Chapter 41: Mobile Fortress 0.1

Among the three different options of [Super awesome], [Super sneaky], and [Super flashy], the last one undoubtedly won Chen's heart the most.

It's not that he enjoys being unabashedly boastful; he simply thinks the mimic devourer is incredibly strong, capable of amphibious operations and deterring other devourers from afar. How could it not be the best choice?

However, dreams are full, but reality is skeletal.

As Chen Shijin continued to flip through the pages to see the energy required to construct the mimic devourer, he slowly covered his chest.

Six million energy points.

Equivalent to the energy value of two gourmet capitals or three smartphone cities.

He'd have to sell himself to the bounty list to afford such a mobile city.

Then, Chen Shijin went back to check the energy costs for constructing the mobile spider and earth dragon castles, feeling a bit split—

The mobile spider castle requires one million energy points.

And the cheapest mobile earth dragon castle also needs five hundred thousand energy points.

And right now, Chen Shijin only has 260,000 energy points.

So, in reality, they don’t even need to debate over which mobile castle to build because they can’t afford to construct any of them at the moment.

Meanwhile, Seal Heaven Fire and the pink snail were not giving in to each other in a one-on-one dispute.

"It has to be the spider! The spider is super awesome! Plus, it’s fast!"

"We need to be sneaky."

"The spider! It’s especially agile!"

"We need to be sneaky."

"We need something powerful!!"

"Need, to be sneaky."

Chen Shijin joined in their discussion with an expressionless face: "The spider requires one million energy points, you maniac, how much do you have?"

"The sneaky one requires 500,000 energy points, pink snail, how much do you have?"

Then, Chen Shijin saw both the person and the devourer turn their heads to look at him with an innocent yet entitled gaze.

Seal Heaven Fire: "I eat nothing but meat sandwiches for every meal, where would I have energy points?"

Pink Snail: "Snail just got smashed in the world, where would snail have energy points?"

Chen Shijin: "Heh!"

So, after all your heated debate, it’s me who has to pay?!

Jiang Hong and Chu Tiankuo and the others, watching the bigwigs at this moment, finally got a chance to speak.

Jiang Hong coughed lightly: "As members of the city-building team, our squad can contribute 10,000 energy points." This was all the energy savings they had managed to accumulate over two years.

Chu Tiankuo dusted off his sleeves, finally showing a bit of a boss's demeanor: "Our team can contribute 50,000."

At this announcement, both Jiang Hong’s and Chen Qiang’s teams were shocked, with Chen Qiang even exclaiming aloud: "How is that possible? How can you have so many energy points?!"

Chu Tiankuo snorted, he didn't reply, but a competent female exile standing behind him pushed up her glasses, a bit proudly stating: "Because our president has an amazing talent for business. Additionally, our president is also a young tycoon on the world’s billionaires list in his own world."

Chen Qiang could only grit his teeth and gasp in frustration. As a street tough and worker, he genuinely despised these overbearing CEOs. No wonder he found this guy particularly irritating at first sight; their professions were naturally antagonistic.

At that moment, Chu Tiankuo even turned to him to ask, "So how much energy can your team contribute?"

Chen Qiang: "..."

Chen Qiang looked at his remaining brothers and then at Chu Tiankuo's entourage of corporate followers, feeling the bitter contrast.

He simply couldn't bring himself to admit that all he had was a meager 5,000 energy points in savings.

Chen Qiang took a deep breath: "So what if you have a lot of energy points?! What I have is strength!"

Chu Tiankuo then smiled knowingly: "No worries, I understand. Those with money contribute money, those with strength contribute strength. Let's work hard, brother."

Chen Qiang: "Let's do it." This detestable face of capitalism!

However, even with the contributions from these three squads, they were still 180,000 energy points short of affording the cheaper earth dragon mobile fortress.

That's about the energy of a mid-level devourer.

"Uh, hunt a mid-level devourer for energy?" Jiang Hong suggested, "But, the land of exile is so vast, it's not that easy to find one right away."

Chen Shijin looked towards Seal Heaven Fire, who had managed to lead them to White Moon City and find Dream Home; surely finding a mid-level devourer wouldn't be too difficult, right?

Seal Heaven Fire outright gave up: "My ability to shrink distances has limits, and after taking you through so many places, I've exhausted all my mileage limit. I won't be able to use this ability for at least 72 hours."

"However, if you have such an ability, I can guide you! Because when it comes to finding devourers, I find them accurately every time, not by any skill, but by intuition!"

Chen Shijin's head ached. He hadn't been in the land of exile for even 24 hours and had already been devoured three times. Even the work team's donkey wasn't this overworked, and he didn't want to get devoured again in the short term.

But he really did want a place to rest and feel secure.

So, reluctantly, he went back to flipping through the "Construction Maniac's Manual" and finally spotted a few lines of small print in the corner—

[All construction is based on reality, and constructors never aim too high.]

[If you're a worker living just above the poverty line, then proportionally reduce the energy materials required for city building, and you can get a city lower than level 1, like 0.5 or even 0.1.]

[Even if it turns from an earth dragon into a little earthworm, you'll eventually become wealthier, right? Skyscrapers still rise from the ground.]

Chen Shijin twitched at the corners of his mouth reading these lines, but he also found a solution to the lack of energy points.

He showed these lines to Seal Heaven Fire, Chu Tiankuo, Jiang Hong, and the others, and everyone unanimously decided to first build a 0.1 level mobile earth dragon fortress that only required 50,000 energy points.

It's not that Chen Shijin is stingy.

Mainly because they only had twenty people plus a snail in total, so they really didn't need a large earth dragon capable of housing 10,000 people, right?

A 0.1 level earth dragon fortress can also accommodate a large space for 1,000. Plus, it's cheaper.

So, the twenty people plus a snail quickly sprang into action, converting energy into building materials according to the transformation diagrams in the Construction Maniac's Manual.

With a single command to "[evenly distribute 2,500 energy points per person]", Chen Shijin directly allocated the energy points, delighting those like Chu Tiankuo who had previously relied on guiders for energy transfer and suffered a 10% fee.

Chu Tiankuo even criticized the guider mall with a boss's tone: "If it weren't for the guider mall's monopoly, such pricing and commission would have bankrupted them already!"

"I utterly despise those who rely on physical monopolies rather than skill. I truly wish to see it completely bankrupt."

As Chen Shijin formed an alloy plate with energy points, he squinted at these words.

"Maybe there is a way to bankrupt it."

"What about re-establishing a cellphone network?"

He thought of his golden cellphone.

Chu Tiankuo, too, quickly thought of this miraculous device and his own chat group.

His eyes gleamed with excitement: "If we can establish communication in the land of exile just like in the devouring world! Brother Jin! I can set up an exile version of Fight Club in the shortest time! Charging only one-tenth of the guider's fee could kill that Sensing Deity!"

Chen Shijin smiled, knowing this could also greatly slow down or even directly block the Sensing Deity's advancement from king level to deity level.

"Currently, my golden gemstone cellphone can only connect all cellphones within a one-kilometer range and construct a communication signal. But this phone can be upgraded, perhaps after upgrading, it could connect over a much larger range."

As he said this, the cellphone in his pocket vibrated.

Chen Shijin took out the phone to see an automatically popped-up message that was exceedingly obsequious.

[Dear Master, greetings! This mobile is dedicated to connecting all exiled families, breaking the despicable monopoly of the guider trash!

Just for 98,000 energy points, not 980,000, nor 9,980,000! 98,000 will upgrade it from level one to level two, directly increasing the connectivity range tenfold, from one thousand meters to ten thousand meters!

Master, would you like to recharge? Love.jpg]

Chen Shijin, looking at those last few words and the spontaneously appearing emoticon, was indescribable.

Even in this exiled world, why does this damned phone still have a pay-to-win option?!

And don’t be fooled by the current price of only 98,000 energy points for the upgrade; this is just for level two. He was sure that upgrading to level three would demand 980,000 energy points. And for level four, that damned 9,980,000!

What golden gemstone mobile phone?

This is a golden gemstone money-devouring beast!

But, to pay or not to pay?

Chen Shijin looked at the two options popping up on the phone and finally pressed the upgrade button with a grim face.

He desperately needed energy, now more than ever!!

[Ding! Golden gemstone mobile phone upgrading! Upgrade will take 3 days, please do not turn off the phone in the meantime~]

The screen of the golden gemstone mobile phone burst into beautiful fireworks patterns, then directly entered the upgrade screen, showing a familiar percentage progress bar.

Chen Shijin rolled his eyes.

He was curious to see what changes this phone would have after the upgrade.

Then, it was all about building the city.

Everyone, having come from Dream Home, were skilled builders now, and with ready-made architectural blueprints and the guidance of the pink snail, twenty people managed to construct their basic fortress in just two days!

When the last piece of building material was put in place, everyone looking at their Eternal Home just... couldn't manage to show excitement.

Chen Shijin slightly bowed his head, pressing his brow, regretting not spending a bit more money.

Chu Tiankuo, with his CEO demeanor, had a stiff expression, pondering whether he really had to live in this Eternal Home.

Even Chen Qiang, the tough guy with the lowest demands for housing, looked at the huge, fat, and short fortress that resembled... something else, his face ashen.

"Boss Jin, if we try to recruit people with this thing, they'd probably prefer to live in stone houses, right?"

Chen Shijin made an effort to save face: "It's much more defensively robust than a stone house, and it also has a hiding function from devourers."

"Besides, although it looks rough on the outside, the interior is all metallic, bright and sturdy, and the houses can be decorated according to one's preferences. What true man cares about appearances? Isn't surviving all that matters?"

At this moment, the pink snail stretched out its tentacles very satisfied: "Good survival!"

Then, this glorious bone-spiked giant snail directly occupied the head position of the earth dragon fortress, giving this dark, fat earth dragon head a bone-spiked pink little hat.

The pink snail immediately felt much safer.

Chen Shijin smiled slightly: "See, in the land of exile, it's strength that matters more."

Everyone: .

Whatever you say.

Then, the group walked into their new home.

Although the home is currently just an inconspicuous 0.1 level earth dragon, it will one day evolve into a massive structure.

The interior of the earth dragon fortress is as bright as day.

It overall resembles a twenty-story building laid horizontally.

Each floor has six rooms, allowing for a total accommodation of 50 people according to room specifications.

If comfort is not a concern and squeezing in is an option, even a hundred people could stay on one floor.

As the first batch of residents and builders, Chen Shijin and his group naturally had the privilege of choosing their rooms first. As the "lord" and "full-payment developer" of the house, Chen Shijin directly moved into the earth dragon's [Dragon Head Room], the only luxury room in the entire city.

There isn't much difference between the Dragon Head Room and the ordinary rooms; the furniture inside also needs to be converted using energy points.

However, the Dragon Head Room is the largest in the city, with an area of 800 square meters, two huge floor-to-ceiling windows that are eight meters high and three meters wide, and a pink core snail ornament in front of the floor-to-ceiling windows.

"[The snail is sincere. In case of an attack, the snail will use its shell to cover the entire city and block the attack.]"

The pink core snail ornament wiggled its tentacles, "[But if the snail can't hold on, it runs.]"

Chen Shijin reached out and touched the little snail: "Don't worry. I'm someone with sincerity too; if we can't hold on, you run first and I'll cover."

"Moreover, as long as I'm here, you won't die."

The pink snail was very satisfied.

Chen Shijin was also satisfied; despite the mobile earth dragon's unimpressive exterior, its interior was truly nice.

He took out some items from his space ring and spent 30,000 energy points to decorate this large flat in a pastoral minimalist style, finally having a home in the land of exile.

After everything was done, he sat in a luxurious recliner, looking out at the darkness through the floor-to-ceiling windows, a trace of fatigue showing in his eyes as he slowly drifted off to sleep.

This was his first night in the land of exile.

Without a starry sky, no chirping of insects, and unable to fully relax into sleep.

Indeed, the moon is roundest back home.

*

[Ding—Dear Master! The update for the Golden Gemstone Mobile Phone is complete!! New functions are now available! Let's overthrow the guiders and rule the land of exile!]

Chen Shijin suddenly opened his eyes.

Taking out his golden gemstone mobile phone, the first thing he noticed was an additional ring of gemstones around the phone, followed by three new app icons on the screen.

[Exiles Chat Group]

[Fight Club Marketplace]

[Shake It]

The names of the first two icons were self-explanatory. Chen Shijin paused at the third icon, then instinctively shook his phone.

With that shake, a radar scanning circle instantly appeared on the screen, seemingly using him as the center to start scanning the surrounding area within ten thousand meters... for phones.

Chen Shijin quickly noticed several hundred dense green dots at the edge of the radar circle, around the 10 o'clock area, with three large red dots amidst them.

[You've shaken to friends!]

[Master can now send group messages!]

[Phones that were scanned can receive your message!]

[Green dots represent human mobile phones, red dots represent devourers. Based on size, the devourers are estimated to be mid-level.]

Chen Shijin, observing the rapidly diminishing green dots and the three large red dots, pressed the alarm bell to have the pink snail move the city in that direction, while simultaneously broadcasting a message:

[Hang in there, don't panic! Reinforcements are on the way!]

*

On the other side, Lyu Jun, who was trying hard to emit an aura of calm, had already turned pale, and his companions were in even worse shape than he was.

"It's a pity I won't see my cousin dominate and become king before I die. I can't accept this!"

Might as well take one last look at a photo of my cousin before death.

Just as Lyu Jun opened the photo gallery on his phone, his phone started ringing. And automatically popped up a message:

[Hang in there, don't panic! Reinforcements are on the way!]—Chen Shijin.

Lyu Jun: !!!!!