185: Chapter 185 The Temptation of 30,000 Truth Points! A Race Against Time to Rescue a Broken Body

"Truth Points." Lin Xiao looked at Lu Chen, "How many do you have now?"

"Two thousand six hundred and twenty-two points."

"How much for the next node?"

"Five thousand points. Radiation-proof Lead-lined Inner Shell."

"We are short two thousand three hundred and seventy-eight points."

"Correct." Lu Chen reopened the notebook, "There are three sources. First, peripheral coal crystal collection; the last trip the day after tomorrow has been cancelled, so this path is cut off."

"Why cancel it?" Zhao Tiezhu asked.

"I cancelled it when the third signal from the Iron Hoof Legion outpost appeared. The risk of the Patrol Car being intercepted and exposing our location is too high."

Zhao Tiezhu nodded, having no objections.

"The second source is the blueprint exchange with the Dawn Legion. But currently, all seven blueprints have been fully degraded, and there are no new sources of blueprints in the short term."

"The third?"

"The third source." Lu Chen looked at Lin Xiao, "Degrading the remains of the Black Rock City-State."

Lin Xiao's fingers tightened.

"After the auxiliary engine is exhausted, The City-State will be a dead city. The steel and armor of a dead city can be degraded into Truth Points; conservatively estimated at over thirty thousand points."

"Thirty thousand points." Zhou Yuan repeated in a low voice, "Enough to unlock six five-thousand-point nodes, or three ten-thousand-point nodes."

"Enough to push the Lv.3 technology tree to light up most of the nodes." The pen in Lu Chen's hand stopped, "The problem lies in time."

He pointed to the schedule in the notebook.

"The auxiliary engine is expected to be exhausted between the seventy-third and seventy-fourth day. The main force of the Iron Hoof Legion will arrive at the Rustwind Wasteland as early as the seventy-first day."

"Two days difference." Lin Xiao's voice was very low.

"Two days difference."

"If the Iron Hoof Legion arrives on the seventy-first day, and The City-State engine isn't exhausted until the seventy-third, The City-State will still be running during those two days in between. I can't degrade a city that is still running."

"Then we wait for the engine to run out."

"If the Iron Hoof Legion launches an attack immediately after arriving on the seventy-first day, I won't even have the chance to wait."

Lin Xiao and Lu Chen looked at each other.

Zhou Yuan spoke up from the side.

"City Lord, the Iron Hoof Legion may not necessarily start a war immediately after arriving at the northern edge of the Rustwind Wasteland. Their standard operational procedure is to first send a vanguard battalion to establish a forward base, with the main force assembling in the rear, and then advance along the entire line. This assembly process takes three to five days."

"Three to five days."

"If they follow standard procedure, they arrive on the seventy-first day, and the full-scale advance only happens between the seventy-fourth and seventy-sixth day. The City-State engine runs out on the seventy-third day, leaving just a one-to-two-day window in between for degradation."

"Just right." Lu Chen wrote a line in the notebook, "A one-to-two-day window to degrade the remains of a Lv.4 City-State."

"How long does the degradation take?" Zhao Tiezhu asked.

"The last time we degraded the remains of Ice Thorn Lv.4, it took four to five hours, and that was in a fragmented state. A complete City-State wreck is larger in volume; conservatively estimated at six to eight hours."

"Six to eight hours completed within a one-to-two-day window—that's doable." Zhao Tiezhu said.

"That's assuming the Iron Hoof Legion follows standard procedure." Lu Chen looked at him, "If they don't follow standard procedure and just crush their way over, the window is zero."

"Then we won't get the thirty thousand points."

"We won't."

The Cockpit fell silent again.

The radar scan line on the panel rotated at a constant speed, and four dark red records in the signal log column were flashing.

"There is one more variable." Lu Chen spoke, breaking the silence.

All three of them looked at him.

"From the southern entrance of the Roaring Ice Abyss to the northern edge of the Rustwind Wasteland, the Iron Hoof Legion has to pass through the ice sheet no-man's-land. Is there anything in that area that could make them slow down or detour?"

Zhou Yuan thought for a few seconds in the co-pilot seat.

"We don't have much information on the terrain of the ice sheet no-man's-land, but according to previous trade route intelligence from the Winter Trade Alliance, there is a stretch of ice crevasse zone about sixty kilometers long in that area, with widths varying from two hundred to five hundred meters. It is estimated that a Lv.5 would need to take an extra day to detour around it."

"An extra day."

"If the Iron Hoof Legion chooses to detour around the ice crevasse zone, the arrival time would be pushed back from the seventy-first day to the seventy-second."

"Seventy-two versus seventy-three; we would have a window."

"But there is also a chance they will just crush right over it." Zhou Yuan added, "The chassis strength of a Lv.5 wonder-class is sufficient to crush over most ice crevasse zones."

"What is the risk of crushing over it?"

"If the ice crevasse zone is more than thirty meters deep, even a Lv.5 will get stuck and need time to extricate itself. But if the depth is between ten and twenty meters, the crusher can pass directly."

Lu Chen wrote a line in the notebook.

The depth of the ice crevasse zone determines whether the Iron Hoof Legion detours or crushes through. The depth is unknown.

"Lin Xiao, does your trade route intelligence have data on the depth of the ice crevasse zone?"

Lin Xiao shook his head.

"No, the routes the caravans took bypassed that area; no one has actually measured the depth."

"Does the Dawn Legion have it?"

"I didn't mention this when I asked the Forge." Zhou Yuan said.

Lu Chen looked at the line of text in the notebook and was silent for a few seconds.

"Zhou Yuan, send a communication to the Dawn Legion tonight and ask for the depth data of the ice crevasse zone. If they have it, have them send it over."

"Okay."

"This data will determine whether we have that two-day degradation window."

Lu Chen closed the notebook and looked out the window.

The rust color of the Rustwind Wasteland spread to the skyline in the gray-white light of the afternoon.

The wind was weak and did not stir up rust dust.

At the northern end of the skyline, nothing could be seen.

But in some unseen direction, a vast, immense steel legion was preparing to set out.