Five days passed in the blazing sun and sandstorms of the Crimson Bright Wasteland on Aurelian IV in the blink of an eye.
As the fifth night fell, a convoy laden with ore rumbled down the packed dirt road and returned to the Crimson Dawn base.
The lead vehicle's door swung open, and Wang Zhong stepped down.
Moonlight fell across him.
Originally standing at 1.87 meters, he now stood a solid 1.90 meters tall.
His uniform was stretched taut over his body. The muscles on his bare arms bulged in thick, powerful lines, and his entire physique had undergone a transformation under the full effects of Type III Basic Physique Enhancement.
Bone density, muscle fiber arrangement, neural response speed... all of it had reached the theoretical limits of a mortal body without resorting to forbidden methods.
Xue Brother and Oil-Guy had long been waiting at the base gate.
The base now was utterly different from the desolate outpost it had been five days ago.
The three-and-a-half-meter stone walls had been raised and reinforced to five meters, their surfaces coated with quick-setting composite mortar purchased from the shop, giving them a grayish-white sheen.
Twelve new watchtowers stood along the walls, each fitted with modified heavy machine guns and rudimentary searchlights whose beams crossed through the night sky.
The enclosure had expanded inward by a full twofold. Rows of longhouses built from neatly stacked stone blocks now stood on what had once been empty wasteland. They were still communal bunkrooms housing twenty people each.
But they sheltered their occupants from wind and rain, sturdy and warm—a result of the workers and players laboring together.
Even more conspicuous were the mechanical creations:
A small wind power generator had been erected beside the water purification area, its blades slowly turning in the night breeze.