After entering the Xing'an Mountain Range, Xiao Fan kept his radar screen on at all times.
Within the mountains, purple dots representing mutant beasts frequently appeared on the screen.
However, the red dots representing zombies were nowhere to be seen, even deep within the mountain range.
During the journey, Xiao Fan even discovered a few darker purple dots, which likely represented stronger mutant beasts.
Xiao Fan still had enough mutant beast meat for now, and had no desire to provoke the beasts. He tried to avoid contact with them whenever possible.
Nevertheless, avoiding them completely was impossible.
After traveling over thirty kilometers along the river, they eventually ran out of road and had to proceed on foot.
During this process, they encountered attacks from mutant deer, mutant boars, mutant crows, and more.
As they neared the mining area, Xiao Fan's group was even attacked by a swarm of mutant sparrows.
These once insignificant birds had now become larger than crows, extremely bloodthirsty, and charged at Xiao Fan's group relentlessly.
Had Xiao Fan not brought along two fire-wielding warriors, they might have been overwhelmed.
There was no time to collect the mutant beast meat along the way, as Xiao Fan feared delaying the resupply box's refresh. He pushed through the fifty-plus kilometer mountain path in just seven hours.
Upon reaching the mining area, Xiao Fan felt like his legs no longer belonged to him.
At this point, the mineral refinery had not been fully constructed yet.
This was an old mining area located on the banks of the upper Haoyuan River.
Of course, the river upstream was not as large as downstream, only gradually growing as more streams merged with it in the forest.
Some makeshift sheds had collapsed, with the wood rotting away, showing signs of many years of abandonment.
Xiao Fan immediately instructed the Guard Squad to level the land for setting up the mineral refinery.
Meanwhile, he checked the specific locations of the two resupply boxes.
One was located in a small valley ahead, and he ordered Xue Ninger to retrieve it.
The other was situated atop a nearby mountain peak.
Gazing at the peak, Xiao Fan figured he would have Xue Ninger collect the second box after she returned with the first.
About twenty minutes later, Xue Ninger returned carrying a wooden crate.
Xiao Fan eagerly took it and opened the box, hoping for a large sum of money to alleviate his current financial difficulties.
But fate had other plans. As he opened the crate, a tanker truck appeared nearby.
"Heavens! You give me a tanker truck here in the deep mountains, making it incredibly difficult to drive out."
The mountain path they had taken was treacherous, even forcing the Mountain Cat all-terrain vehicle to stop. One could only imagine the difficulty of advancing further.
Would he have to construct a road deep into the mountains just for this one truck?
At first, Xiao Fan considered abandoning the tanker truck altogether.
However, the following system prompt left him stunned.
[Congratulations, Commander, you have acquired a foreign explosive truck.]
Hearing this, Xiao Fan slowly turned his head towards the supposed tanker truck.
He had been mistaken.
This was not a tanker truck, but an explosive truck!
The explosive truck, a special equipment from the Red Alert game series, belonged to a certain nation.
These trucks had no offensive capabilities or weapons, potentially even being unmanned.
Their sole purpose was to drive into the heart of enemy territory and detonate.
The explosive force was said to be on par with a small nuclear bomb, according to the game's description.
If this was true, then abandoning this truck was out of the question.
But Xiao Fan wondered how he could possibly transport it back to base.
What if it detonated accidentally during transport?
As Xiao Fan pondered this dilemma, the mineral refinery was completed.
Xiao Fan first set up the refinery on a leveled area.
With a thunderous rumble, a massive mine emerged in the deep mountains.
Modern equipment, smoking chimneys, and a massive entrance for mining trucks signified this facility's advanced technology, surpassing current standards.
A mining truck with metal treads and a huge metal shovel emerged from the mine, and the driver saluted Xiao Fan through the glass: "Commander."
"Good, good, get to work," Xiao Fan replied.
He inspected the interior, which included conveyor belts, ore crushing equipment, and workers operating machinery.
There were also dormitories and a cafeteria, just like other Red Alert structures, putting Xiao Fan's mind at ease.
With regular food deliveries, this mining operation could run continuously.
The mining trucks entered the abandoned mine shafts and began work. At the current rate, Xiao Fan would gain an additional 5,000 gold per day.
After inspecting the mining operation, Xiao Fan decided to personally retrieve the final resupply box from the mountain peak.
Xue Ninger had initially been assigned this task, but Xiao Fan refused, having become somewhat superstitious.
If she brought back another explosive truck or something similar, he would truly be at a loss.
Hopefully, his own luck would be better, preferably yielding some much-needed funds.
After constructing the mining facility, three new buildings had appeared:
[Tank Factory: Cost 150,000 gold.]
[War Factory: Cost 100,000 gold.]
[Officer Training Camp: Cost 50,000 gold.]
Building all three would require 300,000 gold, which he simply did not have.
So Xiao Fan chose to make the trek himself and test his luck.
After a grueling effort, Xiao Fan finally reached the peak of the mountain.
The resupply box lay amidst the grass at the summit.
Xiao Fan approached and picked it up.
He did not dare open it on the peak, lest another vehicle appeared, driving him to consider leaping off the cliff.
He brought the box down to level ground, muttering under his breath:
"Heavenly spirits, earthly spirits, how about a million gold?"
"Open!"
The box opened, with no vehicle emerging.
However, a powerful gust of wind nearly blew Xiao Fan over.
Shielding his eyes, he looked up towards the sky.
A massive black shadow descended from above!
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