After spending his first wonderful night on Prisoner Continent, Li Xingkong got up early the next morning.
The weather on Prisoner Continent was different from that of the Divine Land. It was closer to the equator, and temperatures stayed relatively high throughout the year. Even so, Li Xingkong did not find it particularly uncomfortable; ordinary heat and cold were already almost negligible to him.
After getting up early, Li Xingkong pushed his motorcycle out, intending to survey his land first.
He rode along the road in one direction for five minutes before reaching the end of the cultivated land beside it. Beyond that lay a wasteland, so badly desertified that hardly any plants grew there. The morning sunlight fell on the distant wilderness, making the scenery shimmer.
He turned off at the edge of the field and into the wasteland, continuing along the boundary of his land.
Though it was out in the wild, the terrain here was flat, with hardly any variation in elevation, so even a motorcycle could travel over it easily.
After riding for nearly another ten minutes, he finally saw the boundary on this side. Looking into the distance, he saw nothing but endless wilderness here as well. If he had not visited the city just yesterday, Li Xingkong would have felt more like someone struggling to survive in the wild.
By his rough estimate, the farm covered around three hundred mu, already a very large area. The surrounding land was open enough, too, without a single neighbor in sight. For Li Xingkong, it could not have been more suitable.
Now that he had a base, the next step was to prepare materials. Li Xingkong had also looked up quite a few guides and procedures online for building a sealed chamber.
First, the chamber needed to withstand an explosion without being damaged, so its walls had to be made of metal, the thicker the better. No one needed to survive inside it for long, either; it only needed an opening through which explosives and materials could be placed inside. The chamber could therefore be made somewhat smaller.
Likewise, the smaller the chamber, the greater the force of an explosion inside it, and the more thoroughly the materials could be shattered. For Li Xingkong, making it smaller would not only save on costs but also reduce the amount of explosives needed, killing two birds with one stone.
So the first material Li Xingkong needed was a sufficient amount of steel, enough to build a sealed chamber that was sufficiently sturdy.
On Prisoner Continent, steel was not a controlled material, but not just anyone could buy it. To purchase steel, Li Xingkong needed special authorization. More importantly, although Prisoner Continent was rich in iron ore, its lack of population and productive capacity meant that it chose to export the ore directly rather than process it into steel. To buy steel, he would have to purchase it from another country. There was little an individual could do in that regard, so he also needed a shell company.
With the idea in mind, he set to work. Other things might be difficult to get done on Prisoner Continent, but neither of the two matters before him was particularly hard.
Here, as long as you had money, nothing was a problem.
After spending just half a day and a little of his savings, Li Xingkong acquired a company named "I Am a Shell Company." The name was a bit of Li Xingkong's own twisted humor. In any case, once the registrar on Prisoner Continent saw his money, his eyes never left it. Forget the name-he had probably already forgotten what Li Xingkong looked like.
The approval to purchase steel was also easy to obtain; it took practically no effort at all.
After he had spent less than another week at the farm studying the theory, the materials he had ordered were delivered to his farm by dedicated personnel, along with free installation.
During that time, Li Xingkong had been a little short of money, but he only had to make a few trips around the city and take some ill-gotten gains to have enough. As for what the people who had lost their money had to say, all he could say was that they were still out drinking and carousing somewhere, and might never have even counted how much money they had.
After nearly a month, Li Xingkong finally finished building his blast chamber. To make it all look a little more reasonable, he disguised it to look as though there were rat holes underground. On Prisoner Continent, people often used explosives to drive rats out of their burrows.
"System, everything's ready. We can start."
It was another scorching day; it was rare to see weather that was not hot on Prisoner Continent. Li Xingkong wore dark blue, hard-wearing bib overalls and a straw hat, looking every bit a farmer. In fact, he was one, since he had not left the land idle. After registering with the Department of Agriculture, Li Xingkong had planted corn on all his land.
"All right. Once you detonate the materials, I'll need to take control of your body to collect them. You'll have to grant me access temporarily. Do you understand?"
The system spoke to Li Xingkong. Though it could forcibly take over his body, it had never had any unpleasant dealings with him over the years. They had always gotten along well, and the system treated him with respect.
"No problem. I'll leave it to you." Li Xingkong put on his goggles. Beside him was a pile of thin collection tubes, meant to hold the particle materials he would obtain shortly.
"Ready, go!" Li Xingkong tossed the explosives onto the designated detonation point, then closed the chamber door. The door opened at the top, and the entire chamber was like a pressure cooker. Once the door was shut, the inside would be completely sealed off from the outside.
Beside the chamber was a device connected to the detonator. It looked like a round button, more like a toy than anything else.
Li Xingkong slammed his fist down on the button, then quickly covered his ears.
Two seconds later, Li Xingkong heard a rumbling explosion beneath his feet, and the ground shook a little. It shook so violently that he almost lost his footing. Fortunately, he quickly grabbed the handrail beside him and managed to steady himself.
Once the noise had gradually died away, Li Xingkong stepped forward to inspect the condition of his chamber.
The chamber had not broken, but the joint between it and the door had bulged outward. The door had not been completely deformed, though it was somewhat twisted.
After some effort, he managed to open the door. A great cloud of smoke poured out of the chamber and drifted in all directions.
By then, Li Xingkong had handed control of his body over to the system. The system did not go down immediately. Instead, it opened his eyes wide and carefully scrutinized the dispersing smoke several times. Then he thrust a collection tube into the smoke, poking it in to capture a little.
"Good, I've got this material. The luck really was good."
The system returned control of his body to Li Xingkong. As soon as Li Xingkong was back in his own body, he felt terrible: his vision swam, his head spun, and his stomach was empty.
"What the hell, System? What happened?" Li Xingkong took two steps and toppled straight over to one side.
"Your body is too weak. I overclocked the Ultimate Eyesight ability, so it's perfectly normal for your body to feel some discomfort," the system said. "Oh, right, I also drew on a great deal of energy. You feel so awful now most likely because you're starving to the extreme."
Damn, tell me sooner next time. Li Xingkong could not even get up, but fortunately he still had a little food in his pocket.
He struggled to get the food out of his pocket, only to find he no longer had the strength to bring it to his mouth.