28: Chapter 28 Five Days to Get a Thousand Points Richer! A Huge Guy Arrives at the End of the Horizon

For five whole days, the Pale Shoals witnessed a one-sided massacre.

A miniature tracked vehicle, clad in rugged scrap steel armor and equipped with an ice-breaking ram on its nose, became a terrifying black ghost on this desolate snowy plain.

On a gentle icy slope, a pack of low-tier Mutated Icefield Wolves tearing at human corpses didn't even have time to sound an alarm.

Pure steel crossbow bolts whistling from hundreds of meters away pinned them to the ice.

The semi-automatic aiming assistance of the mechanical gear fire control console allowed Lu Chen's accuracy to reach a freakish one hundred percent.

His right hand didn't even need to leave the joystick; with a light pull of the trigger, the Repeating Crossbow could complete a perfect cycle of chambering, firing, and re-chambering within two seconds.

Beside a deeply hidden glacial crevice, a massive low-tier Mutated Snow Bear was attempting to ambush the Polaris.

But as soon as it got within three meters of the hull—before it could even touch the thick armor—two-hundred-degree high-heat steam erupting from all directions instantly scalded it blind.

Subsequently, a cold crossbow bolt pierced its throat.

During these five days, the Polaris transformed into a tireless harvester, frantically plowing through every corner of the Pale Shoals.

Lu Chen's bone-deep hoarding habit was satisfied like never before during this great sweep.

Inside the spring-warm cabin of the Polaris, an extreme and eerie wasteland daily aesthetic was on display.

In the constant twenty-degree air, an extremely comfortable atmosphere of life lingered.

The Primary Efficiency Boiler emitted a steady hum.

In the collection tray beside the boiler, the snow-melting water purifier made crisp dripping sounds, ceaselessly producing pure water more precious than gold in this world.

Lu Chen stood before the once-empty inner wall of the cabin, feeling immensely satisfied.

This place had been forcibly transformed by him into a treasure vault overflowing with supplies.

The natural ultra-low temperature freezer, which sat flush against the freezing outer iron skin, had its panel completely removed and replaced with an iron door featuring a transparent observation window.

Through the observation window, one could see top-quality meats packed tightly inside.

There was marbled shoulder meat from Snow Bears and the tenderest hind legs from Icefield Wolves.

These meats had been cut by Lu Chen into rectangular blocks of identical size, stacked with the precision of a mason, perfectly symmetrical to the point of obsession.

And it wasn't just meat.

On the other side of the boiler, the already substantial coal bin had been doubled in size, neatly stacked with dozens of pieces of low-grade sourcefire coal crystal emitting a faint red glow.

The dust on the surface of every coal crystal had been wiped clean.

These were fuel reserves he had conveniently dug up from shallow surface veins while hunting down prey.

Lu Chen nodded with satisfaction.

Food in hand, coal in the bin, and ammunition in the barrels.

For someone suffering from 'insufficient firepower phobia,' this was more practical than any grand rhetoric.

In a corner, Lin Wan was kneeling before the Simple Soilless Cultivation Box that emitted a purple glow.

Her current appearance, if placed in a medium-sized Mobile City, would surely see her mistaken for a noble; her cheeks were rosy, and even her once-sunken face had filled out.

On this dog-eat-dog wasteland, being able to eat fresh vegetables stewed with premium beast meat for five consecutive days was treatment fit for a god.

“City Lord! Look!”

Lin Wan pointed at the inside of the box in pleasant surprise.

On that layer of grayish-brown nutrient substrate, the cabbage roots that had been mostly cut away were actually showing signs of life again.

Under the perfect constant temperature, nourishment from pure water, and simulated UV light, two tender, bright green new leaves had fully unfurled.

In five days, the second crop of cabbage grew as scheduled.

“Growing well. Keep up the water supply.”

Lu Chen only gave it a casual glance.

He had long since placed absolute trust in the system's ecological technology.

His gaze fell more on the crowded twenty-square-meter cabin.

With more and more supplies, the cultivation box also needed to be expanded to plant those precious A-grade seeds.

The internal space of the Polaris had reached its physical limit.

Just one last step.

Lu Chen turned his head to look at the holographic panel.

During these five days of frantic sweeping, he had killed over a dozen low-tier Mutant Beasts and one ordinary mid-tier Mutant Beast.

Combined with the scattered coal crystals he had scavenged, his Truth Points balance had unknowingly climbed to a staggering figure.

One thousand points.

He was only four hundred points short of the total needed to max out all the top core nodes and advance to Lv.2.

Today, he had to make up that gap.

Lu Chen reached out and took down his overcoat hanging by the door.

Those deep black eyes showed no fatigue from days of slaughter; instead, they burned with the fervor of someone about to reach the summit.

Just as he turned to grip the fire control joystick again to start a new day of sweeping...

Vroom... Boom... Vroom... Boom...

A dull vibration that resonated deep in the bones came from far outside the window.

That rhythmic frequency even seemed to drive the pulse of the earth.

Lightweight Mutant Beasts like Icefield Wolves couldn't make such a noise, nor could reckless beasts like the Ice-Armored Rhino; only the engagement of heavy mechanical gears and the crushing of the earth by ten-thousand-ton tracks could produce such industrial thunder.

Lu Chen's facial muscles tensed.

He grabbed his tactical binoculars, strode to the bulletproof glass, and aimed the lens toward the direction of the sound.

As his vision pierced the thin wind and snow to see the behemoth slowly moving on the horizon, even someone as calm as Lu Chen couldn't help but hold his breath for half a second.

“This... this is a real wasteland giant.”

Lu Chen muttered to himself.