36: The fortifications were built against the mountain, and the initial walls were completed.

Chapter Thirty-Seven: Building Defenses by the Mountain, The Initial Fortress is Formed

The pale blue light of the Micro Fusion Power Station flowed quietly across the empty threshing floor, casting a cold halo over the mottled bluish-gray city walls.

This Song Dynasty fortress, built centuries ago to resist the Mongols, sat on an elliptical platform measuring 2 kilometers east-to-west and 800 meters north-to-south. Its ten-meter-high rammed earth walls stood tall, with neatly arranged battlements and arrow slits still sturdy after years of erosion. A 150-meter-high peak to the north was adjacent to the wall, with hidden air-raid shelters carved into its heart. Beside the cave entrance, a stone staircase led to the summit of the North Mountain, where a solitary power transmission tower stood, its dull metallic luster glinting in the sunlight.

Near noon, Lin Zhou and his father returned to the fortress with light steps. As they entered the threshing floor, they saw his mother and Lin Xi crouching by the power station entrance, staring up at a flickering holographic panel. Seeing the two return, Lin Xi immediately hopped over to greet them, clutching a charcoal sketch of the elliptical fortress's defense layout—it marked the positions of the small building, the threshing floor, the North Mountain, and the air-raid shelters, carefully outlining the surrounding walls and even featuring small red charcoal squares representing imagined defense towers.

"Brother! Dad! The power station is lit up!" Lin Xi held the sketch up to Lin Zhou, her small face flushed. "Look, I've drawn the old city walls, the transmission tower on the mountain peak, and even the tool room under the tower!"

His father set down the steel pipe on his shoulder and walked quickly to the holographic panel. Seeing the clear blueprint parameters, his eyes filled with excitement. "Good stuff! With anti-climb nets, machine gun towers, wall reinforcement modules, and these old city walls, our fortress will truly be an iron bastion!"

Lin Zhou took his sister's sketch, his finger tracing the elliptical outline of the old walls, then pointing to the northern peak and the position of the steel gate halfway up the mountain. Just as he was about to speak, a series of system prompts rang in his mind, clarifying the core rules and exchange standards:

Micro Fusion Power Station successfully started. Basic defense blueprints unlocked: anti-climb nets, simple machine gun bastions, wall reinforcement modules.

Core Function 1 Unlocked: Mental Storage—Can decompose architectural materials like ruins and scrap iron within 5 meters, automatically converting them into resource points. These are used exclusively for building or reinforcing defensive facilities. Supports mental installation; deployment and repairs are completed by locking onto the target area.

Core Function 2 Unlocked: Zombie Hunting—Killing an ordinary zombie grants 100 energy points; killing a Mutated Zombie grants 100-200 energy points. energy points are used to unlock new functions and exchange for high-level items in the system mall.

Resource Conversion Rules: 1 ton of scrap iron = 1,000 resource points; 1 ton of concrete debris = 500 resource points; 1 ton of brick and stone waste = 300 resource points. Material purity directly affects conversion efficiency.

Defensive Facility Exchange Standards:

- wall reinforcement module (Single Segment): Requires 800 resource points. Dimensions: 10m long × 5m high × 1.5m thick. After mentally locking onto a damaged wall, a C30-grade reinforced concrete reinforcement layer is automatically generated, increasing hardness by 3 times and featuring an anti-impact diamond texture.

- simple machine gun bastion (Single Unit): Requires 1,200 resource points. Can be mentally deployed on wall battlements or steel gate fortresses. Includes protective steel plates, universal gun mounts, and firing ports. Powered by the Micro Fusion Power Station, it is equipped with an alloy machine gun with infinite ammunition, capable of resisting ordinary zombie attacks with an effective range of 500 meters.

- anti-climb net (Single Segment): Requires 300 resource points. Dimensions: 10m long × 1m high. Made of high-strength alloy with a 5cm mesh spacing and barbed design. Mentally locking onto the base of a defense point allows for automatic fitment and installation, seamlessly connecting with the wall.

Lin Zhou's heart jolted. His gaze instinctively swept to the pile of scrap rebar at the foot of the wall—leftover material from previous wall repairs, rusty but still solid. He moved within 3 meters and mentally locked onto the pile. The next second, the scattered scrap iron transformed into streaks of silver-gray light, flying into the system space in his mind. The light screen updated:

Collected 0.5 tons of scrap iron, obtained 500 resource points.

Current resource points: 900. Current energy points: 400 (accumulated from hunting zombies).

"Dad! The steel gate halfway up the mountain is the first line of defense!" Lin Zhou slapped his thigh, shouting in surprise and urgency. "Let's put the machine gun bastions and wall reinforcements right at that steel gate! If we hold that spot, zombies and unknown people won't be able to charge up easily!"

His father's eyes lit up, and he reacted instantly. "Right! The steel gate is the bottleneck for entering the mountain, even more critical than the village gate! If we hold that, our core area will be foolproof!"

Lin Zhou walked quickly to the waste pile in the west corner (4 meters away) and focused his mind on frantic storage. Collapsed bricks, broken concrete blocks, and rusty scrap iron turned into light and flowed into the system one after another. The numbers on the screen jumped rapidly: Decomposed 1 ton of brick waste (+300 resource points), decomposed 0.8 tons of concrete debris (+400 resource points), collected 1.2 tons of scrap iron (+1,200 resource points). Current resource points instantly soared to 2,800.

"Enough!" Lin Zhou took a deep breath and clenched his fists, precisely locking onto the location of the steel gate halfway up the mountain in his mind. "Consume 1,200 resource points to deploy a simple machine gun bastion!"

The next second, above the steel gate far up the mountainside, a pale blue pillar of energy shot into the sky. A pitch-black steel bastion appeared out of thin air, fitting perfectly between the cliff walls on both sides of the gate. The dark muzzle of the machine gun pointed directly at the only path down the mountain, its alloy barrel glinting coldly in the sunlight. A system prompt followed: simple machine gun bastion successfully deployed, power linked to the Micro Fusion Power Station, ammunition supply infinite.

Immediately after, Lin Zhou locked onto the ten meters of rammed earth wall on either side of the steel gate and consumed 1,600 resource points to trigger two wall reinforcement modules. Two pale blue streaks of light enveloped the walls. The mottled and loose rammed earth was quickly replaced by dense reinforced concrete. The 10m long × 5m high × 1.5m thick reinforcement layers extended outward from the wall surface, featuring a non-slip, anti-impact diamond texture. The previously loose battlements instantly became indestructible. Wall reinforcement complete, hardness increased 3 times, current resource points remaining: 0.

"Perfect!" His father looked at the feedback on the system screen, rubbing his hands excitedly and gesturing. "A 1.5-meter-thick reinforcement layer! Even if a Mutated Zombie crashes into it, it won't budge an inch! With the machine gun bastion mounted on top, the 500-meter range covers the open ground below the mountain perfectly!"

The family sat around the stone table on the threshing floor, using the blue light of the power station to finalize their follow-up defense plan.

"Once we collect enough resource points, we'll add two segments of anti-climb nets to the steel gate. Ten meters long and one meter high will be just enough to seal the climbing blind spots at the base of the wall." Lin Zhou pointed at the sketch. "As for the southern village gate, we'll hold it with existing fortifications for now. We'll reinforce it once we earn enough energy points to unlock higher-level defenses."

His mother nodded repeatedly, then remembered something and cautioned, "When you two go down the mountain to hunt, you must keep an eye on the situation halfway up. Don't get so caught up in killing zombies that you forget about the defense line."

As they spoke, Lin Zhou pulled up the system mall and immediately saw Walkie-Talkies—priced at 50 energy points per pair, with built-in rechargeable batteries and an effective communication range of 5 kilometers, perfect for covering the fortress, North Mountain, and the steel gate. He glanced at the zeroed-out resource points, then at the energy points panel, his eyes lighting up. "400 energy points is exactly enough for four pairs! One for each of us, plus two pairs as spares. We won't have to run back and forth to deliver messages anymore!"

Before he finished speaking, Lin Zhou confirmed the exchange. Eight black Walkie-Talkies appeared on the stone table, their metallic texture feeling heavy. He picked up two pairs and handed them to his father, gave one pair to his mother, and carefully tucked the remaining three pairs into his backpack. He then handed one to Lin Xi. "Press button 1 to talk, button 2 for help. Xiao Xi, you'll be on lookout at North Mountain. No matter what you see, use the Walkie-Talkie to call us immediately. Safety first!"

Lin Xi held the Walkie-Talkie, her small face glowing as she nodded vigorously. "I'll go to the tool room under the North Mountain transmission tower and use it as an observation post right now! Standing on the 150-meter peak and calling you with the Walkie-Talkie, the signal will definitely be clear!"

"Be careful!" Lin Zhou and his father shouted in unison.

Lin Xi waved her hand and ran toward North Mountain, her crisp voice floating back with the wind. "Don't worry! I have the Walkie-Talkie with me!"

His father walked to the edge of the threshing floor, looking toward the mountainside with a solemn expression. "In the apocalypse, the defense line is our life. Only by holding that steel gate can we truly take root in these mountains."

Lin Zhou nodded, his gaze falling on the blue light of the Micro Fusion Power Station, then scanning the 200 remaining energy points on the system screen—after deducting the 200 for the Walkie-Talkies, he had exactly enough left to unlock a new function. He knew this was just the beginning. He would need to hunt more zombies for energy points and collect waste for resource points to weave the entire fortress's defense into a seamless web.

The midday sun shone warmly on the threshing floor. His mother went home to heat up corn porridge and sweet potatoes, while his father studied the firing range of the machine gun bastion, muttering, "A 500-meter range is just enough to cover the two-kilometer area from the steel gate to the foot of the mountain." Lin Zhou sat on a stone bench, his finger scrolling through the system screen, planning to collect more waste in the afternoon to add the anti-climb nets to the steel gate.

Just then, the Walkie-Talkie in his pocket suddenly crackled with static, followed by Lin Xi's urgent voice, thick with panic. "Brother! Dad! Emergency! Several figures are running toward the steel gate from halfway down the mountain! They're less than 4 kilometers away! There's something dark chasing them from behind! It looks like a zombie horde!"

The peace on the threshing floor shattered instantly. Lin Zhou and his father exchanged looks, both of their eyes flashing with alertness and gravity. His father grabbed the steel pipe leaning against the stone table and said deeply, "Let's go! To the steel gate! No matter who is coming, we must hold the line!"

Lin Zhou nodded, his hand instinctively reaching for the military dagger at his waist as he quickly followed his father. The sun was still bright, but a faint smell of blood had already drifted in the wind, along with the characteristic roars of zombies faintly echoing from below the mountain.