Chapter 488 A Timely Rain, A “Gift”. From The Dwarves! (Two in One)
The war for territory was not a child’s game. Proper preparations had to be made for it!
The gates of the fortified city had suddenly opened and hundreds of dwarfs poured out of the city. The moment Su Mo noticed this, he knew that something had gone wrong. Immediately, he used the pointer… His target was Chen Shen! Currently, the pointer had four remaining uses, and Su Mo did not feel that it was a waste to use it like this, because he was aware that the villagers that had been chosen and trained in the virtual dimension were far more valuable than anything else.
In other words, if he had to choose between the villagers and the territory, he would not hesitate to choose the villagers!
“Humans, your reckless behavior has breached the rules set between territories. There will only be room for peace talks if you surrender the murderers and return the coal rocks to us.” “Otherwise, the Cole clan will never let you
go!”
On one side were the dwarves that were only two hundred in number.
On the other side were the villagers numbering five to six hundred.
Thousands of meters away, Su Mo was also providing cover fire. This deterred the dwarves as they lost the courage to charge at them.
However, one of the dwarves that rode a lizard that was twice as large as the others stepped out from the crowd. This dwarf was carrying a machete that was even larger than the previous dwarf leader’s machete by a full one-third. Even the lizard that he rode was outfitted with black battle armor and looked extraordinary. “Shelter Leader, the dwarf said…” Standing at the front, Pei Shao raised the walkie-talkie and whispered into it; the dwarf’s words were repeated precisely back to Su Mo.
Then, as expected, Su Mo laughed in anger. “Hook me up to the loudspeaker. I want them to listen carefully to my words!”
“Dwarves, I’ll give you two choices. Either you completely surrender all of your Old Era technology to me, or I’ll personally flatten your base in three months’ time.”
“You dwarves are the first to steal my stuff and not die immediately. This coal mine, you can mine it, but you better hope you live long enough to use the coal!” The moment Su Mo mentioned the Old Era technology, the dwarf chief’s disdain and arrogance immediately faded as the color on his face dramatically changed. It was as if Su Mo had touched on a taboo topic.
The dwarf chief did not even bother to respond. He shouted and whipped his lizard to dash back toward the fortified city.
The rest of the dwarves were equally clueless as to what had transpired. However, under these circ.u.mstances, they blindly followed the actions of their chief as they ran back too.
In a few seconds, the tense atmosphere that was filled with hostility abruptly dispersed. By the time they finally reacted to what had happened, any traces of the dwarves were long gone. Aside from the large footprints left by the lizards, there were no other traces that indicated that the dwarves were here before. Even the scent of the dwarves was goneblown away by the wind. “What. These dwarves left just like that?” “Huff, huff. I thought there was going to be a big fight!” Li Hu was the first to lead the charge, but the last to arrive. He arrived riding on the back of a lizard that was now panting for air. The crowd of villagers had dispersed and sprinted forward to pick up the loot left behind by the dwarves. Swords and lizard carca.s.ses, those were usually the only things that could be found from these ordinary dwarves. Occasionally, the villagers would find treasures on the dwarves’ corpses. For instance, they found a s.h.i.+eld that could be activated, a longbow that glowed green, and a sharp light-absorbing dagger that was half the size of a palm.
The hundreds of villagers cleaned up the battlefield and, within minutes, only spots of blood were left on the ground. They even carried back the corpses of the dwarves. Glancing at the dense forest, Su Mo ordered the villagers not to greedily search for the remaining two carts that had been abandoned earlier and to hastily return instead.
The distance back to the territory was eight hundred meters but, for the villagers who still had the Rapid March buff, this distance could be covered instantaneously.
However, Liu Peiqiang, who was still dazed and clueless about the situation, had to be coerced back to the territory;
This was all a dream beyond dreams.
“My physical and mental… the pressure is gone!”
“I actually…made it back alive?”
He was in the real world and not virtual reality. Death was permanent here and there was no way to revive.
He stared at the empty sleeve where his right hand used to be. Then, he watched as Su Mo strode toward him-his eyes were br.i.m.m.i.n.g with tears!
“You’re a real man. It’s a pity you have no brains!”
“I’ll let it go this time. Next time, I don’t care if you have to throw away everything. Just make it back alive!” Su Mo took the severed arm and pressed it against Liu Peiqiang’s wound. Su Mo took out the Mountain and Sea Painting Scroll card that exuded the power of the stars. The card had been frequently used and its power level had decreased to 97.39%.
After reattaching the severed arm, its power level decreased by another 0.22%.
However, Su Mo felt that the power spent to reattach the arm was worth it.
From the corner of his eye, he saw the hundreds of villagers standing by the side; their eyes were all s.h.i.+ning brilliantly. A severed arm was a medical conundrum that stumped even modern medicine pract.i.tioners.
This was especially in Liu Peiqiang’s situation, whereby it was practically impossible to reattach the arm through surgery. Now, in front of everyone, Su Mo’s feat of reattaching the arm undoubtedly sent a message to everyone. “Shelter Leader, you have once again shown us your grace. I have no other means to repay you but to offer my life to your service!”
Liu Peiqiang moved his arm about and made sure that it functioned no differently from before. Fl.u.s.tered, he knelt to offer Su Mo his grat.i.tude.
His fl.u.s.tered composure was no surprise to Su Mo or the rest.
In the doomsday world, survivors knew the importance of the arm better than anyone else.
It would not be an exaggeration to state that Su Mo had just given Liu Peiqiang a second chance at life.
“Peiqiang, just stand up. Shelter Leader won’t buy into your antics!” “Today is a great day of harvest. If you act like this, you’ll ruin the mood!” Chen Shen laughingly walked to the front and helped Liu Peiqiang to his feet. The rest of the villagers cooperated as well and broke out into laughter—the atmosphere instantly eased and became harmonious.
“That’s enough, that’s enough. Don’t waste time. It’s getting late so quickly take the things back. “We’ll begin the major construction work tomorrow, so go home early and rest!” They had struggled to make progress with the slow-moving carts.
Currently, it was six in the evening, and the sun had begun to descend past the horizon. Seizing the moment, the crowd began to make their way home as the carts were slowly pulled along. Li Hu and the few who had lost the Rapid March buff moved slowly. They were accompanied by the carts that were being dragged sluggishly by the lizards. Seeing this, Su Mo sent someone to report back to the base first, after which he swiftly walked to the side of a cart and jumped into it.
According to Li Hu’s description, it did not matter whether the coal rocks were stored in the carts or smashed to bits; the notifications would still pop out whenever they attempted to store them into their storage s.p.a.ce.
This was the first time Su Mo had come across such an issue.
To try it out, Su Mo spent ten Disaster Points to open and attempt to store the coal rocks in his storage. He was immediately greeted with the same notification that Li Hu described.
“Peculiar indeed. It would make sense if the coals were in the enemy’s territory and we couldn’t use our storage s.p.a.ce to smuggle it out.”
“However, we’ve returned to our territory and somehow it is still the same.”
“Could it be that whoever researched the Old Era Technology purposely created such a thing to stop us from using the storage s.p.a.ce to smuggle items?” The light in Su Mo’s eyes was faint as he rubbed the coal rock. Then he quickly closed the notification panel and summoned the system.
The next second, a green light appeared and circled the coal rock.
A new properties panel floated up amid the pitch-black darkness.
[Bituminous Coal Rock (Purity: 81.35-89.12%) (Marked)] [Description: A high-purity coal rock mined by hand. It releases more energy when burnt and is currently marked by the Cole dwarves. Feedback on its current position is being sent in real-time.]
[Combustion heat output: 1kg/29307.6 kilojoules] [Combustion duration: Determined by the size of its container]
(Mark status: Activated (Positional feedback is sent every minute to the receiver. Time since last feedback: 32 seconds).] [Marking method: Old Era Technology (high concurrency position reactor)]
[Comment: Even though the combustion of bituminous coal releases a significant amount of air pollutants, without a doubt, it is still an extremely useful natural resource.]
“As expected. It really is the Old Era Technology. Looks like the Cole dwarves have plenty of goodies under their care!”
The game would only notify them of the existence of the marks.
However, the system could even identify the time since the mark last sent feedback to the receiver.
At the same time, he noticed the feedback cycle was one minute. From this, Su Mo surmised the reason behind why the dwarves believed they could successfully bring the coal back to their territory.
In the enemy’s territory, the dwarves had lizards to ride on. They could have easily caught up with Li Hu and the others who were moving slowly.
At the very least, based on Su Mo’s observations, after the a.s.sault squad triggered the siren, the three hundred dwarves immediately left the city to provide support. Yet somehow, the dwarves did not manage to catch up with the a.s.sault squad; they even allowed them escape and successfully return to their territory. Based on their speed, the reason that this had happened was simple… They wanted to acquire the location of the basin area.
Or in other words, they wanted the location of the invader’s base camp.
“It seems that the Cole dwarves are much smarter than the stupid foreign races after
all.”
“Let’s not even discuss how they managed to familiarize themselves with the use of items that were derived from the Old Era technology. Their acting skills alone were absolutely breathtaking!” He thoroughly contemplated the matter.
Su Mo had boasted about his ambition to flatten the enemy’s base within three months. However, he did not harbor any contempt toward his enemy, nor did he belittle them in his mind.
In terms of their threat level, the dwarves had managed to extend their territory into Su Mo’s vicinity and had excavated coal mines within a short period of time. This alone indicated the dwarfs possessed a certain level of strength.
However, if they could grab ahold of these dwarves and s.n.a.t.c.h the Old Era Technology from their hands…
“This matter needs to be shelved for now. We have to at least wait until the basin area recovers its production capacity in terms of firearms and ammunition manufacturing. Only then can we consider taking action.”
“Based on our current ammunition reserves, and the fact that I can’t step out of the territory, even if we are victorious against the enemy, our casualties will be heavy as well.” In terms of combat power, Su Mo, who was empowered by the wasteland authority, had grown increasingly into a monster. His accuracy with a rifle exceeded the maximum stated range of the rifle. This alone displayed the difference between Su Mo and the others.
In a territorial war, if Su Mo was not constrained by the rules of the game, he would have been confident in slaughtering the dwarves even if thousands of them surrounded him, let alone three hundred.
However, it was a pity that there were restraints in place. Unless the dwarfs were unafraid of death and charged into his territory, there would be no opportunities for Su Mo to display his strength. “System, how many points does it cost to remove these marks.” After pondering for a while, he ultimately decided to remove the marks that would relay the position of the coal rocks every minute. The reason was simple…
He needed time to grow and develop!
If the enemies were really armed with long-range weapons or or capable of other magical means of attacks, during this stage where the basin area was impoverished, these attacks would undoubtedly strike a fatal blow to his plans. For the sake of their safety, Su Mo chose the safest route.
(Bituminous Coal Rock (Purity 81.35-89.12%) (Marked)]
[Description: …]
[First upgrade option: Remove all enemy marks. Permanently block all position-sensing trackers. Survival points required (98).]
[Second upgrade option: Reverse-track the enemy marks through position-sensing to confirm the enemy’s location. There is a probability of destroying the enemy’s tracking equipment, resulting in unknown consequences. Survival points required (690).]
[Third upgrade option: Provide the following materials (Circuit board*4, computer*2, borosilicate gla.s.s*6, high-frequency signal receiver and transmitter*1, harmonic oscillator*1…etc). There is a high probability of infiltrating the enemy’s tracking equipment, stealing the information within, and simulating incorrect information to mislead the enemy. Survival points required (31000).] The three upgrade options far exceeded Su Mo’s expectations.
After the system upgrade, it provided many innovative new upgrade options, although it had not provided the daily survival points announcement for quite some time. Su Mo was slightly surprised when he noticed that there was even an option to infiltrate the enemy’s tracking equipment. However, he slowly shook his head when he saw the enormous cost of that upgrade option.
Earlier, he had used up a substantial amount of survival points. In addition to the miscellaneous fees he had incurred during the voyage to the New World… He was currently left with just 3690 survival points!
Tomorrow, he would receive a large number of points for successfully entering his territory. At this juncture, Su Mo had to choose between the development of the territory, and his impulse to spend on the upgrade. In the end, Su Mo subdued his impulse and chose the former.
“I choose…upgrade option two!” A stream of light flashed and 690 survival points were deducted. A familiar red light that represented the “delete” function emerged from his body and pa.s.sed through all the coal rocks and lizards before returning Then, Su Mo attempted to store the coal rocks into his storage s.p.a.ce again. This time, the restrictions were gone.
“Eh, Shelter Leader, the restrictions are gone? We can now store them into our storage
s.p.a.ce?”
The coal rocks that were half the size of a man abruptly disappeared and reappeared. Sitting on a cart, Li Hu’s eyes widened when he saw this.
“Oh, did you mean the mark?”
“This is something only the territory lord can do. Its function is to more or less detect the position of the marked object and prevent it from being stored into the storage s.p.a.ce. If we don’t remove it, then it would be equivalent to exposing our location to the enemy.” “Don’t panic though, I’ll inform the others when we return to the territory. The next time anyone encounters such a thing, just place it outside the boundary of our territory. It requires the authority of the territory lord to remove.”
This was all nonsense made up by Su Mo. Seeing Li Hu’s “I understand” expression, Su Mo laughed and turned his head. Su Mo did not know whether the upgrade had destroyed the enemy’s tracking equipment. Nonetheless, thanks to the four carts of coal rocks, the looming threat of the upcoming heavy blizzard had diminished significantly.
Furthermore, in addition to that…
“System, evaluate the lizards!”
Su Mo observantly looked on as each of the carts was pulled by nine diligent lizards. Once again, he summoned the system. [Hybrid earth lizard coolie (Normal)] [Description: It is rumored that, during ancient times, two powerful dragons gave birth to nine offspring. With their unparalleled strength, they controlled large swaths of territory. Unfortunately, they were naive in believing that they could oppress everything with power alone. They failed to understand that emotions were the scariest thing in this world.
The eldest son of the dragon’s offspring fell victim to a meticulous trap designed to exploit his emotions and bloodline. He willingly sacrificed his bloodline and mated with a lowly lizard, birthing a new species on the continent-dragon lizards.
Although this creature did not have a powerful physical body, nor the ability to use magic like the dragons, their reproduction speed was tens of thousands, or even hundreds of thousands of times, that of a dragon. After going through countless breeding cycles, they changed several times and ultimately gave birth to tens of thousands of different bloodlines. Among those bloodlines, the most powerful Sky Shaking Lizard was even capable of facing off against the legendary dragon. Even the lowest among the dragon lizards, the earth lizard coolie, which had the most mixed bloodline, possessed an endurance that surpa.s.sed every other ordinary living being. It was born to be a beast of burden!]
[Food source: Omnivorous (Inheriting the gluttony of the legendary dragon, the earth lizard’s stomach acid can digest anything including, but not limited to stone, mud, feces of other beings, gra.s.s, grains, etc…)] [Endurance: One thousand and four hundred kilometers per day, when fully sated.] [Interests: Sunbathing, ma.s.sages, interacting with other living beings.] [Command method: The timid lizard coolie does not have a true master. They will obey any commands from other living beings in order to acquire food for survival. However, the lizard will acknowledge a true master via a special method and will forever stay loyal to their master. If any outsiders attempt to forcefully control them, the lizard will resort to extreme methods of resistance. This includes, but is not limited to, suicide, attacking, escaping…(Special method: Help the lizard coolie to breed stronger offspring.)] [Breeding difficulty: Extremely low (The coolie lizard is a natural breeding vessel, its bloodline has been mixed with the genes of hundreds of thousands of living beings. Each time a different living being’s genes is mixed into its own via breeding, it will result in the creation of a new living being and, at the same time, unexpected variations may be produced.)]
[Comment: Perhaps you can try… Moore-lizard, or maybe even…Oreo-lizard?]