuan brought back intelligence from the Dawn Legion. According to their latest assessment of the Iron Hoof Legion's main force position, a Lv.5 wonder-class crusher was last detected at the southern entrance of the Roaring Ice Abyss, approximately four hundred kilometers from the Rustwind Wasteland. Based on the Iron Hoof Legion's advance speed, their main force will reach the northern edge of the Rustwind Wasteland within sixteen to twenty days."

Lin Xiao did not speak immediately.

He stood there, the scar on his chin appearing deeper than usual under the blue light of the cockpit.

"How much faster is that than the original estimate?"

"Three to five days faster."

"And the Black Rock City-State auxiliary engine?"

"At the current rate of coolant loss—one point eight percent per day—there are about twenty-two days left."

Lin Xiao's fingers tightened, then relaxed.

"The time difference is only two to six days."

"Correct."

Zhao Tiezhu spoke up from the side.

"City Lord, does this mean the Iron Hoof Legion will arrive before the Black Rock City-State's auxiliary engine is exhausted?"

"There is a probability of that."

"Then there will be no chance for the degradation of The City-State's remains?"

"Not necessarily." Lu Chen placed the notebook on his lap. "The Iron Hoof Legion reaching the northern edge of the Rustwind Wasteland doesn't mean combat starts immediately. They will need to conduct reconnaissance and deployment while waiting for follow-up troops to catch up. This process is estimated to take three to five days, perhaps even longer."

"Or shorter," Lin Xiao said.

"Or shorter," Lu Chen did not deny it.

Lin Xiao was quiet for three seconds.

"What is your current combat status?"

Lu Chen flipped open the notebook.

"Eight shots for the Ray Cannon, ten uses of Napalm, a balance of 2,622 interceptions for the Phalanx Close-In Weapon System. The Omni-directional Crawler Transmission Module was just unlocked yesterday, allowing for an eighteen-second pivot turn. The Reactive Explosive Armor reduces damage from Lv.4 Armor-piercing Shells by over sixty percent, but its effectiveness against Lv.5 is unknown."

After listening, Lin Xiao turned his head and glanced at Zhao Tiezhu.

Zhao Tiezhu remained silent.

Lin Xiao looked back at Lu Chen.

"Can we win?"

"One-on-one, we can't win." Lu Chen flipped the notebook back. "Lv.5 against Lv.3 is a generational gap; there are no miracles to be found there."

"Then what is your plan?"

"Being unable to win doesn't mean we've run out of options."

Lu Chen closed the notebook on his knee.

"If the Iron Hoof Legion arrives within twenty days, I have four things to do. First, calculate the exact gap between the depletion of the Black Rock City-State's auxiliary engine and the arrival of the Iron Hoof Legion. Even if it's only one day, the degradation of the remains must be done."

His speaking speed was not fast, and his logic was clear.

"Second, contact the Dawn Legion to confirm if they are willing to provide intelligence support when the Iron Hoof Legion enters the Rustwind Wasteland. Third, pre-plan the Polaris's maneuver route. If we need to relocate, where do we run, how do we run, and where can we go to escape the Iron Hoof Legion's pursuit range? Fourth."

Lu Chen paused for a beat.

"See if I can accumulate another five thousand points within twenty days to unlock the next node."

"Lu Chen."

Lin Xiao's voice dropped an octave, completely shedding his usual boisterousness.

"I still have twenty-three thousand people on my hands who haven't moved into the Polaris. The auxiliary engine has twenty-two days left. If The City-State stops, it stops, but what about those twenty-three thousand people?"

"Can the migration speed be increased any further?"

"Two registration terminals handle five hundred people a day. In twenty-two days, that's eleven thousand people at most. Adding the seven thousand five hundred who have already moved in, that's less than twenty thousand in total. There are still three to four thousand people with nowhere to go."

"The third registration terminal." Lu Chen glanced at the panel.

Resident Registration Terminals: currently 2/3, available ports: 3.

"The City Lord authority binding system. Once opened, it can provide an additional channel, bringing the daily registration volume up to about seven hundred and fifty people."

"Seven hundred and fifty people for twenty-two days is sixteen thousand five hundred. Adding the existing seven thousand five hundred makes twenty-four thousand people, which covers most of them."

"There's still a shortage of two to three thousand people."

"Those two to three thousand people," Lin Xiao's voice was heavy, "how will you arrange for them?"

"The Polaris currently has forty-eight thousand square meters of usable area plus the ranch. After thirty thousand people move in, there will still be surplus space where they can be temporarily settled. However, without registration, they will lose the protection of the system's shield."

"Shields are not a necessity," Zhao Tiezhu spoke up. "I didn't have a shield before I entered the Polaris, and I lived just the same."

"A shield is a safety net for critical moments." Lu Chen glanced at Zhao Tiezhu. "Not having a shield doesn't mean you won't survive, but in extreme circumstances, it can give you an extra life."

Lin Xiao rubbed the scar on his chin with his hand, a habitual movement when he was thinking.

"Open the third terminal."

Lu Chen tapped to open the third port on the panel.

A prompt popped up on the panel stating that the third registration terminal had been activated.

"Place it at the entrance of The City-State's Docking Area to make it convenient for residents to register directly before coming in."

Chen Li's communicator rang at the same time.

"City Lord, a prompt for the activation of the third terminal popped up on the panel."

"The third terminal is to be placed on the outer side of The City-State's Docking Area. Have Lin Xiao's side arrange for people to stand guard there."

"Understood."

The communicator hung up.

Lin Xiao looked at Lu Chen.

"With three terminals running simultaneously now, how many people per day?"

"Seven hundred and fifty to eight hundred. In twenty-two days, that's seventeen thousand six hundred people at most. Combined with the seven thousand five hundred already here, that's a total of twenty-five thousand one hundred people."

"About five thousand people left over."

"Five thousand people will be unable to complete registration, but they can be temporarily settled and live inside the Polaris. They can register later once the pressure from the Iron Hoof Legion has passed. The system has no eviction mechanism for unregistered residents; they can stay, but they will lack the protection of allocation rights."

Lin Xiao weighed this number in his mind.

"A gap of five thousand people."

"Yes."

"If the Iron Hoof Legion arrives within twenty days and The City-State's auxiliary engine is exhausted before they arrive, those five thousand people will just have to be squeezed in."

"There will be other issues," Zhao Tiezhu said. "The five thousand people will lack bed assignments. Occupying space temporarily will cause conflict."

"Han Zhengqing is off today," Lu Chen said directly. "Work starts the day after tomorrow, with priority on partitions in the Storage Area. Vacate formal housing for Zhao Tiezhu's three hundred men; once their floor-bedding space is cleared, it can temporarily accommodate two to three thousand people."

Zhao Tiezhu straightened his back and nodded.

"Then I will go and notify Chief Engineer Han."

"Wait until the day after tomorrow; he's on holiday today."

"Alright."

Lin Xiao put his hands behind his back and looked at the wasteland outside the window.

"Lu Chen, you said you wanted to plan a transfer route. Where would we run?"

"The Ash Rift Valley."

Lu Chen flipped open the notebook.

"The Iron Hoof Legion is advancing from the north. The terrain of the Rustwind Wasteland is open and offers no cover, making it unsuitable for defense. However, the terrain of the Ash Rift Valley is complex, with many pre-civilization industrial ruins that will hinder the movement of a large Lv.5 unit. If we can't win a direct confrontation, we move toward the Ash Rift Valley, using the terrain to slow the Iron Hoof Legion's advance while buying ourselves more time."

"The Dawn Legion has an Outpost in the Ash Rift Valley," Zhou Yuan had mentioned yesterday.

"It's a small Lv.2 station, not of much use, but that location can serve as a temporary docking point."

Lin Xiao was quiet for a few seconds.

"My City-State can't run. Once the auxiliary engine is exhausted, it's a dead city; it won't be able to move."

"I am aware."

"So if it really comes to that point," Lin Xiao's voice was very low, "all thirty thousand people will be on this ship of yours."

Only the slight hum of the instruments operating remained in the cockpit.

Zhao Tiezhu shifted his gaze to the side.

Lu Chen looked at Lin Xiao.

"You drove that level-four City-State from a thousand kilometers away to find your sister, and you found her. I will not let this ship sink."

Lin Xiao did not speak.

He looked at Lu Chen for three seconds.

Then he turned and walked toward the elevator.

"Zhao Tiezhu, let's go."

The elevator doors closed.

Lu Chen was once again alone in the cockpit.

He lowered his head and wrote down the core conclusions of the meeting at two o'clock this afternoon in his notebook.

Third terminal opened. Full migration estimated to complete for about twenty-five thousand people within twenty-two days; the remaining five thousand to be temporarily settled.

Iron Hoof Legion to arrive in sixteen days at the earliest, twenty days at the latest.

The window of opportunity is extremely tight.

He closed the notebook and leaned back in his chair.

In the upper right corner of the panel, the balance of two thousand six hundred and twenty-two points flickered.