Chapter 16: Reinforcements and Choices
The night wind blew as the open-top armored vehicle sped across the wilderness. Behind it, a massive behemoth advanced on mechanical tentacle-legs, its pace seemingly slow but covering great distances with each stride.
Su Xiao had abandoned the mining vein he was working on, ordering the Doom Fortress to retract its ground spikes and enter mobile mode. Though this consumed a considerable amount of Living Ore, it was worth it.
First, the vein was small in scale, estimated to be over eighty percent depleted. With the current number of pig-headed laborers in the Doom Fortress, the resources would be exhausted soon anyway.
Su Xiao needed a large-scale mining vein. The problem was that such veins were already occupied by the three major factions. Of course, there were exceptions—two large veins in the "Borderlands Region" remained untouched.
The so-called "Borderlands Region" was the border between the Vassal Alliance and the Aberrant Beasts' territories. The terrain here consisted mostly of towering mountain ranges, with a valley running through them. This valley was like a wide passage connecting the two territories, separating them.
Among the three major factions of the Vassal Alliance, the "Vassal Alliance" itself had attempted to hold this position with a T2-class fortress. After several months of defense, they retreated in disgrace, abandoning even a large mining vein that was less than 4% exploited.
Seeing this terrain on the map, Su Xiao felt as if "heaven had finally sided with him." The terrain was perfect. For others, this was a terrible mining location—defending against Aberrant Beast harassment while mining would inevitably cause casualties, and the compensation for the families of the deceased would be astronomical. But for Su Xiao, this was the ideal location for his base camp.
Below lay freely minable Living Ore. To the west bordered the Vassal Alliance's territory, allowing trade, resupply, and recruitment of pig-headed laborers. To the east lay the Aberrant Beasts' domain—this was the best part.
Outsiders would see this as a place ripe for getting pummeled by Aberrant Beasts, but that was exactly what Su Xiao wanted. If pig-headed laborers were to become warriors, the only way was through brutal combat. This situation couldn't be more suitable.
Su Xiao had decided that after purchasing what he needed from the "Neutral Fortress City," he would immediately relocate to the Borderlands Region and develop there.
Sitting in the passenger seat, Su Xiao closed his eyes to rest. Just then, a notification from Reincarnation Paradise appeared.
[Notification: Main Quest: First Ring (Activated).]
[Main Quest: Expansion (First Ring).]
Difficulty Level: Lv.70～???
Quest Information: Expand combat power as quickly as possible and destroy one T1-class fortress.
Time Limit: 8 days.
Quest Reward: Treeborn Page ×1, Space-Time Power (100 ounces), 4 True Attribute Points.
Quest Penalty: None.
Tip: This quest can be abandoned. Abandoning it will immediately remove you from this world.
Tip: When the second ring of the main quest is triggered, the quest penalty will default to forced execution.
Seeing the quest content, Su Xiao had a rough guess. Most likely, the final ring of the quest would involve competing for ownership of this world, or seizing some crucial item.
Reincarnation Paradise wouldn't issue a death sentence quest. Su Xiao estimated that the final ring of this world's quest would be judged based on his current strength plus the external combat power he had acquired.
If he hadn't mastered any external forces, it would probably involve competing for an important item. If he had acquired powerful external forces, like the Wolf Cavalry Legion, the final ring quest would most likely involve competing for world ownership, beating the contractors from the other three paradises until they wet themselves.
The rewards from these two types of final quests would be vastly different, confirming the saying: "With great ability comes great resources."
But more than that, when Su Xiao saw the reward for the first ring of the quest, it looked very familiar—wasn't this the entry ticket to this world?
This quest could be abandoned, which was also a choice. If abandoned, he wouldn't get back the ticket and would return to Reincarnation Paradise with nothing—the safest option.
If he completed the first ring of the main quest, it meant he agreed to participate in this world war. As a reward for joining the battle, he could reclaim his ticket first.
After all, participating in a life-and-death world war while making contractors/hunters pay their own tickets clearly violated the principle of "balancing risk and reward."
Su Xiao had confirmed that the pig-headed laborers had development potential. Previously on Alliance Star, when he led the Alliance soldiers to attack the Western Continent, those soldiers under the War Lord's blessing developed a trait: they could advance from ordinary soldiers to veterans through brutal combat and training.
After the pig-headed laborers received the War Lord's blessing, Su Xiao found that a large portion of them had awakened similar abilities.
Under the War Lord's blessing, pig-headed laborers in life-or-death battles had a certain chance of transforming from ordinary pig-headed laborers into Wild Boar Men—a bloodline awakening and atavistic phenomenon. The specific attributes of Wild Boar Men were still unknown.
Under normal circumstances, pig-headed laborers didn't have this transformative ability. It required the stimulation of the War Lord's blessing to manifest.
Out of 10 pig-headed laborers, about 7 to 8 would show this potential for advancement under the War Lord's blessing. The remaining 2 to 3 weren't cut out for it, but their mining ability was generally 3 to 4 levels higher. Letting them mine was fine—they had high work efficiency.
With a rough plan in mind, Su Xiao leaned back in the passenger seat and continued to rest. At 3 AM, Bubu Wang dozed off and hit a tree once. By 6:30 AM, Su Xiao saw the distant Neutral Fortress City.
The entire fortress city looked much like a normal city. Many said that the three T0-class fortress cities could no longer be retracted and moved because they were too massive—whether this was true or false remained unknown.
The armored vehicle stopped at the southwestern checkpoint of the Neutral Fortress City. Not only were Vassal Alliance guards stationed here, but there were also heavy cannon-class weapons covered in dark green tarps, hiding their models—whether biological or energy-based was unclear.
Li Xiniwei presented the travel pass and discreetly slipped a piece of Living Ore into a Vassal Alliance guard's pocket. The checkpoint let them through, even though the scanner on one guard's waist screeched, displaying an electronic version of Su Xiao's trial warrant on the screen.
The guard stubbed out his cigarette, turned off the scanner hanging at his waist, and caught a piece of Living Ore that flew his way. After checking its quality, he took out his lighter, pressed it against the scanner—sparks flashed, and the scanner's records were erased.
"Several... honored guests, welcome to Freedom City."
The guard lit another cigarette with a full smile. Li Xiniwei winked at him with a grin, and the open-top armored vehicle started moving.
Entering the streets of the Neutral Fortress City, Su Xiao noticed the style was somewhat cyberpunk—a unique sight brought about by the explosion of biological-side technology.
Signs on both sides of the street hung haphazardly, some looking highly technological, others like worn wooden boards.
A few passersby walked by. One had a mechanical arm but wore slightly shabby clothes, indicating that mechanical prosthetics weren't expensive here.
The entire city was filled with crime and excitement. Human mechanical modification (mechanical prosthetics), colorful neon billboards still lit on the streets, high-tech weapons available everywhere, the defiant gazes of pedestrians, steam leaking from pipes on walls—this was the Neutral Fortress City, also known as Freedom City.
Boom!
An explosion rang out. Liechao instinctively thought it was an enemy attack, but found it came from a nearby shop.
Inside the shop, a group of young people with eccentric hairstyles and multicolored hair were laughing loudly. One of them held a "Heavy Lead·M17S·Phonon Shock Grenade."
To Su Xiao, this thing was like a firecracker with a bit more kick. In this world, as long as it wasn't a biological weapon, it was fine. If encountering a biological weapon, one must be cautious.
Su Xiao decided to first buy [Cataclysmic Solution·Type V]. Just then, a notification from Reincarnation Paradise appeared.
[Notification: Hunter has arrived at Neutral Fortress City (Freedom City).]
[Detected that your fortress has taken initial shape.]
[Detected that the Hunter's current mission difficulty is extremely high, and the difficulty stems from the World War.]
[Evaluating...]
[Hunter is the sole combatant from our side in this battle.]
[Reincarnation Paradise will grant the Hunter one of the following reinforcements.]