30: Chapter 30 Copper Mine Discovery? Various Countries Eyeing It Covetously

Tojo Injin closed the Lords Hall panel, his thoughts churning.

It was basically impossible to make Afghanistan give up its alliance with the United States.

But it was quite simple to use his own side's pressure to stop them from selling oil to the Dragon Kingdom.

As long as the Dragon Kingdom experienced one more natural disaster, it would completely collapse.

At that time, Japan would be able to acquire its vast territory.

Therefore, hindering the Dragon Kingdom, killing the Lord of Dragon Kingdom, and causing the Dragon Kingdom to suffer natural disasters were the primary goals of Japan in this Forbidden Area Trial.

What was originally thought to be an easy mission now had some unexpected variables.

This kid named Su Yang first chose the Great Qin, then broke through the newbie protection.

Afterwards, he successively achieved two key milestones.

Although these things couldn't change the outcome, Tojo Injin didn't want to see any more variables appear.

Restricting oil would hinder the speed at which they unlocked modern industry.

No matter how fast his early-stage development was, he would only have a dead end later on.

Tojo Injin's eyes flickered, and a smile appeared on the corner of his mouth.

He had been annoyed by Su Yang for the past few days, and only today, after successfully forming an alliance with Afghanistan, did he feel slightly relieved.

"Continue fighting!!"

He waved his hand and ordered the soldier who had just finished reporting.

"Hai!"

The Japanese infantryman from the WWII era, carrying a Type 99 rifle, turned and rushed out of the camp tent.

Under his command, a squad that had just finished fighting regrouped and set off outside the territory.

They looked spirited, each of them as excited as if they had been injected with adrenaline.

Bushido spirit, the civilization trait belonging to Japan.

The soldiers in the Forbidden Area Trial were not machines; they needed to rest and eat.

Therefore, factors like fighting, marching, and food would all affect the soldiers' status.

To ensure the soldiers' combat effectiveness, they had to be given good rest and relatively good living conditions.

This was the case for the vast majority of countries, but it was completely different for Japan.

The Japanese troop types from the WWII era were all soldiers who embodied the spirit of Bushido and extremeism.

They had extremely low demands for living conditions, and even if conditions were harsh, they could maintain the highest Rank of combat effectiveness.

For them, rapid marching was just walking, and slow marching was just resting.

From the moment they were provoked into breaking through the newbie defense yesterday until now, the troops under Tojo Injin had not stopped for a single moment.

It was precisely because of the existence of the Bushido trait that Japan leaped to become one of the strongest countries in the early stage.

This was also the reason why Tojo Injin had absolute confidence in taking the first place in exploration ranking.

So what if he broke through the defense on the first day?

When it comes to killing enemies and exploration, no one can compare to my Great Japanese iron-blooded troops!

...

United States territory.

MacArthur puffed heavily on the cigar in his mouth.

Before entering the Forbidden Ground, he had brought a box of cigars to celebrate.

Today was the first one he smoked, and he would smoke the second one three days later.

Afghanistan finding oil meant that the United States would naturally benefit the most.

Everyone knew that the United States was Afghanistan's absolute big brother.

They just had to wait for Afghanistan to extract the oil.

Their military factories could immediately be put into production.

The United States' civilization trait allowed them to unlock military factories very early.

The production efficiency and quality of the military factories were far superior to other countries.

This allowed the United States military's equipment to be far ahead of other countries.

This was the key to them winning the previous two Forbidden Area Trials.

However, military factories required oil resources to operate.

Before finding oil and starting the military factories, the United States military's strength was not particularly powerful.

But this round was different; Afghanistan had actually discovered oil in the early stage.

Once their oil was in place and the military factories were operational,

MacArthur was confident that he would take first place in both rankings seven days later.

"With the military factories started, the game that belongs to us truly begins!!"

MacArthur bit his cigar and laughed, kicking the Dragon Kingdom out of his threat list in his mind.

The unlocking of oil resources eliminated the only limitation for their modern civilization in the early stage.

In this round of the trial, all countries that chose non-modern civilizations were already declared out.

...

Exiting the Lords Hall, Su Yang's mood quickly calmed down.

In the Forbidden Area Trial, many things were random and incidental.

There were too many uncontrollable factors, making it impossible to predict.

The only thing he could control was his own development rhythm.

Even if unexpected situations occurred again, he could not disrupt his own rhythm.

Moreover, he chose the Great Qin, and his development potential was by no means weaker than any other country.

So what if he let them get a head start?

If the opponents were too weak, the trial would be boring.

Calming his mood, Su Yang opened the panel with anticipation.

[Scout unit has discovered a mineral vein]

Has a copper mine already been discovered?

This speed is simply too fast!

[Mineral: Coal]

[Reserves: Good]

[Scout unit has discovered a mineral vein]

[Mineral: Coal]

[Reserves: Abundant]

Two coal mines, no copper mine.

Su Yang's eyes dimmed slightly.

It was not bad to be able to discover coal mines in such a short time.

At least it proved that the exploration speed was indeed faster than before after having Scouts.

One had to know that they had only found one mineral vein in the first three days.

After discovering the mineral veins, Su Yang did not hesitate.

He directly activated the mineral vein migration technology that had already been researched.

He transferred the coal mine with abundant reserves to the territory's production area.

Early-stage shallow mineral vein reserves had three levels: Normal, Good, and Abundant.

The one already in the territory was only a mineral vein with Good reserves.

Now this one was one level higher than before.

In addition to representing the quantity of minerals, mineral vein reserves would also provide a bonus to the efficiency of the Mining Machine.

A mineral vein with higher reserves could give the Mining Machine higher production efficiency.

After moving the mineral vein into the production area, Su Yang placed a Steam-powered Mining Machine on it.

Currently, the territory's fuel resources were already insufficient, and this Mining Machine could just fill the gap.

[Successfully built Steam-powered Mining Machine]

[Mining Machine base output: 30 units of coal resources/day]

[Environmental bonus: Abundant surrounding coal resources, increasing output by 15 units per day]

[Civilization trait bonus: Great Qin craftsmanship makes the Mining Machine operate efficiently: increasing output by 15 units per day]

[Output after Mining Machine bonus: 60 units of coal resources/day]

Not bad, the production capacity was 10 units/day higher than the previous Mining Machine.

Su Yang looked at the Mining Machine panel, his mood slightly improved.

Now the territory's production capacity could fully withstand the consumption.

As long as battles were not triggered frequently, there would even be a surplus in fuel production.

While placing the Mining Machine, Su Yang also placed a second steam water pump.

Fuel and concentrated water were both necessary resources for steam-powered operations.

After placing the Mining Machine, Su Yang checked the location of the two Scouts.

They had already explored very far in two directions.

The distance covered in one night was twice the farthest distance Su Yang had explored before.

Had they not discovered a copper mine at such a distance?