47: Chapter 47 My brother is blocking the door! This beat-up car is more comfortable than the city-state!

The laughter on the radio vanished.

Restrained anger seeped from the depths of his throat, low and dense.

"Those three dogs... are dead?"

Lin Wan gripped the microphone tightly.

"City Lord Lu Chen killed them all on the spot, one arrow for each."

"Later, the Snow Shard Gang sent two Lv.2 Camp-level Battle Vehicles for revenge, but they were also completely wiped out by City Lord Lu Chen."

Silence reigned on the other end of the radio for several seconds.

"Two Lv.2s?"

Lin Xiao's voice was full of surprise.

"You're saying he, one man and one car, took out two of the Snow Shard Gang's Lv.2 Camp-level Battle Vehicles?"

"Yes, brother."

Lin Wan emphasized every word.

"I saw it with my own eyes. He took 75mm shells head-on without his defense breaking, and then he destroyed both vehicles in retaliation."

The radio went silent once more.

This pause lasted for a full five seconds.

Then Lin Xiao let out a sharp laugh.

"Interesting, truly interesting."

There was a hint of admiration and a hint of scrutiny in his laughter.

"That City Lord Lu Chen of yours is quite a ruthless character."

"But Xiao Wan, I have to ask you something."

"What is it?"

"When do you plan on coming back?"

Lin Wan's fingers tightened around the microphone.

Lu Chen sat in the driver's seat; he didn't turn his head, but his ears were listening.

"Brother, over at The City-State... how is the Group Leader doing?"

"The Group Leader is doing great. He's a Standing Committee Member of the Council now."

Lin Xiao's tone relaxed.

"The idiots from the Military Affairs Faction were suppressed by the Group Leader and me working together."

"The City-State's resource allocation plan has been changed. The Ecological Restoration Research Group has received the highest priority funding."

"We're just waiting for you and the seed vault to return."

"Do you know what that seed vault means to The City-State? It's the food security of thirty thousand people, Xiao Wan."

Lin Wan bit her lower lip, glancing down at the cultivation box glowing with soft UV light by her feet, then turned her gaze toward the expressionless Lu Chen sitting in front.

"Brother, I..."

She kept her voice very low.

"I don't really want to go back."

The sound of breathing on the other end of the radio stopped abruptly.

"What did you say?"

"I said, I don't want to return to Black Rock City-State."

Lin Wan's fingers gripped the microphone so hard that the veins on the back of her hand bulged.

She enunciated every word clearly.

"City Lord Lu Chen has given me a very good environment."

"There's a constant-temperature cabin, soilless cultivation boxes, and pure water."

"I've already planted six boxes of crops: winter wheat, sweet potatoes, carrots, cabbage, and potatoes."

"They are all growing normally."

A sharp intake of breath came from the radio.

"Six boxes?"

Lin Xiao raised his voice.

"You've planted six boxes of crops inside a single vehicle?"

"Yes, brother."

Lin Wan unconsciously straightened her back.

Entering her professional field as a Botanist, her voice became decisive and crisp.

Lu Chen leaned against the back of his seat, listening as Lin Wan reported the conditions inside the vehicle one by one without stopping her.

This was agricultural data; being transparent was far more cost-effective than deliberate concealment.

"The internal temperature of this vehicle is constant at twenty degrees Celsius."

"It has a Thermal Bridge Insulation System and Centralized Heating Pipes."

"An independent snow-melting water purifier provides pure water."

"A Micro-Internal Circulation Ecological Pod handles primary air purification and the water-oxygen cycle."

"Six Simple Soilless Cultivation Boxes are equipped with UV light sources and nutrient substrates, capable of simulating a complete plant growth environment."

She spoke faster and faster.

"Winter wheat harvests every forty days, and cabbage every seventy-two hours."

"In two months, we will be completely self-sufficient in food."

"Combined with the Mutant Beast meat reserves in the cold storage, eating for a year won't be a problem."

After saying all this, she added another sentence.

"And there are only two people here. It's very quiet, there's no factional infighting, and no one is coming to steal the seed vault."

"I can focus on my research."

The other end of the radio was silent for a long time, so long that Lin Wan thought the connection had been cut.

"Brother?"

"I'm here."

Lin Xiao's voice sounded again.

This time, Lin Xiao wasn't laughing or angry.

He lowered his tone, sounding entirely like a brother who was helpless against his younger sister.

"Twenty degrees constant?"

"Yes."

"Unlimited supply of pure water?"

"Yes."

"Six cultivation boxes?"

"Yes."

"Cold storage fully loaded, no worries for a year?"

"Yes."

Another few seconds of silence.

Then that boisterous laughter surged out from the radio again.

"Hahahaha!"

This bout of laughter was more exaggerated than the previous two; it was the first time in his life he had heard something so interesting.

"Good grief! Good grief!"

Lin Xiao laughed until he was out of breath.

"No wonder you don't want to come back!"

"Twenty degrees constant? My City-State's core living area only manages eighteen!"

"Six cultivation boxes? My City-State's agricultural equipment failure rate is as high as thirty percent!"

"A Lv.2 camp vehicle has better conditions than my Lv.4 City-State?"

"This kid named Lu Chen, what exactly is his background?"

Lu Chen sat in the driver's seat listening to the laughter from the radio. His expression remained normal, but his eyelid twitched slightly.

This Lin Xiao might be a rough and boisterous City Lord, but he was meticulous under the surface.

That string of questions just now, though phrased as banter, was actually an assessment of Polaris's true strength through Lin Wan's descriptions.

Anyone who could achieve this level of configuration in a Lv.2 vehicle either had extraordinary technical means behind them or had a special origin themselves.

In either case, it was worth taking seriously.

After Lin Xiao had laughed his fill, his voice came through the radio again.

"Fine, if you don't want to come back, then don't."

"But Xiao Wan, I have to see for myself how well you're actually living."

"Just hearing you say it doesn't count."

He paused.

"Brother Lu Chen, are you still there?"

Lu Chen reached out to take the microphone from Lin Wan and pressed the talk button.

"I'm here."

"Brother, I have a proposal."

Lin Xiao adopted the steady bearing a City Lord should have.

"Drive your vehicle into my city."

"I guarantee your vehicle's safety and your personal safety; not a single hair on your head will be touched."

"Let's sit down face-to-face and have a chat."

"You saved my sister and took out those Snow Shard Gang people."

"Based on those two things alone, you are a friend of Black Rock City-State."

"Between friends, sitting down for a cup of hot water isn't too much to ask, is it?"

Lu Chen didn't speak immediately, his finger tapping twice on the microphone.

Entering the interior of a Lv.4 City-State-Level Mobile City meant being completely under the other party's fire coverage.

If something went wrong, Polaris wouldn't even have a chance to start its engine.

But looking at it another way, if Lin Xiao really wanted to act, with the sheer mass of a Lv.4 City-State, he didn't need to invite him inside.

He could just send twenty battle vehicles to surround him.

Furthermore, Lin Wan was still on board.

Lu Chen released the talk button and looked at Lin Wan.

"What do you think?"

"My brother won't hurt me."

Lin Wan's answer was crisp and direct.

"He has a short temper and a big mouth, but he's always good to his own people."

Lu Chen nodded and pressed the talk button again.

"Alright. Give me the coordinates for the entry bay."

"Haha! Straightforward!"

Lin Xiao's laughter rang out again.

"Go straight west. When you see that open armored door at the bottom, just drive right in."

"I'll be waiting for you inside."

The communication ended.

Lu Chen hung the microphone back in its place and gripped the steering wheel with both hands.

The engine shifted from idling to medium power, and the tracks began to accelerate over the ice.

Polaris turned its nose.

Its forged manganese steel ram pointed straight at the sky-blocking steel giant city to the west.

The twenty-meter-long Lv.2 camp-level Mobile City drove toward the eight-hundred-meter-long Lv.4 City-State-Level Mobile City.

Like a small fish just over twenty meters long, swimming straight into the mouth of an eight-hundred-meter whale.