150: Watchtower

A moment later.

A three-story red brick villa, styled like the early reform and opening-up period of the 80s and 90s, stood in the center of what was once an empty lot.

It looked rather rustic.

The incandescent light in front of the house was on.

If there were a big yellow dog lying there and a long bench by the door, Lu Yang would almost have thought he wasn't on Hanhai Star, but had traveled back to his hometown in the 80s.

However, this was just a facade.

When Lu Yang, wearing his mecha, walked into the territory hall, he discovered that the interior space was unusually spacious, even larger than the space inside a Level 5 Micro Ecological Farm.

In Lu Yang's line of sight, he could see architectural models outlined by many illusory blue lines.

Iron Mine, copper mine, lumber mill, steel refinery, military factory, garment processing factory, food processing factory, scrap recycling plant, residential buildings, and so on.

Lu Yang observed carefully and, through the smart brain's analysis, concluded that if all these were built, it would be enough to establish a basic small industrial center, capable of self-sufficiency for tens of thousands of people, similar to those before the Train World apocalypse.

Unfortunately, these could not be built yet because they were only temporary territory stones.

The only building that could be constructed was a Sentry Tower.

After construction, it could dispel the alien mist within a radius of 500 meters, serving to illuminate the map.

Otherwise, in areas covered by mist, radars from the Train World would be completely ineffective.

The Xinhuo Train's enemy-seeking radar was also affected.

It was as if the signal was being jammed.

But once a Sentry Tower was established, it was different.

The Sanmin Village territory hall was a large Sentry Tower; once built, it dispelled the mist within a three-kilometer radius.

Within this range, the Xinhuo Train's enemy-seeking radar detected quite a few sparse red dots.

But once outside this range, everything became undetectable again.

So, Lu Yang roughly understood what he needed to do next.

That was to anticipate the enemy, by first illuminating the surrounding map.

Otherwise, if he didn't even know which direction the enemy would come from, wouldn't he be a passive target, waiting to be hit?!

An hour later, four Sentry Towers stood in the east, south, west, and north directions, three kilometers outside Sanmin Village.

These structures were 30 meters high, climbable via a ladder, with detection points every 10 meters. The lowest level was 16 square meters, the middle 9 square meters, and the top 4 square meters.

They consumed 100 units of Level 1 Iron Mine, 100 units of Level 1 copper, and 200 units of Level 1 wood.

Construction time was 45 minutes.

However, only four could be built for the time being.

There were two ways to increase the quantity: one was to increase the permanent population within the territory.

For every 1,000 increase in permanent residents, the number of Sentry Towers that could be built increased by 2, with a maximum of 20. (Residents living in the territory for more than three days were considered permanent residents).

The other way was to kill Hanhai Star native creatures.

Regardless of whether it was the Frogmen, Lizardmen, or any other race Lu Yang had already detected.

For every 1,000 killed, one Sentry Tower construction slot was added, with no upper limit.

But Sentry Towers alone were useless; they also needed to be defended.

Just as Lu Yang was building the Sentry Towers, the locations of the Sentry Towers were like large bonfires in the night, constantly attracting attacks from wild wolves, small teams of native Frogmen, Lizardmen, and so on.

The results, of course, were futile.

Under the defense of the Raptor guard team and 100 reservists each, the attackers were mostly killed before many shots were even fired.

Two hours later, dozens of surveying teams returned to report on the surrounding terrain.

They observed from Sentry Towers or high ground at the edge of the territory using binoculars, then hand-drew the maps.

Before the apocalypse, they all had extensive outdoor surveying experience, so their professional standards were impeccable.

After AI stitched all the hand-drawn maps together, a three-dimensional map appeared before Lu Yang.

The accuracy might not be as precise as machine measurements, but it still served as a general reference.

On this three-dimensional map, centered on the Sanmin Village territory hall, with a surveyed radius of 8 kilometers, there was very little actual land. Only within one kilometer closest to the territory hall was pure land. The further out, the more water there was, almost all of it being continuous swamps.

To the east, west, and south, about five kilometers outwards, was an endless sea. Only the due north direction was slightly better, still predominantly swamp, with occasional small patches of land, ranging from a few square meters to tens of square meters, emerging from the swamp.

Further away, there seemed to be mountains and such, faintly visible.

However, due to being outside the observation range, the surveying team did not see them clearly.

Lu Yang did not pay too much attention to this for the time being.

First, he needed to establish a foothold.

Once the temporary territory stone transformed into a true territory stone, and the domain expanded, there would be plenty of opportunities for exploration.

As for what a domain was, Lu Yang also found the answer in the territory hall's description.

It was a territory beneficial for human survival.

The most basic benefits of a domain included the alien mist being dispelled within its range, and technological equipment like radar being able to function.

The mist dispelled by the territory hall and Sentry Towers was the effect of a pseudo-domain.

However, the current territory stone had not truly taken root; otherwise, gunpowder weapons within the domain would not suffer from reduced range and power DEBUFFs.

Lu Yang also tested it.

The actual debuff effect was more, not less, than what the mission description stated, especially in the mist-shrouded areas.

During the previous Sentry Tower construction, many team members reported that when they fired, they clearly aimed and felt like they hit the target.

But in reality, they either missed the enemy or the impact was unsatisfactory.

In the Train World, a Poison Dragon Heavy Sniper Rifle that could penetrate a one-millimeter steel target from 1,000 meters away could barely inflict damage on ordinary creatures in the mist 300 meters away here.

But once the mist was dispelled, the power of firearms would increase significantly.

The closer to the territory hall, the greater this increase.

If firing outwards from the territory hall, the same Poison Dragon Heavy Sniper Rifle would have an effective killing range of 800 meters.

Conversely, cold weapons like Repeating Ballista and hand crossbows, which relied purely on mechanical force, were almost unaffected whether in or out of the mist.

A crossbow bolt shot would fly as far as it was supposed to.

Only the enemy-seeking characteristic of the Repeating Ballista was slightly affected.

If in the mist, it couldn't lock on and could only rely on physical ballistics.

But this still didn't stop Lu Yang from building several more production lines, stepping up the production of Repeating Ballista, compound bows, hand crossbows, three-ox crossbows, and other long-range weapons.

Lu Yang's extensive acquisitions a month prior had yielded considerable results.

Now, it was time to convert those results into actual combat power.