Chapter 72: The Convoy—First in the Region, First in the World

Lin Mu shook his head, guessing it was probably forbidden by the rules, or perhaps... He glanced at the surrounding mist—maybe there was some hidden danger lurking within. After all, when a normal person saw such giants, their first instinct would be to get as far away as possible, which meant their only choice was to drive onto the grassy field.

The vehicle rolled forward.

“Brother Mu, we’ve spotted a supply crate ahead.”

“Got it.” Lin Mu glanced at the radar on the windshield. He still had to let Shu Yi lead the way—her luck was simply too good.

Once they arrived at the location, Lin Mu, as usual, first began searching for the crate among the grass.

He hadn’t gone far before a grizzly bear appeared in his line of sight and instantly charged at his vehicle.

“Holy—!”

Startled, he triggered the flamethrower mounted on the hood, a jet of fire erupting in an instant.

The grizzly tumbled across the ground, and Lin Mu quickly regained his composure, slashing down with his blade.

[Congratulations, player, you have slain an S-class dangerous grizzly bear. Awarded: 500g bear meat x20, bear paw x4.]

There was no bear hide to be seen, but Lin Mu didn’t care. Considering it was practically charred beyond recognition, it would be a miracle to receive any.

Thud!

[Congratulations, you have opened an Iron-tier supply crate. Awarded: 500g bread x10, universal heavy weapon ammo blueprint (SS) x10.]

Lin Mu’s eyes lit up—what a find. He hadn’t expected to get a blueprint, and for ammunition at that, from an Iron-tier crate.

The only pity was, he didn’t have any artillery weapons.

“If only it were a bullet blueprint—then I could finally use that machine gun.”

With that thought, Lin Mu couldn’t help but think of those convoys. There must be quite a few whose vehicle cores had reached Lv4 already; wouldn’t their supplies be even richer?

He pulled up the convoy rankings.

[Handsome Convoy (3/30)] 1st place—171,652 points.
[Red Star Convoy (18/30)] 2nd place—21,191 points.
[Invincible Convoy (12/30)] 3rd place—14,842 points.
[…]

Hmm?

What happened? The second convoy had changed hands? And why had Invincible Convoy lost so many members?

Not only that, but their points had dropped significantly as well.

As someone who rarely paid attention to the regional channel, Lin Mu knew next to nothing about outside developments.

That wouldn’t do.

Just then, he noticed a new option on the convoy interface—Global Convoys.

When he tapped it, the screen displayed: Top 100 Global Convoys.

Lin Mu’s lips twitched. It felt just like those casual mobile games—top 100 guilds and all that.

[[Huaguo] Handsome Convoy (3/30)] 1st place—171,652 points.
[[Eagle] Edward Convoy (28/30)] 2nd place—32,492 points.
[[Hans] Kutel Convoy (22/30)] 3rd place—27,841 points.
[…]

Among the top ten, only two were Huaguo convoys.

Lin Mu shook his head; it was quite unexpected. If Invincible Convoy hadn’t run into trouble, Huaguo might have claimed three spots in the top ten.

But who knew if this ranking was useful to begin with. Convoy rankings had existed for a long time, but so far, there’d been no mention of any rewards. As for this global ranking, it must have just appeared.

But it hardly mattered to him. As long as he could survive, what difference did it make if he ranked last?

When he’d finished gathering all the supply crates, Lin Mu turned to Shu Xin at the back.

“When you and your sister were together, how did you talk to me?”

He remembered only one core on their vehicle at the time, yet it wasn’t Shu Yi—the vehicle owner—who spoke to him, but rather Shu Xin.

“It’s just a matter of granting permissions. Once a vehicle’s core reaches Lv2, you can assign permissions.”

“…”

Lin Mu felt a bit awkward. Lv2 had that feature? He hadn’t known. Then again, with no one else on his vehicle, it didn’t matter.

“Where do you set permissions?”

“In your personal info, there’s a permissions tab.”

Lin Mu opened his profile and, sure enough, found a permissions center at the bottom. Inside, he saw he could assign up to three administrators, with customizable permissions.

He didn’t want to set up that many, so he made Shu Xin an administrator, granting access only to the regional and global channels—nothing else.

“I’m giving you a task: keep an eye on the chat feed and let me know if anything important happens.”

Shu Xin stared at the endlessly scrolling messages, her lips twitching. “You mean all the messages??”

With over 200,000 people, how could she possibly keep track of everything?

“As much as possible, just focus on the big things. Like discoveries of new resources, new wild creatures, or convoy news. No need to tell me about gossip.”

Previously, Lin Mu had tried putting 001 in charge of this, but the results were less than ideal. Information collection was quick, but the processing left much to be desired. He had overestimated 001’s intelligence.

As expected, initial gains always came with flaws.

“All right, I understand.” Shu Xin sat on the ground in the back, staring worriedly at the barrage of messages.

How on earth was she supposed to keep up? Couldn’t they type a little slower?

“Um, could I have a notebook? I’m afraid I’ll forget something.”

There was simply too much. Without taking notes, she’d never remember it all.

Lin Mu opened his workbench and crafted ten notebooks and ten pencils. He would’ve liked to make pens, but the workbench didn’t offer those.

“Here you go.”

Looking at the stack of thick notebooks, Shu Xin sighed and resigned herself to her fate.

…

[Congratulations, you have opened a Gold-tier supply crate. Awarded: Antidote x40, gasoline 1,000L, mithril ingot x50, universal firearm ammo blueprint (SS) x10.]

Good news—he could produce bullets now.

Bad news—he was starting to accumulate too many blueprints.

What was he supposed to do with so many? Sell them? There was no way he’d sell something he was about to use himself—wouldn’t that be aiding the enemy?

Lin Mu shook his head and tossed them straight into the recycling bin.

[Ding~ Recycled S-class blueprint x2, received: Mysterious Element x6.]

Lin Mu’s eyes widened as he read the golden text that had just appeared.

Mysterious Element?

So that’s what you got for recycling blueprints? He’d thought the system would just give basic materials like gold or silver ingots, but it turned out to be a brand-new resource.

A material he’d never encountered before.

But when he read the description, Lin Mu found himself somewhat perplexed.

He felt as if his intelligence was coming up short.