9: Chapter 9 Handcrafted Vehicles

"Clang!"

Liver Emperor dragged a huge bundle of scrap metal and slammed it heavily onto the metal floor.

He was shirtless at the moment, covered in grime.

His chest heaved violently from the intense physical exertion.

"Good heavens, the natives of this wasteland are too extravagant!"

Liver Emperor carefully pried a rusty metal plate out of the garbage heap.

Although most of the anti-rust coating on the surface of the metal plate had peeled off, the dense, dark gold texture inside could still be faintly seen.

"This is good stuff! To just throw it in the sand pile to collect dust like garbage? It's simply a waste of precious resources!"

He looked heartbroken, as if he had picked up a gold brick discarded by someone else.

Then, he pulled a rubber ring covered in dried black stains from a pile of broken pipes.

The surface of the rubber ring was covered in fine cracks.

But in Liver Emperor's hands, he pulled it hard, as if caressing a rare treasure.

"And this!"

"This elasticity! This toughness! This tensile strength!"

"If you take it and process it a little to make a shock-absorbing tire or a drive belt, it's simply perfect enough to make people cry!"

In the eyes of a hardcore player.

This is not some dangerous, deadly, mutant-and-slaughter-filled dark side of the empire.

This is a super gold mine that is undeveloped and full of treasures everywhere!

Liver Emperor was like an untiring wasteland hamster.

Every few hours, he would drag back a huge pile of industrial waste that ordinary people would ignore from the ruins outside.

Then, he stuffed all this junk into the humming Matter Constructor nearby.

This damaged machine left over from the Golden Age let out a dull roar.

The machine body vibrated slightly.

Scanning, decomposing, reassembling.

"Ding—"

Accompanied by a crisp prompt sound, a few purified basic metal ingots and synthetic material blocks were slowly spat out from the exit.

Praise Ming Shen was standing in front of a huge primary Matter Constructor, drenched in sweat.

A row of tools was neatly arranged on the rough metal workbench in front of him.

A simple hand-cranked vise.

Several adjustable wrenches of different models.

Phillips screwdrivers of various lengths.

"Old Ming, top-quality materials are here!"

Liver Emperor threw the heavy metal ingots onto the workbench, "Has your big baby been crafted yet? My legs are about to break from running, I'm counting on your vehicle to haul cargo!"

Ming Shen didn't even look up.

He stared fixedly at the holographic projection panel floating above the constructor.

"What's the rush!"

Ming Shen's voice was trembling with excitement.

"You have no idea how insane this game's physics engine is!"

"I originally thought that as long as I drew a shape, the system would automatically generate the vehicle."

"And the result?"

"It actually calculated metal fatigue, stress distribution, and bearing friction coefficients, the whole works!"

Ming Shen wiped the black ash off his face and pointed to a blueprint flashing with red light on the holographic screen.

"The transmission gear I just designed, because the meshing angle was off by two degrees, the system directly determined it would be scrapped after ten seconds of operation and refused to print it!"

"But it's almost there, the printing of the main frame is nearing its end."

"When Flash and the others return from scouting, I'll definitely give them a big surprise!"

...

At the same time.

The perspective shifts to the southwest of the Shelter.

Deep in the wilderness, a full forty kilometers away from the base.

Two dusty figures were struggling to trek across the cracked land.

They were [Why Panic When I Have Flash] and [Miracle Walker].

The scene here was even more suffocatingly desperate than around the Shelter.

The sky was a sickly leaden gray, with heavy radiation clouds hanging low, as if they would crush this land at any moment.

The ground was covered with bottomless, huge cracks, like mouths that were extremely thirsty and crying out to the heavens for help.

Looking around.

There was not a hint of green.

There were no signs of any life.

As far as the eye could see, there were only severely weathered black rocks and the bones of some unknown creatures that were so huge they chilled the heart.

Some bones were half-buried in the sand, and just the pale ribs exposed outside were over ten meters high, pointing straight to the sky, as if silently recounting the tragic slaughter this planet had once experienced.

On the far horizon, a few magnificent but dilapidated ruins appeared and disappeared in the sand and dust.

"Hoo... hoo..."

Flash sat down on a rock that had been weathered to a sharp edge, panting heavily like a dead dog.

His lips were cracked and bleeding from extreme dehydration.

Every breath of air felt like swallowing rough sandpaper.

"The realism of this game... is simply insane to the point of being anti-human!"

Flash licked his dry lips and tasted a faint metallic and bloody flavor.

He looked desperately at the red status bar in the upper left corner of his vision.

"It's one thing that long-distance running crazily drains the stamina bar."

"But there's actually such a hardcore negative debuff like extreme dehydration!"

"I feel like my alveoli are about to burst open, this pain simulation is just too damn realistic!"

Miracle Walker, who was walking in front, also stopped.

But he didn't complain like Flash.

On the contrary, his eyes were exceptionally sharp, like an old wolf cautiously roaming in strange territory.

As a veteran outdoor enthusiast who was passionate about wilderness survival in reality.

He absolutely loved this real world where even wind direction, humidity, and geological structure were perfectly simulated.

"Shut up, save some saliva."

Miracle Walker growled without looking back.

He didn't pay attention to the ruins on the horizon, but stared fixedly at a patch of sand under his feet.

Suddenly, he knelt on one knee and gently pinched a pinch of sand at the edge of a depression on the ground.

"Something up?"

Upon hearing this, Flash immediately perked up, enduring the burning pain in his throat, and leaned over.

"Footprints."

Miracle Walker pointed to the huge depression.

Flash looked in the direction he pointed, and his scalp instantly went numb.

Those footprints showed a strange three-toed structure, and the front had left three deep claw marks on the hard sand and stone.

The most critical thing is.

"The sand at the edges hasn't been completely filled and packed by the wind and sand."

Miracle Walker analyzed calmly, "They were left recently, no more than two hours ago."

No matter how you look at it, this doesn't look like something easy to mess with.

"Bro, my dear bro."

Flash swallowed a mouthful of non-existent saliva, only to feel a stinging pain in his throat.

"How about... we take a detour?"

"This is definitely a footprint left by an elite monster! We don't even have a decent spear right now, running into a monster of this size is purely delivering a package."

"Let's hurry up and find the coordinates of that food factory thing."

"Why panic."

Miracle Walker decisively refused.

A fanatical light called desire for exploration flashed in his eyes.

"In the rules of wilderness survival, areas where large creatures frequently move will definitely not be meaningless wastelands."

"Either that, or there is a water source!"

"Water?!"

Upon hearing this word.

Flash's originally dull eyes instantly burst into a green glow.

"What are we waiting for? Let's go! Follow and see!"

The two lowered their bodies, following the direction of the footprints, and groped forward bit by bit like two cautious cheetahs.

The terrain began to slope downward significantly.

After walking about two kilometers.

Suddenly, a huge, extremely wide depression appeared ahead, as if it had been smashed out by a meteorite.

The two lay behind a boulder at the edge of the depression, sticking out half their heads to look down.

At this sight, both of them gasped at the same time.

Green!

On this wasteland where even the air seemed to have been sucked dry, in the very depths of the depression, there actually appeared a patch of extremely dazzling green!

That was large patches of mutated moss showing a sickly fluorescence.

And some giant ferns with extremely distorted shapes.

"Shh!"

Miracle Walker suddenly grabbed Flash's shoulder, pressing him firmly behind the rock.

Beside a cluster of giant ferns at the edge of the depression.

A terrifying creature the size of an adult elephant was lowering its head to graze on those thorny plants.

The outline of the thing looked like a cow.

But it had no hair on its body, but was covered with a thick layer of horny scales covered in dark green mucus.

Three disgusting tumors covered with sharp bone spurs bulged high on its back.

When chewing the plants, it made a disgusting smacking sound in its mouth.

"Damn... what the hell kind of alien is this again?"

Flash was so scared that even his breathing stopped.

"It looks like some kind of mutated herbivore."

Miracle Walker made a tactical gesture.

The two of them, like two agile geckos.

Stuck to the steep rock wall at the edge of the depression, they extremely cautiously bypassed the mutated cow's line of sight and slid deeper into the depression.

The further down they went, the greater the humidity in the air.

Their originally cracked skin even felt a trace of long-lost coolness.

Soon.

A faint but clear dripping... splashing... sound reached their ears.

The two were suddenly energized and quickened their pace.

When they pushed aside the last layer of waist-high mutated weeds.

A huge creation abruptly stood before them!

It was a huge metal drainage pipe with a diameter of up to five meters!

The pipe was deeply embedded in the rock wall at the very bottom of the depression.

Although the surface was covered with rust and mutated vines, the edge of the pipe opening still clearly showed the oppressive, high-industrial design of the Golden Age.

A stream of water was slowly flowing out along the gap at the bottom of the huge pipe in the form of a trickle.

Gathering below into a small pool of about several dozen square meters.

The pool was crystal clear, reflecting the sickly sky.

"Found it! It's really water!"

Flash was so excited he almost jumped up on the spot.

"Wait! Don't be impulsive!" Miracle Walker grabbed his back collar.

He quickly took out the simple compass he had carved from scrap metal from his waist and compared the orientation on the ground.

He looked up again at the ridiculously thick drainage pipe.

In his mind, he quickly superimposed the coordinates previously given by STC-73 in the Shelter.

"Southwest direction... fifty-five kilometers..."

A look of extreme excitement erupted in Miracle Walker's eyes.

"Flash, did you see that? Such an exaggerated drainage design specification..."

"This is definitely not some ordinary groundwater pipe!"

"The end of this sewer absolutely connects to the underground core of the Golden Age Food Processing Plant, which is our main quest target!"

Just as Miracle Walker was excitedly analyzing the terrain.

"Gulp! Gulp! Gulp!"

A sound of frantic swallowing, like a thirsty beast, suddenly came from beside him.

Miracle Walker turned his head to look and was so angry he almost drew his blade to hack someone on the spot.

He saw that Flash had already thrown himself entirely into the pool of water!

He had plunged his head into the water and was frantically chugging the raw water like a cow drinking!

"Are you out of your mind?!"

Miracle Walker kicked Flash hard in the butt.

"This is an unknown water source in the Wasteland! Aren't you afraid of high radiation or exceeding heavy metal limits and dropping dead on the spot?! If you want to die, don't drag me into waiting for a respawn timer!"

Flash was kicked over and landed on his butt in the mud.

He panted heavily.

Wiping the water stains from his mouth, he wasn't scared at all; instead, he smacked his lips with a look of intoxication.

"So sweet!"

"Walker, this game is incredible! It even perfectly replicated the sweet and crisp taste of mountain spring water!"

"Besides, what are you afraid of? Even if we die, we can respawn; it's just a day of solitary confinement!"

Miracle Walker was stunned for a moment.

That was true; the game was so realistic that he had forgotten he was playing a game.

He swallowed his parched saliva.

Looking at the clear water surface, he could no longer resist the extreme physiological temptation.

He knelt by the pool, cupped a handful of water, and drank it down.

The ice-cold liquid flowed down his throat, as if a basin of cold water had been poured over his burning internal organs; it was truly sweet and thirst-quenching!

The two of them no longer cared about their image and drank their fill to their heart's content.

"Let's go. While our stamina is recovering, let's mark the map and go see if there are any other hidden entrances."

The two followed the edge of the pool, preparing to explore deeper toward the dark rock walls.

"Hoo—hss—"

Suddenly.

A hair-raising, foul-smelling hot breeze drifted over along with the faint airflow.

The breeze was mixed with a nauseatingly strong smell of blood, as well as the stench of some large creature rotting and fermenting!

Miracle Walker's expression changed wildly, and his pupils constricted instantly.

Without the slightest hesitation, he grabbed Flash by the hair and pressed him hard into the muddy water by the pool.

"Get down! Don't make a sound!"

The two held their breath and, through the gaps in the mutated weeds, looked in terror at a huge cave a few hundred meters away.

They saw that at the entrance of that huge cave.

It was piled high with the pale bones of various creatures!

Some of the bones still had undried, dark red flesh hanging from the broken parts.

The depths of the cave were pitch black, like deathly silence.

But faintly.

One could hear a low, huge breathing sound, like an old bellows being pulled.

There was also the teeth-grinding rustling sound of some behemoth rubbing against the rough rock walls.

A terrifying pressure belonging to a top predator of this Wasteland, even from hundreds of meters away, still felt like an invisible hand tightly gripping their hearts.

"A... a lair..."

"Bro... this place is definitely occupied by some deadly ancestor. This pressure is countless times stronger than that elite Squig in the newbie village!"

Cold sweat broke out on Miracle Walker's forehead as well.

His wilderness survival instinct was frantically sounding the alarm:

If they dared to take another step forward and disturb the thing inside, they wouldn't even have the chance to wait for a respawn timer; they would be torn into meat paste in an instant!

"Retreat."

Miracle Walker made a prompt decision, his eyes resolute.

"Slowly retreat from the downwind side. Don't make a single sound."

"Remember this coordinate point firmly!"

"When we get back to the Shelter, we'll have Ming Shen and the others build equipment, and we'll bring a full team..."

"And come back to take it out!"

A few hours later.

At the Fire Seed Shelter, the heavy armored airtight door slowly opened with a harsh pressure-release sound.

"Clang!"

Two figures, almost pickled by the sand and wind, stumbled into the hall, supporting each other.

Their bodies were covered in gray-white sand and dark green dried mud.

Their stamina bars were almost bottomed out, and they were holding on purely by the willpower to return and turn in the quest.

"Liver Emperor! Ming Shen! Come out and greet us quickly!"

Flash collapsed onto the cold metal floor without any regard for his image, panting heavily, his voice as hoarse as a broken gong.

The door to Workshop No. 3 popped open instantly.

With a bang.

Liver Emperor and Praise Ming Shen rushed out like two hungry wolves that had smelled blood, their eyes shining.

"Did you scout it out?!"

"You didn't die out there, did you? How much of the map did you uncover? Are there any treasure chest locations?!"

Miracle Walker managed to prop up half his body, just about to report their thrilling discovery.

But Praise Ming Shen waved his hand abruptly, his face radiating a fanaticism and pride like Steve Jobs launching the first iPhone.

"Stop yapping for a second!"

"Open your eyes wide and properly admire the industrial miracle of this Chief Mechanic!"

"Ta-da!"

Accompanied by his own goofy sound effects.

Two extremely crudely shaped metal creations were revealed before everyone's eyes.

They were two off-road bicycles.

"Holy crap..."

Flash, who was lying on the ground, instantly widened his eyes and scrambled over.

"Holy sh*t, this is a treasure!"

He grabbed the cold, rough metal handlebars, trembling with excitement.

"This sense of weight! This wheelbase! Did you make this bicycle out of tank armor?!"

Flash climbed on without hesitation.

He slammed his feet onto the pedals.

"Creeak—"

The sound of heavy gears meshing rang out.

The thick shock-absorbing spring compressed instantly, steadily supporting his falling center of gravity.

He pedaled hard twice in the spacious hall of the Shelter, the heavy solid tires grinding against the metal floor, making a dull friction sound.

"Awesome!!"

Flash slammed on the brakes made of steel cables, pulling off a rough drift on the spot.

"Brothers, I'm not kidding! The shock absorption is incredible! Although it looks like a lump of iron, this spring is definitely friendly to the backside!"

"My stamina drain rate is at least 70% lower than running on two legs!"

"But what's the deal with the lack of brakes?"

Ming Shen lifted his chin proudly.

"Don't worry about the details; aren't the brakes attached to your own body?"

"Let me tell you, the physics engine of this game is god-tier!"

"Just now, when I was testing the spring stress, the system even calculated the gravity acceleration deviation under the Shelter! I've never been this rigorous when exporting CAD drawings in reality!"

"With this thing, let alone fifty kilometers, even if it's one hundred kilometers, we can make a round trip in a day!"

Watching Flash test the vehicle frantically, Miracle Walker's eyes also lit up.

"The vehicle is nice."

Walker said calmly, "But there are monsters everywhere in the Wasteland. With just bicycles, we can't outrun those bloodthirsty mutated creatures. What about weapons? Didn't you say there was another surprise?"

"Knew you'd ask."

Ming Shen snapped his fingers.

Liver Emperor immediately understood and dragged a heavy metal supply crate out of the workshop.

The lid was flipped open.

Inside lay two heavy crossbows!

"Wasteland-edition compound crossbows!"

Ming Shen grabbed a crossbow, the heavy weight making his arm sink.

"The bow limbs are all polished from high-polymer elastic material, and the bowstring is twisted from six strands of steel wire."

"Because the draw weight is too high, you can't string it by hand at all."

He pointed to an extremely clever gear winch under the crossbow body.

"You must step on the stirrup in front and turn the hand crank winch to reload."

"Although the rate of fire is agonizingly slow, at most two shots per minute."

"But as long as this thing bites into something within thirty meters..."

"Even that kind of thick-skinned mutated Squig, I can nail its internal organs to pieces with one arrow!"

At the very bottom of the box.

There were dozens of metal caltrops densely packed, as well as several heavy spring traps modified from discarded animal traps.

"Perfect."

Miracle Walker took a deep breath, and absolute confidence in clearing the dungeon finally ignited in his eyes.

With mobility, heavy firepower, and crowd control items.

Walker looked around at the three of them, his tone becoming extremely serious.

"We not only found the accurate underground entrance to that food plant."

"But we also found water!"

"Running water! Sweet, clear, radiation-free running water!"

As soon as these words were spoken, Liver Emperor and Ming Shen gasped simultaneously.

In this Wasteland where even the air is dry enough to dehydrate a person, the value of running water is even more terrifying than a ton of gold!

Walker quickly drew the five-meter-diameter metal drainage pipe on the ground, as well as the terrifying, bone-filled lair a few hundred meters away.

"That's the situation."

"The underground core area of that food plant is definitely being used as a lair by some terrifying, giant mutated creature."

"But as long as we make good use of these traps, combined with the high burst damage of the heavy crossbows, it's not impossible to lure it out and kite it to death!"

At this point, the originally sharp gaze of Miracle Walker suddenly unfocused.

"Cough, cough... I can't go on, brothers."

"Whatever the plan is, let's discuss it in the QQ group after logging off."

"I'm out, I'm out, I'm logging off too!"

The four noisy players completely fell into a silent dormant state.

In the hall, that deathly silence was instantly restored.