Arrow Tower Upgraded to Level 4, Becomes 'Arrow Fort'

This had been the unchanging landscape of this region for nearly a hundred years.

But from this day onward.

This landscape would change because of him. There would no longer be a single station on the Wasteland.

He planned to.

Build a Highway between the two places.

A Highway built from Copper Pipes, with Eerie Fire flowing through them. Even after night fell, the road would remain shrouded in Eerie Fire, allowing travel day and night without pause and greatly accelerating the circulation efficiency of caravan goods.

It would also bring him a great deal of income.

Previously, all tolls in this region had gone into the pockets of the camps on the Wasteland. But once the Highway was opened, all that income would be his.

What was more!

He could replace North River Market and become the new gathering place for a market.

After all, the Eerie Fire, Arrow Towers, and other structures built here cost less than elsewhere and sold for less as well.

This was an enormous profit.

170 kilometers equaled 170,000 meters.

It would take only seventeen days.

He could lay down this Highway.

But.

How to protect this profit was also a major problem. The three great powers of Northbank City would surely launch a frenzied counterattack. He had to accumulate enough foundations during this golden period of the Rainy Season.

After the Rainy Season.

Destroy the three great powers, open the Highway.

After the time it took to drink a cup of tea.

Chen Fan looked at the more than one hundred meters of Copper Pipe he had already laid. After falling silent for a while, he glanced around the wilderness and headed back into his camp.

The situation was a little more complicated than he had imagined.

Although laying Copper Pipes was now free.

Making the Copper Pipes required him to do it personally. He could not hand the work to anyone else. To lay all the pipes step by step, he would have to travel back and forth across the Wasteland countless times. By then, it would be the year of the monkey and month of the horse.

He had to finish developing the cart first.

Then he could drive it to lay the Copper Pipes and build his own Highway.

"Qi Chong!"

"Come here. I have something for you to do."

After entering the camp, Chen Fan called over Qi Chong, who was busy in the Farmland. Qi Chong was transplanting all the wheat he had brought back from other camps into the Farmland.

"Stationmaster, the Farmland is too small. It's not enough anymore. Can we get another plot of Farmland?"

"We'll talk about that later."

One hour later.

"This is much better."

Chen Fan looked with satisfaction at the cart he had modified. This time, he named it the "Three-Wheeler 2.0."

He cut off one wheel.

Two wheels at the back, one wheel at the front.

The front wheel was connected to a Copper Pipe that passed through the wooden board and stood upright above it. By rocking the handle embedded in that Copper Pipe left and right, the wheel could be turned in either direction, steering the vehicle.

This gave the cart steering capability.

It required two people to operate at the same time.

One person stood at the front of the wooden board to control the direction, while the other stood at the rear and continuously stimulated the Ground Spikes to provide forward power.

The Three-Wheeler's acceleration.

Was not steady.

Because it had only one cylinder, and its power depended on how quickly the Ground Spikes recovered, the ride was extremely jerky. As for two-cylinder, four-cylinder, or eight-cylinder versions... those would be more complicated. He could optimize them later.

Laying Copper Pipes by driving was much faster.

"Get on."

"I'll control the direction."

Half an hour later.

Chen Fan stood on the Three-Wheeler with both hands on the control bar. Looking at the Copper Pipes connected one after another behind the vehicle, he smiled in satisfaction. With transportation to assist him, the speed was much faster.

In less than half an hour.

He had laid ten kilometers of Copper Pipe, using up all of today's free allowance.

He only needed to make a few more trips like this.

After the Rainy Season ended, the Highway could be put into operation!

"How was it?"

He looked at the panting Qi Chong behind him. "Can't keep going?"

"Of course I can!"

Qi Chong, gasping for breath, pulled out a waterskin from his chest and drained it in one gulp. Then he quickly stuffed several dry cakes into his mouth and chewed them in huge bites. Wiping the sweat from his forehead, he raised his aching arms and stood before the Ground Spikes, panting. "I'm not tired. This isn't much different from planting rice seedlings."

"Good. Then let's... go home!"

Chen Fan cheerfully turned the control bar. Standing on the wooden board, he gazed toward the horizon. His body had already adapted to the jolting as the vehicle bumped and swayed toward the camp.

Today's testing was more or less complete.

This Three-Wheeler could be put into regular use.

He planned to make two more.

One for Zhou Mo to travel to other stations and bring back resources.

One for himself to lay Copper Pipes.

And one for Wang Mazi to go out and see whether anything was happening in the Wasteland during the day, opening up the map while he was at it.

After returning to the camp.

Chen Fan cheerfully inspected the camp. He was in an excellent mood today, looking to see what parts of his camp urgently needed improvement. In the end, his gaze settled on a Level-3 Arrow Tower.

As the rainy nights passed day by day.

The Strange Entities would continuously grow stronger and become especially violent. Zhou Mo had told him all this.

He felt that he needed an Arrow Tower with greater power.

Next.

He climbed onto the City Wall and spent one hundred Eerie Stones to upgrade the Arrow Tower that had not learned the Arrow Rain Storm skill to Level 4!

The next moment—

The Arrow Tower turned into a phantom and began to constantly shift and collapse.

Until it collapsed into... a brown stone-brick cube one meter in length, height, and width.

It no longer looked anything like an Arrow Tower.

On one side of the stone brick, a pitch-black rectangular opening appeared. It nearly blended into the City Wall, and through that dark opening, he could clearly see a crossbow mechanism embedded within the stone brick, gleaming with cold light.

"Arrow Tower upgraded to Level 4, becoming 'Arrow Fort.' It must be fixed in one location and cannot be moved freely. Its power has increased."

"Please select an upgrade direction."

"1: Increased firing speed."

"2: Increased power."

"3: Reduced energy consumption."

"..."

Chen Fan gazed thoughtfully at the Arrow Fort before him. After the upgrade, it occupied far less space. It was sturdier, but also more concealed.

He chose increased firing speed.

This Arrow Tower had already had its power enhanced several times. It needed more firing speed. Based on his gaming experience from his previous life, an AD without attack speed would deal far less damage.

He issued an attack command.

Arrows wrapped in scorching flames shot out from the crossbow mechanism within the dark opening, striking the wasteland thirty meters beyond the City Wall with precision. For now, he could not tell whether their power had changed, but the firing speed was visibly much faster.

Just then—

"Hmm?"

His brows furrowed slightly as he looked toward Zhou Mo, who was running toward the camp in a bedraggled state through the rain not far away. Soon, Zhou Mo darted into the camp and hurried up to Chen Fan, panting heavily.

"Have some water. Take your time and tell me."

If nothing unexpected had happened, Zhou Mo must have encountered something unexpected.

"I ran into a Wraith!"

Zhou Mo took the waterskin Chen Fan handed him and drained it in one gulp. A trace of terror flashed deep in his eyes as his voice trembled. "On my way back to camp, I saw a group of people on the wasteland openly having sex."

"There were more than thirty of them."

"They were engaging in wild, indiscriminate sex."

"The moment I saw them from afar, I turned around and ran without the slightest hesitation."

"We're in the center of the wilderness. There definitely shouldn't be anyone here, so they could only have been Doppelganger Wraiths. The moment they saw me, they went mad and all chased after me together."

"Luckily, I'm a Level-2 Cultivator and run fast."

"But..."

"My little brother ran a little too slowly. Those Doppelganger Wraiths caught him, tore him apart alive, and swallowed him. Even the resources I picked up from other camps today were left there in the panic..."

"Stationmaster... I..."

"..."

Chen Fan patted Zhou Mo on the shoulder without speaking immediately. Only after a long silence did he look at the Arrow Fort beside him and... the Three-Wheeler parked in the camp. Suddenly, he thought of a way to expand a Builder's range of influence.

"Now isn't the time to be sad."

"Come. I'll take you back there to kill them."