69: Chapter 69 High-Energy Fuel Conversion Machine Tested! Hunting Becomes Double the Profit

There were more things moving in the shadows than Lu Chen had anticipated.

Three mutated Iron-Spine Wolves emerged from the debris beneath the crane's skeleton, their sizes similar to the one killed yesterday.

But these three wolves did not charge immediately.

They fanned out, moving slowly and warily around the Polaris.

Six eyes stared fixedly at the searchlight's source.

A pack of intermediate wolves; they had tactical coordination.

Lu Chen unhurriedly locked the Heavy Machine Gun's crosshairs onto the front leg joint of the wolf on the far left.

Three intermediate Iron-Spine Wolves would have been a catastrophe if encountered in the Pale Shoals.

Before the Polaris in the Rustwind Wasteland, they were three sets of walking Truth Points.

But he didn't intend to use the Harpoon Cannon.

He only had two harpoons left; using them on three wolves was a waste.

Nor did he plan to use the Ray Cannon.

Three fully charged shots were reserved for truly tough nuts to crack.

He certainly didn't intend to use fragmentation grenades.

Fifty points for a round of area-of-effect firepower was too extravagant for three wolves.

The Heavy Machine Gun plus the Steam Spray Gun would suffice.

He pulled the trigger.

Rat-tat-tat-tat-tat-tat-tat-tat-tat-tat!

A ten-round burst accurately concentrated on the front leg joint of the wolf on the left.

Bullets struck sparks within the gaps of the joint's armor; the Iron-Spine Wolf let out a miserable howl, its front leg giving way as it knelt onto the ice.

The other two charged simultaneously.

One from the left and one from the right, they moved at extreme speed, attempting to approach the Polaris from both sides.

Lu Chen rotated the turret to the right. A fifteen-round burst hit the shoulder of the wolf on the right. Although it didn't pierce the thick scales, the dense impact force knocked its charge off course by over a meter.

A one-meter deviation was enough.

He pressed the switch for the right-side Steam Spray Gun.

Two-hundred-degree high-temperature steam hissed out from the right nozzle, forming a three-meter-wide barrier of scalding white mist.

The moment the Iron-Spine Wolf on the right lunged into the steam wall, it let out a shrill scream. Its scales heated up rapidly under the high temperature, and the soft tissues at its joints were scalded raw.

It tumbled out of the steam wall, twitching as it collapsed on the ice.

The third wolf on the left bypassed the area covered by steam and pounced from directly behind the Polaris.

Its claws gripped the rear armor, bone spurs scraping forcefully against the wedge-shaped modules of the sloped anti-ballistic outer plating.

The sound of metal grinding was ear-splitting, but those wedge surfaces, optimized for ballistics, gave the bone spurs no opening to breach.

Lu Chen pushed the control lever for the left mechanical arm all the way forward.

The eight-meter-long hydraulic mechanical arm shot out from the left side of the vehicle, its claw tracing an arc through the air to clamp onto the third wolf's nape.

The hydraulics tightened with full force.

Crack.

The sound of the cervical vertebrae snapping was exceptionally crisp in the cold wind.

The Iron-Spine Wolf's body went limp. It was dragged off the rear of the vehicle by the mechanical arm and tossed onto the ground.

From the moment he opened fire until all three wolves lost their combat capability, the entire process took less than forty seconds.

Lu Chen operated the two mechanical arms to process the three wolf carcasses in turn.

First, he extracted the beast cores.

Three intermediate beast cores—stones emitting a blue glow—were sent into the cabin.

Then, he butchered the meat.

The tender portions were cut into chunks and sent to the cold storage.

Finally, the highlight of the day.

Fat.

He used the mechanical arms to strip the large amounts of fatty tissue from the wolves' abdominal cavities one by one, slicing them into blocks and sending them into the cabin through the supply loading port.

The fat reserves of the three intermediate Iron-Spine Wolves were far more abundant than those of the low-level Icefield Wolves in the Pale Shoals, totaling dozens of catties.

"Lin Wan, throw all the fat into the cracking furnace."

"Okay."

Lin Wan tossed the yellowish-white blocks of fat one by one into the feed hopper at the top of the High-Energy Fuel Converter.

The internal temperature of the cracking furnace climbed rapidly, and a hissing sound of hot air came from the inlet pipe.

Thirty seconds later, the exhaust pipe began emitting pale gray fumes.

A minute later, the first drop of liquid flowed out of the oil pipe at the bottom.

The dark brown liquid flowed slowly along the oil pipe into the boiler's auxiliary fuel inlet.

low-grade diesel.

It was crude and full of impurities, but it could burn.

Lu Chen watched the auxiliary fuel reserve indicator for the boiler on the holographic panel slowly rise from zero.

Dozens of catties of Mutant Beast fat had cracked into nearly two liters of low-grade diesel.

It wasn't much, but it was essentially free.

Things that used to be thrown away after a hunt had now become tangible fuel reserves.

"City Lord, the cracking is complete,"

Lin Wan reported.

"Mhm."

He glanced over the total harvest for the day.

Six intermediate coal crystals.

Three intermediate beast cores.

Two liters of low-grade diesel.

A large quantity of meat chunks had been stored.

And there was one more important thing.

He checked the scanning results of the three beast cores on the holographic panel.

The bonus effect of the High-Energy Fuel Converter had taken effect; beast cores would now grant an additional 30% Truth Points yield during conversion.

A beast core originally worth 300 points was now worth 390.

This bonus was long-term and permanent.

As long as the High-Energy Fuel Converter was running, all beast cores obtained through hunting would benefit from this buff.

Lu Chen's tense face relaxed slightly.

From now on, every beast killed was equivalent to killing 1.3 beasts.

Time was Truth Points; the hunting grounds were a gold mine.

He had made the right choice coming to the Rustwind Wasteland.