251: Chapter 251 Iron Hoof Peeks Out and Takes Frenzied Photos! Lu Chen Closes His Eyes and Waits for Dawn

Day 74, 1:03 AM.

Cockpit.

The final Degradation of the rear section had completely finished.

A prompt popped up on the panel.

Degradation complete. All 440 meters of Black Rock City-State's rear section have been converted.

Lu Chen glanced at his balance.

287.

From unlocking the Railway Gun at 12:11 AM until now, the last few dozen meters of the rear section had yielded a total of 284 points.

It wasn't much. But that final stretch was the area immediately adjacent to the Ninth Framework; it had high structural density but low volume, so the output was naturally limited.

The real prize was the front half.

15,000 to 18,000.

"City Lord," Zhou Yuan spoke from in front of the panel, "Degradation of the rear section is complete. Only the 360-meter front half of The City-State remains standing independently now."

"Master Wu Bingde," Lu Chen called out.

The old man in the corner responded, his voice dry, "Here."

"What's the status of the front half?"

"It's fine." Master Wu Bingde stepped forward a couple of paces and rubbed his numb knees. "The diagonal braces have been driven in, giving us a safety factor of 1.6. Now that the rear section is gone, the front half is an independent body, which actually makes the load-bearing structure simpler. As long as no one fires a cannon at it, it won't collapse for ten days or so."

"Good." Lu Chen turned his gaze back to the panel.

Lin Xiao's communication cut in.

"City Lord. As of 1:00 AM, the evacuation progress for the front half has about 800 people remaining, all queuing in the Main Channel. It's estimated we'll be clear by 1:30 AM."

"1:30 AM." Lu Chen noted the time. "Report to me the moment it's cleared."

"Understood."

"Lin Xiao."

"Present."

"Once the front half of The City-State is cleared of people, you will be the last one out. After you exit, seal all entrances and exits of the front half completely."

"The same procedure as the rear section?"

"The same procedure." Lu Chen spoke plainly, "Once sealed, the front half is just a hunk of iron waiting to be eaten."

"Understood."

The communication cut off.

"City Lord," Lin Wan's voice came from the side.

"Speak."

"Now that the rear section's Degradation is finished, when does the front half begin?"

"As soon as the people are evacuated." Lu Chen glanced at the clock. "Clearance at 1:30 AM, seal at 2:00 AM, and begin Degradation of the front half at 2:10 AM."

"It's 360 meters; how long will Degradation take?"

Lu Chen ran the numbers in his head. The 440-meter rear section took three hours and forty-seven minutes. The front half's structure was denser, but its volume was nearly twenty percent smaller.

"About three hours," he gave an estimate. "Start at 2:00 AM, finish at 5:00 AM. By 5:00 AM, we'll have 15,000 points in hand."

Lin Wan quickly noted it down in her ledger.

"5:00 AM," she calculated. "Before dawn."

"Before dawn." Lu Chen tapped his knuckles twice on the table. "Once the front half's Degradation is complete, I can exchange for over 300 rounds of Railway Gun ammunition. The Phalanx CIWS interception count will be pushed to over 15,000. Even if Iron Hoof rushes us with a hundred lv.3 fortresses, they'll just break their teeth."

"Cheng Zheng." Lu Chen pressed the direct communication button.

"Here." Cheng Zheng's voice betrayed the exhaustion of someone who hadn't slept.

"After the test fire, have the Probes made any new moves?"

"Yes," Cheng Zheng replied. "The first transmission after the test fire was seven seconds later, lasting 0.4 seconds."

He compared the timeline.

"After that, there were transmissions at 12:52 AM and 12:58 AM, lasting 0.3 seconds and 0.6 seconds respectively. With three transmissions, the intervals are getting tighter, and the last one was the longest."

"Three times." Lu Chen chewed over the data. "Increasing frequency indicates the Iron Hoof main force is urging the Probes to supplement information."

"Correct," Cheng Zheng followed up. "The first was an automatic trigger; the Probe detected abnormal visuals and transmitted automatically. The subsequent two were active scanning commands issued by the main force, requiring the Probe to take follow-up shots of specific targets."

"Follow-up shots of what?"

"Most likely Polaris," Cheng Zheng analyzed. "The first shot captured the trajectory; for the second and third, Iron Hoof needed to confirm where this gun is mounted."

Cheng Zheng flipped through the data panel.

"The Probe is eight kilometers away, and the optical sensor's resolution is limited at night. But if it has infrared imaging capabilities, the heat signature from the Railway Gun firing is enough for it to locate the turret."

"If they locate it, they locate it." Lu Chen didn't take it to heart. "Letting Iron Hoof know Polaris has a gun was the goal all along."

"City Lord Lu..." Cheng Zheng hesitated.

"Speak."

"If Iron Hoof deems Polaris a high-threat target, there's no guarantee they won't prioritize their main guns toward Polaris instead of The City-State during the first round of strikes after Base Building is complete."

"The City-State won't exist anymore," Lu Chen added, his tone unchanged.

There was two seconds of silence on the other end.

"Won't exist?"

"The rear section just finished Degradation, and the front half begins in two hours. By the time Iron Hoof finishes Base Building and is ready to act, not a single wire of The City-State will be left."

Cheng Zheng was silent for several seconds on the other end.

"If The City-State is gone, Iron Hoof's guns can only smash into Polaris."

"Let them smash." Lu Chen laid out the accounts. "Reactive Explosive Armor is immune to Lv.3 and below armor-piercing rounds, and it reduces Lv.4 penetration depth by over sixty percent."

He paused for half a second, continuing his calculations.

"Iron Hoof's four Lv.4 city-states have main gun calibers of 180mm, with penetration around 400 to 500mm. After a sixty percent reduction, the actual penetration is less than 200mm."

Lu Chen's finger tapped the table.

"Polaris's outer armor combined with angled ballistics has an equivalent thickness of over 300mm."

"It can hold."

"It can hold," Lu Chen nailed down the conclusion. "The only thing that can threaten Polaris is the crusher's 300mm main gun. But if the crusher dares to close within its 25-kilometer firing range, my Railway Gun can strike it first at 38 kilometers."

"Range suppression." Cheng Zheng chewed over these words.

"Exactly." Lu Chen set the communicator back on the table. "The crusher crushes everything, but the crusher's gun can't reach me. My gun can reach it. That is the trump card."

The communication cut off.

Lin Wan finished recording the last line and closed her notebook.

"City Lord."

"Speak."

"You should sleep."

Lu Chen glanced at her.

"Degradation of the front half starts at 2:00 AM and finishes at 5:00 AM. During these three hours, the Degradation is automatic; I don't need to watch it."

"Then sleep for those three hours." Lin Wan blocked his path. "Zhou Yuan is on duty watching the radar, and Zhao Tiezhu is watching fire control. You have fifty minutes between now and 2:00 AM. Recline your seat and close your eyes."

Lu Chen glanced at the panel.

The Probe signal to the north was unchanged. The six light points to the south were unchanged.

A balance of 287—neither here nor there.

800 people were still evacuating the front half, expected to be clear by 1:30 AM.

Fifty minutes.

"Fine." He tilted his seat back three centimeters. "Wake me at 1:25 AM."

"1:25 AM," Lin Wan acknowledged. She turned toward the corner of the console and took away the cold cup of milk.

Lu Chen closed his eyes.

Beneath his feet, Polaris's engine maintained a low-frequency pulse at idle.

At the rear of the roof, a brand-new electromagnetic acceleration railway gun turret pointed silently toward the north.

Thirty-two stage coils. 2,400 meters per second. 38 kilometers. 1,200 millimeters.

He relaxed his facial muscles in the darkness.

He fell asleep.