Chapter 126: Can't Afford It, Simply Can't Afford It

Lin Mu quickly exited the vehicle and followed Shu Xin to the center of the small town. In the middle of the square, a white orb of light had indeed appeared. It seemed this was the map the interface had mentioned. With a map in hand, he could locate cities, and once he occupied one, he could begin developing his own forces. The prospect of dominating this place would then be within reach.

Lin Mu rubbed his hands together and poked the small orb with his finger.

[Ding! Congratulations, player, you have obtained one map.]

Map acquired! Lin Mu hurriedly opened the interface on his watch. "Map... map... found it!" A new map option had appeared on the screen. He tapped it, and his smile froze. You call this a map?

"Brother Interface, what is this?"
[It’s a map.]
"I know it's a map, but why are parts of it black?"
[Areas that have not been explored are black.]

Lin Mu’s mouth twitched. "Then what does this golden frame mean?"
[The maximum display range of the map you obtained.]

Fine. He understood now: a single map could only display a limited distance. Based on the scale, this small map likely only covered an area with side lengths of 200 kilometers. It seemed all maps obtained in this square would be like this. Lin Mu zoomed out and looked at it. Are you sure it's possible to complete this map? There must be at least two thousand pieces!

"Brother Interface, this isn't right. If it takes three months to get such a small piece, when will I ever find the whole map?"
[You can go to cities to search for maps; those maps are larger. If you are capable, you can directly find the four Great Cities; only four maps would be enough.]

Great Cities? It seemed there were different classifications for cities.
"Brother Interface, how are the cities categorized here?"
[Cities are classified from smallest to largest as: Small Cities, Medium Cities, Large Cities, Main Cities, and Great Cities. As a reminder, the city you are currently in is a Small City, providing 1 unit of map coverage. A Central City provides 5 units, a Large City 50 units, a Main City 200 units, and a Great City 1,000 units.]

Lin Mu smacked his lips. For some reason, he felt he had a fundamental misunderstanding of what a city was. You call a place this small a "Small City"? I was being generous calling it a town. But he had no choice; if the system said it was a Small City, then it was a city.

As for why there were no villages, it was possible that villages weren't part of the system's designated categories. On the map, there were no icons for villages in the explored areas. Perhaps those villages were built by individuals, which would explain why they weren't displayed on the map—after all, those structures were made of wood.

However, the towns—that is, the Small Cities—that Lin Mu had visited were marked. They simply displayed the number "88." Lin Mu couldn't help but wonder if a city could be rebuilt 180 days after being destroyed. And if it were destroyed again after being rebuilt? Unfortunately, he had no time to verify these things.

Looking at his current location on the map, he was in the lower-left area. According to the interface, there were four Great Cities. This meant that if the center was the origin, each of the four quadrants should have one Great City. Assuming an even distribution... Lin Mu drew a circle on the lower-left portion of the map; that was likely where it was. That was his next target. He just didn't know what kind of forces occupied a Great City or if he could defeat them.

"Let's go. We're heading back." He returned to the vehicles. "Pack up. We're getting ready to move out."
"Yes!"

They packed what they needed, making sure not to forget to finish destroying the town. After they left, two figures in black robes appeared out of thin air.

"Number 36, this is supposed to be the planet under your jurisdiction, right?" one of the black-robed figures asked.
"Yes... it is indeed our planet."
"Are you kidding? Is your planet full of bandits? The destruction is massive. There isn't a single living thing for a hundred miles, and every building has been razed."
Number 36’s mouth twitched. "He’s an exception. Everyone else has a normal lifestyle."
"Judging by his direction, he's heading for a Medium City. He wouldn't tear that down too, would he?"
"That... surely he wouldn't..."
"Forget it. Let's hurry and reset the formation. I'm so done with this. The workload wasn't this high before; ever since this guy showed up, there’s been nothing but trouble."

...

Lin Mu’s convoy drove for three hours, moving beyond the range of the map he had acquired.
"Everyone, prepare!" Lin Mu activated the War Machine mode. Vehicle after vehicle linked together.

Over 130 vehicles combined into a war machine 40 meters long, 20 meters wide, and 10 meters high. It featured ten propellers and two rows of jet vents underneath to provide power. However, after less than ten minutes of operation, Lin Mu ordered everyone to break back into individual vehicles.

They couldn't afford it; they simply couldn't afford it. Ten minutes had burned through 1,000 liters of gasoline—and that wasn't even at full speed.

Lin Mu pulled out the blank vehicle component blueprint. "I want a blueprint for infinite energy."
[I am sorry, the design is unreasonable.]
"Then give me a nuclear fusion reactor blueprint."
[I am sorry, this does not qualify as a vehicle component blueprint.]

Lin Mu rubbed his chin. It only said it didn't qualify as a vehicle component, but it didn't say it was unreasonable. That meant if he could get another blank blueprint, he could potentially create a nuclear fusion reactor design.

Sigh. It was difficult. He never expected that as his vehicle count increased, his consumption would skyrocket. Even with a million liters of gasoline, he couldn't keep up with this rate of consumption. Wait, he had the modification skill; couldn't he modify a new way to supply power? His eyes immediately turned to a wind turbine. Since electric vehicles existed back on Earth, there was no reason he couldn't invent one here. "Improve electrical power generation..."

Unable to use the war machine, the convoy had to travel by road. They spent three days traveling, and every village they encountered suffered at Lin Mu's hands. Eventually, a town appeared in their sights. Lin Mu checked the map; it was pitch black. They were nearly 1,000 kilometers away from the previous area. They hadn't covered much distance, as collecting materials from all those villages took time.

"Conquer this place, and we'll rest for three months."

This time, they didn't use cannons; they used laser weaponry. However, just as they were about to start, Shu Xin's voice came over the comms.

"It looks like they might be our own people. Should we still attack?"