34: Chapter 34: All four branches are maxed out! Advancement and evolution are imminent!

[Infrastructure Armor Lv1 (Top Core): Modular Reinforced Chassis]

Lu Chen stared at this line of gray text on the light screen.

As early as the first time he saw this name, he was certain that this thing was the foundation for the Polaris's rank up.

No matter how thick the armor or how fierce the weapons, if the chassis couldn't support it, everything would be a castle in the air.

[Node Description: Conducts a comprehensive structural recasting of the vehicle's chassis. Replaces the original civilian chassis frame with a system-grade alloy skeleton, significantly increasing the vehicle's load-bearing limit and structural rigidity. The chassis reserves standardized modular interfaces, allowing for seamless expansion of the vehicle structure during higher-order evolution.]

[Unlock Cost: 400 Truth Points.]

"Four hundred points. Unlock."

Lu Chen's tone was as casual as ordering from a menu.

[Ding! 400 Truth Points deducted. Infrastructure Armor Lv1 (Top Core): Modular Reinforced Chassis, unlocked successfully!]

[Preconditions met, the Infrastructure Armor Lv1 branch has been completely maxed out!]

[Current Truth Points balance: 1,500 points.]

The scale of this modification was incomparable to all the previous upgrades combined.

Because this time, the bones were being moved.

The bones of the Polaris.

Bang!

The entire vehicle bounced upward violently, then crashed heavily back onto the ice.

Lin Wan failed to keep her seat and slid directly off the tin chair, falling onto the metal floor where heating pipes had just been laid.

"City Lord! Was that an earthquake?!"

"Not an earthquake. Don't panic. Stay on the floor and don't move."

Lu Chen gripped the handles of the dashboard firmly with both hands, his gaze fixed on the ground beneath his feet.

Eerie blue light burst frantically from every crack in the floor.

That light was all directed downward, burrowing madly into the ground.

The entire chassis of the Polaris was undergoing a violent physical reorganization.

The original civilian-grade, low-quality steel frames were being dismantled and pulled away one by one within the system's high-dimensional force field.

Following closely behind to replace them was an alloy skeleton with a deeper color and significantly higher density.

The cross-sections of these skeletons presented a honeycomb-like hexagonal structure, which kept the weight to a minimum while ensuring ultra-high strength.

What satisfied Lu Chen the most were the subtle vibrations coming from under his feet. The sensory feedback indicated that the new skeleton had reserved a large number of standardized bolt interfaces at key stress nodes.

Those were for future expansions of the vehicle body.

Modularization.

This word was a fundamental concept in the industrial field of his past life.

But in this wasteland world where technology had been severed for over a hundred years, only system-level power could achieve modular reservations with such precision.

The modification lasted for nearly half a minute.

When the last alloy longitudinal beam clicked into the load-bearing node at the rear, a 'clack'—a heavy and steady sound of metal engaging—came from beneath the vehicle.

The body of the Polaris stopped trembling.

But Lu Chen captured a change.

The height of the vehicle body had decreased by about five centimeters.

That was settling.

The load-bearing capacity of the new chassis far exceeded the old skeleton, but it was also increasingly compact. The suspension system was recalibrated, and the center of gravity was lowered.

He tentatively stepped on the accelerator.

The moment the tracks turned, a sense of solidity like never before spread from the soles of his feet through his entire body.

Before, even with ten centimeters of scrap steel armor added, the Polaris would always have a slight wobble when driving at high speeds. That was the inevitable consequence of a civilian chassis operating under overload.

Now, that wobble had completely vanished.

"City Lord, did the vehicle get a bit shorter?" Lin Wan climbed up from the floor, leaning against the wall to adapt to the changes beneath her feet.

"The center of gravity has been lowered. The chassis has been replaced." Lu Chen let go of the accelerator and leaned back against the chair.

"Replaced with what?"

"Replaced with a foundation that can withstand a much larger vehicle body."

Lin Wan's mouth opened slightly, but no sound came out.

A larger vehicle body.

These few words made her head buzz.

Three branches completed.

Lu Chen looked at the dazzling golden marks at the top of the three branches on the light screen, his obsessive-compulsive disorder receiving unprecedented comfort.

But there was still one more.

The last one.

His gaze turned to the top of the Ecological Logistics branch.

That was the last gray node on the entire technology tree, and the final threshold for maxing out the four branches to trigger the city's rank up and evolution.

[Ecological Logistics Lv1 (Top Core): Miniature Internal Circulation Ecological Pod]

[Node Description: Generates a completely closed primary ecological circulation system inside the vehicle. Includes miniature air purification and oxygen regeneration modules, along with a condensed water recovery device. Achieves primary self-sufficiency for water and air inside the cabin. In a fully sealed state, it can maintain the basic breathing and drinking needs of two crew members.]

[Unlock Cost: 400 Truth Points.]

"The final four hundred points."

Lu Chen muttered the number.

One thousand four hundred Truth Points.

Four top cores.

All of them, in one go, would be maxed out today.

"Lin Wan."

"Present!"

"You asked me before how big the Polaris can become."

Lu Chen turned his head to look at her, the two clusters of eerie fire in his eyes burning more intensely than the flames in the boiler.

"The answer is about to be revealed."

"System, invest four hundred Truth Points. Light up the Ecological Logistics Lv1 top core."

[Ding! 400 Truth Points deducted.]

[Ecological Logistics Lv1 (Top Core): Miniature Internal Circulation Ecological Pod, unlocked successfully!]

[Preconditions met, the Ecological Logistics Lv1 branch has been completely maxed out!]

Lu Chen's nose captured that the air in the cabin had undergone some essential change at that moment.

In the space beside the boiler, a set of exquisite metal devices poked their heads out from the interlayer.

It was a set of closely arranged filter membranes and catalytic grids, connected to the condensation circuit of the snow-melting water purifier through a pipe.

The fan of the air purification module began to run at a very low speed, making a faint humming sound.

From this moment on, every breath of air in the cabin was being cyclically filtered, and every drop of exhaled water vapor was being recovered and condensed.

The Polaris had transformed from a tin box passively dependent on external resources into a living entity capable of self-breathing.

But none of that mattered anymore.

Because in the next second, a system prompt written in the most eye-catching large golden characters popped up on the holographic panel.

[Ding! Detection complete!]

[Lv.1 Miniature Snow Fortress's four major technology branches, sixteen nodes (including four top cores), have all been lit up!]

[Preconditions fully met!]

[City rank up and evolution has been unlocked!]

[Current Truth Points balance: 1,100 points.]

[Execute immediately: Lv.1 Miniature Snow Fortress → Lv.2 Camp-level Mobile City rank up and evolution?]

Lu Chen stared at that line of text, his chest heaving several times.

The entire technology tree on the light screen burst into a brilliant golden glow, with the four branches from bottom to top, every node shining as bright as a star.

Perfect.

Flawless perfection.

The four branches were at full completion.

His bone-deep obsessive-compulsive disorder received the most extreme satisfaction of his life at this moment.

"City Lord? City Lord, what's wrong with you? You look so scary..." Lin Wan asked in a low voice, looking at Lu Chen's expression, which was so frenzied it was frightening.

Lu Chen did not answer her.

He only said one word.

"Execute."