65: Chapter 65: Four Intermediate Beasts Clear the Area! Two Thousand Points in Hand!

Over the next three hours, Lu Chen drove the Polaris through the factory ruins, conducting a systematic purge.

The second target was a subspecies of the Mutated Iron Iguana.

Its body was one-third smaller than the first one, and its scale armor's hardness was a grade lower.

Lu Chen used the Heavy Machine Gun to fire a twenty-round burst, shattering the joints of its two front legs.

He controlled the mechanical arm to pin it to the ground and forcibly extracted that crystalline beast core.

The system provided scan feedback.

Target identified as an intermediate beast core, medium quality, with a conversion value of 280 Truth Points.

The third target was a new species Lu Chen was seeing for the first time; there were no records of it in previous archives.

It was a Mutated Armored Spider covered in rust-colored carapace.

It had eight long, slender legs, each ending in a sharp metal spike.

Its size wasn't exaggerated—about the size of an ordinary SUV—but it moved extremely fast.

Using the ruins as cover, it leaped from the ceiling of a collapsed factory building and landed on the Polaris's roof armor.

The spikes on its eight legs scratched against the surface of the wedge-shaped modules of the angled anti-ballistic outer armor, creating a series of rapid sparks and a piercing screech of metal friction.

Lu Chen stared at the holographic panel, his fingers steady on the control lever.

The wedge surfaces, with their precisely calculated angles, left the monster's spikes with no leverage point at all; all attacks slid off to the side.

He didn't waste any ammo and pressed the control button for the Four-Corner Steam Nozzles.

Two-hundred-degree high-temperature steam roared out from the roof nozzles.

Scalding white mist enveloped the Armored Spider clinging to the armor.

In less than three seconds, dense cracking sounds came from the Armored Spider's joints.

It was physical cracking caused by the contraction of the metallic carapace under extreme temperature differences.

The Armored Spider tumbled off the roof, twitched a few times on the ground, and died.

The mechanical arm extracted the beast core from its abdomen.

The system evaluated this intermediate beast core's quality as low-medium, with a conversion value of 150 Truth Points.

The fourth target was a burly Mutated Iron-Spine Wolf.

This monster was more than twice the size of the Icefield Wolves from the Pale Shoals, with a row of iron-gray bone spikes standing along its spine.

When it ran, those bone spikes produced a low-pitched howl in the wind.

Lu Chen first used a thirty-round burst from the Heavy Machine Gun to block its path, then a Harpoon Cannon shot pierced its chest cavity.

The delay fuse detonated inside the Iron-Spine Wolf, the impact destroying its internal organs.

This wolf's beast core quality was unexpectedly high.

The system scan identified it as an intermediate beast core of high quality, with a conversion value as high as 480 Truth Points.

After clearing these four intermediate Mutant Beasts, Lu Chen drove the Polaris out of the depths of the ruins and parked on a relatively open patch of hard ice.

From the driver's seat, he calculated the gains from this trip.

The four intermediate beast cores were worth 350, 280, 150, and 480 points respectively, totaling 1,260 Truth Points.

Plus the 500 Truth Points provided by the ten intermediate coal crystals.

Factoring in the original 250-point balance in his account, along with two primary beast cores worth about 50 points that hadn't been converted yet.

The total amount of Truth Points reached 2,060.

Out of habit, Lu Chen deducted the cost of today's consumed supplies.

The Heavy Machine Gun used about 70 rounds of ammunition, equivalent to 7 Truth Points.

Two harpoons were consumed, with a recasting cost of 20 points.

After deducting these two expenses, the actual disposable amount was 2,033 points.

Looking at this number, Lu Chen let out a breath.

"System, perform high-dimensional degradation and conversion on the four existing intermediate beast cores, ten intermediate source-fire coal crystals, and two primary beast cores."

A faint blue light lit up on the dashboard.

The stacked materials vanished silently in the glow.

The system popped up the final statistics board.

Degradation complete.

This conversion yielded a total of 1,810 Truth Points.

Current net account balance is 2,033 points.

Lu Chen spent 27 Truth Points to replenish the Heavy Machine Gun ammunition and Harpoon Cannon reserves.

Standard caliber ammunition returned to 385 rounds.

Armor-Piercing Explosive Harpoon reserves returned to 2.

He leaned back in the comfortable driver's seat, staring at the flashing golden number.

The account balance showed 2,033 points.

A reserve of two thousand points was already enough to unlock two core technology nodes.

"City Lord, are we heading back to the Black Rock City-State?"

Lin Wan's voice came from the Planting Area in the back.

"Going back."

Lu Chen turned the steering wheel with one hand.

The Polaris's heavy tracks crushed the grayish-brown ice, and with the steady roar of the engine, it headed south at full speed for the return trip.

The interior of the vehicle still maintained a constant temperature of twenty degrees.

Outside the window, the rust-colored dust rose and fell in the wind.

His fingers tapped rhythmically on the control lever.

Two thousand Truth Points.

This huge sum was enough to let the Polaris evolve once again.

He had already narrowed down the top-priority new technologies.