92: Chapter 92: All the wreckage was eaten! 11,000 points credited.

The Polaris sat idling in the center of the devastated battlefield.

The final pale blue glow of decomposition dissipated into the twilight.

Lu Chen reviewed the final statistics on the holographic panel.

Total Decomposition Income: 8,306 Truth Points.

Total Consumption: 318 Truth Points.

Net Income: 7,988 Truth Points.

Pre-battle Balance: 3,052 points.

Current Total Balance: 11,040 points.

Eleven thousand and forty.

He stared at the number for two seconds.

Thirty-three days had passed since he transmigrated to the wasteland ice plains of Blue Star.

His Truth Points account had started with thirty points from six coal crystals. After countless hunts, battles, trades, and decompositions, it had finally exceeded ten thousand.

Eleven thousand.

Enough to light up at least two top-tier core nodes costing four thousand points each.

Enough to allow the Polaris to undergo two more qualitative leaps.

But now was not the time to spend points recklessly.

Black Rock City-State was facing a threat from a full-strength North Ice Group.

One Lv.4 and two Lv.3 fortresses were creeping up from behind, possessing stealth capabilities that completely bypassed radar detection.

This intelligence gap was far more dangerous than a charge of forty chariots.

“Lin Wan, are your vegetables doing okay?”

“Two Cabbage roots fell over but I've propped them back up. The watermelon seedlings are fine, and the strawberries are safe.”

“Good.”

He switched the communicator to Lin Xiao’s frequency.

“City Lord Lin Xiao.”

“I'm here. Finished the fight?”

“Finished. The Ice-Rift Swarm is wiped out, including the nine vehicles that merged from the Icebreaker Swarm. White Bone is dead.”

There was a beat of silence on the other end of the communicator.

“Brother Lu Chen, you took out nearly forty vehicles by yourself today.”

“Zhao Tiezhu and the patrol cars took out five.”

“That’s still thirty-five vehicles.”

“The wreckage has all been decomposed.”

Lin Xiao didn't press further.

“Business.”

“What's the situation with Ice Thorn?”

“Six minutes left on his fifteen-minute countdown,” Lin Xiao’s voice turned somber. “All one hundred and twenty cannons have turned toward the southwest. Zhou Yuan is at headquarters coordinating the defensive deployment.”

“The iron wall and I are heading back to defend at full speed now.”

“The iron wall’s speed is twenty-five. It's fifty kilometers from the buffer zone to The City-State; that's two hours.”

“Too slow.”

“What about you?”

“The Polaris is cruising at sixty kilometers per hour. I'll reach The City-State in about forty minutes.”

“Forty minutes.”

Lin Xiao paused for a second.

“My one hundred and twenty cannons can fire before Ice Thorn knocks on the door. I can hold out through the first wave of contact.”

“For an hour?”

“An hour is no problem. If Ice Thorn really uses a City-Piercing Ram on the armored gates, a volley from one hundred and twenty cannons can blast a hole in his main city walls before he gets close.”

“Ice Thorn has stealth capabilities; there's no telling what else he has up his sleeve.”

Lin Xiao fell silent for two seconds.

“I know.”

“I'll get there as fast as I can.”

“Mm.”

The communicator switched to Zhao Tiezhu.

“Battalion Commander Zhao, the iron wall is beginning its return for defense.”

“We're already moving,” Zhao Tiezhu’s voice was urgent. “Full speed, twenty-five kilometers per hour.”

“What about the seventeen patrol cars?”

“Returning with the iron wall. The three destroyed ones have been abandoned; the personnel are being carried by other vehicles.”

“Casualties?”

“Three patrol cars destroyed. Five minor injuries, one serious injury, no fatalities.”

“Better than expected.”

“You took out the transport trucks and the flanking pincer at the front. The fire coming at us from the front was significantly weakened.”

Zhao Tiezhu’s voice paused for a beat.

“If you hadn't taken out those 105mm cannons in advance, the iron wall would have lost a layer of skin today.”

“We cooperated.”

“It can hardly be called mutual cooperation,” Zhao Tiezhu’s gruff voice squeezed out. “You carried the heavy load.”

“We'll talk when we're back in the city.”

The communication cut off.

Lu Chen turned the Polaris’s steering wheel toward the southwest.

The engine shifted from idle to cruise mode.

The diesel engine and boiler outputted power in parallel, stabilizing the speed at sixty kilometers per hour.

Twilight had completely enveloped the Rustwind Wasteland.

The searchlights cut a path of light across the grayish-brown ice.

In the distance, on the southwestern horizon, a faint dull red glow could be seen.

That was the reflection of Black Rock City-State’s industrial chimneys on the low-altitude clouds.

The City-State was still there.

But further beyond The City-State, in another direction, there was another glow below the horizon.

That glow had no hint of red.

It was cold white.

The cold white light spread out into an extremely wide line on the dark horizon.

It was at least a kilometer wide.

That was the light band formed in the distance by all the lights and artillery position illumination on the walls of an Lv.4 Mobile City, comparable in size to Black Rock City-State, as it traveled at low speed.

Ice Thorn’s main city.

He stared at that cold white light band for five seconds.

Then he pulled his gaze back to the holographic panel.

11,040 points.

“System, open the Lv.2 Tech Tree.”

The four pale blue branches expanded on the panel.

Ten out of the sixteen nodes were lit.

Six were still dark.

He looked at the first target.

Infrastructure Armor Lv2 Node 3.

Two thousand points.

The Cabin Thermal Insulation Coating he had previously assessed as useless.

But things were different now. It wasn't for the coating itself, but to clear the path for the Infrastructure Armor branch.

Once Node 3 was lit, the top-tier core of Infrastructure Armor could be unlocked.

The top-tier core cost four thousand points.

Plus the four thousand points for the Armament and Weaponry top-tier core.

The three together totaled exactly ten thousand.

After buying the three major items, a thousand would still remain.

The three major items—Node 3 and the top-tier core of Infrastructure Armor, and the top-tier core of Armament and Weaponry—he would buy them all in one go.

Lu Chen made his decision.