Chapter 99: Ninety-Nine Days of Lying Flat Like a Salted Fish

The Garbage Ship was a wonderful thing.

Setting aside the supplies it carried, the hull of the Starship itself was an incredibly useful asset.

It was precisely because they had shot down a Garbage Ship previously, providing an abundance of materials, that Siming, Zhu Rong, and Geshu Qing were able to construct Mechas and leave the Desolate Planet. It was also what made Goudan’s expansion plan a possibility.

Under the “annotation” of Mental Power, Goudan was leading his people to load essential supplies into the “cars.”

These cars were crude and small, far inferior to the Shuttle Cars commonly seen in normal cities, and even less comparable to the various multi-functional transport vehicles found in the wilderness or on battlefields.

After all, they were made from the scraps left over from Zhu Rong’s Mecha construction. Even with Lu Yuan personally designing and supervising the work, there simply weren’t enough spare materials to install any features for comfort.

Consequently, much like the Garbage Ship that had been stripped down to its frame, these cars consisted of little more than a power system, four wheels, and a cargo hold.

Indeed, these cars had wheels.

They weren’t even flying cars.

Because the energy required for hovering was far greater than that needed for driving on the ground, and energy was an extremely precious resource, that function had been completely abandoned.

But driving on the ground presented its own problems: no one built roads on a Desolate Planet. These cars had to be driven through the wilderness. They had to scale mountains, cross ridges, and navigate through rocky terrain and forests. Given the shortage of materials, designing a sufficient number of vehicles that could meet transport needs under such conditions was a daunting task.

To design a suitable vehicle, Lu Yuan had even pored over data on transport devices from the Mother Planet Era, hoping to find some inspiration.

Ultimately, he drew from the design concepts of the “Zhurong” rover, a probe sent to a neighboring planet when humans first began attempting to venture from the Mother Planet to other worlds. Using that as a blueprint, he designed a car suited for the Desolate Planet.

“These cars seem to share a fate with us. Why don’t we call them the Zhu Rong models?” Goudan had suggested when the blueprints were finished. “It’s perfect timing, since Zhu Rong can still manage to build the first batch before she leaves.”

Zhu Rong hadn’t departed yet at the time, so the first fleet was indeed built by her, using the leftover scraps from their Mechas.

The power system of the Zhu Rong model shared the same lineage as the three Mechas. The engine’s energy conversion rate was extremely high, allowing for maximum energy conservation.

The chassis and wheel design were similar to the original Zhurong rover, featuring six independently driven and rotating wheels that could be raised or lowered. A complex mobile system with extending and retracting capabilities ensured the Zhu Rong model could adapt to various terrains.

The final detail to be decided was the size of the vehicle body.

The smaller the body, the higher the maneuverability and the lower the requirement for material strength—one could even use wooden cargo boxes. If the Desolate Planet lacked everything else, it certainly had enough timber.

However, a small body also meant a reduced payload. While energy requirements would drop accordingly, needing more cars to transport the same amount of goods might actually increase the total energy demand.

After a series of calculations, Lu Yuan finally settled on the dimensions for the cargo hold.

It was a size that wasn’t exactly tiny, but certainly couldn’t be called large.

To maximize cargo capacity, Lu Yuan, after consulting with Goudan, simply did away with the driver and passenger seats. He installed remote control devices instead and trained a group of “drivers” to operate the cars remotely.

This did save energy. After all, the cars only needed to pull cargo now, not carry people.

The only issue was that this capped the vehicle’s speed. Most of the time, the cars had to match a person’s walking pace. Only on rare stretches of good road could people sit on the roof of the cargo hold to rest their legs, allowing the speed to increase slightly.

An engine capable of supporting a Warp was being installed in vehicles that rarely exceeded ten kilometers per hour. If people outside the Desolate Planet knew of this, they would surely consider it a scandalous waste of resources.

But even such a car was enough to make Goudan tremble with excitement.

On a Desolate Planet, one couldn’t ask for too much. Finding a balance between saving energy and saving physical strength was the most rational approach. As for wanting faster speeds, larger payloads, or comfortable cars that could carry passengers… well, they would worry about that when they had the materials.

Having something that could haul cargo was already a blessing.

Walking empty-handed and walking while carrying heavy luggage were two completely different experiences.

Livestock were rare on the Desolate Planet. Without these cars, or if they only had wooden handcarts, people would have to expend a massive amount of physical energy just to transport their belongings whenever they traveled long distances.

Physical limitations, attacks from wild beasts and insects, the constant stress of finding food, and the scarcity of water made long-distance travel for ordinary people incredibly difficult and grueling. On this massive planet, it would take months even for a Starship to orbit it once. To travel to the other side of the planet on foot would take far more than just a month or two.

The existence of a vehicle brought convenience to travel.

It also added a glimmer of hope to Goudan’s ambition of ruling the Desolate Planet.

However, with the materials currently available, the types of vehicles that could be built were extremely limited. This meant that while hope existed, there wasn’t much of it.

But this was, after all, only what could be scavenged from a single Garbage Ship.

If he had thousands of Garbage Ships in his hands, he could do far more than this.

Lu Yuan would certainly be able to build better vehicles. With more energy, he could even bring back the flight functions. As long as a vehicle could hover, no terrain would be an obstacle.

Correspondingly, he could also produce a batch of weapons that Goudan had always wanted but never had the spare materials to build.

Yet, Lu Yuan had never considered targeting the Garbage Ships again before now.

Goudan hadn’t thought of asking Lu Yuan to take action, either.

Attacking a Garbage Ship was, of course, no challenge for Lu Yuan.

If he wanted to, he could easily shoot down every Garbage Ship currently floating in the sky at any time.

He wouldn’t even necessarily have to shoot them down. He could simply take control of them directly.

The problem was that both Goudan and Lu Yuan knew very well that taking down one or two Garbage Ships might be overlooked, but if a large number of them failed to return on schedule within a short period, even a fool would realize something was wrong.

In other words, once they started shooting down Garbage Ships in bulk, people with ulterior motives would discover that the situation on the Desolate Planet had changed. This would not only expose Lu Yuan’s existence but could also bring disaster upon the planet.

When the children had played musical instruments before, the Empire had sent ammunition that was normally only used on the battlefield. If they discovered that the people of the Desolate Planet had the capability to shoot down Garbage Ships, there was no telling what they might do to the planet.

Therefore, Lu Yuan’s previous plan was to make do with crude equipment and take things slow. There was no rush, anyway.

He would let Goudan handle it himself, spending eight or ten years to gradually build up the Desolate Planet. The early stages might be difficult, but in a year or two, Siming would likely have established a foothold outside. At that point, Siming could smuggle back materials and supplies to gradually equip Goudan’s forces.

Finally, once everyone was prepared to be exposed to the Empire’s gaze, it wouldn’t be too late to target the Garbage Ships.

Not only would this save Lu Yuan the trouble, but the process would also be more secure.

Goudan didn’t mind this plan either.

Having any hope at all was already good enough. If not for Lu Yuan, he would still be a street thug. Now he even had the dream of becoming the planet’s governor, which was already a leap forward.

He didn’t demand that Lu Yuan participate in the construction of the Desolate Planet. After all, this had nothing to do with Lu Yuan in the first place.

As for Lu Yuan himself…

He was even less likely to join in of his own accord.

Watching the spectacle was fine, and providing a bit of necessary help was fine, but if he had to go any further, he would find it too exhausting.

However, the attitude of the Desolate Planet’s consciousness meant that Lu Yuan might be forced to participate in this war.

It wasn’t that Lu Yuan felt threatened by the planet’s consciousness.

It was mainly because…

He had been suspecting something for a long time, and after his recent contact with the planet’s consciousness, that suspicion had grown stronger, almost becoming a certainty.

The “person” or “thing” that had brought him to the Desolate Planet might very well be the planet’s consciousness itself.

On one hand, only it possessed such power.

On the other hand, it gave Lu Yuan a subtle sense of familiarity. Lu Yuan suspected that the source of this familiarity might be that he had been in contact with the planet’s consciousness while he was unconscious back then.

Although he didn’t fundamentally have a strong desire to live, he couldn’t simply ignore a plea for help from his savior… or rather, his savior planet.

It wasn’t confirmed yet…

But Lu Yuan had already begun making plans. If the Desolate Planet really had saved him, and if he really had to help it return to its former prosperity… or help it achieve some other goal, what should he do?

He certainly couldn’t stand fighting a war on such a planet for eight or ten years.

Lu Yuan was the type of person who liked to complete necessary tasks as quickly as possible and then slack off. Even against the Zerg, in a massive war that spanned the entire border of the Empire, he had only fought for ten years.

As for the war on the Desolate Planet… if it lasted ten years, he could just about tolerate watching it, but if he had to do it himself, he definitely wouldn’t be able to stand it.

So, how to speed up the progress was a question that needed consideration. And just how much that progress could be accelerated was another question entirely.

Of course, whether he actually wanted to get involved was another question entirely.

Lu Yuan sighed and withdrew his Mental Power.

He would rest for a couple of days first. Once the residents near the volcano were evacuated and he could fully retract his Mental Power, he could attempt to formally contact the Desolate Planet and open a dialogue with it.

If he decided to speed up the process, he would bring down a batch of Garbage Ships to manufacture weapons and equipment, while simultaneously gathering the tens of thousands of people Goudan brought back for centralized training.

If he didn’t want to rush, he would just find a way to scavenge one or two Garbage Ships to guarantee a supply of resources for the initial period… and then go back to slacking off!

While that approach would require a bit more effort, it wasn’t unacceptable.

It was certainly more convenient than Goudan making a single trip to the volcano, returning with a handful of people, and then having to be sent out again.

…Anyway, that was the preliminary plan.

As for what came after…

He wouldn’t think about it too much for now. He would just lie around for a few days and wait for Goudan to return.

There was a chance he wouldn’t have any time to lie around later…

Lu Yuan closed his eyes and let out a troubled sigh.

–

At the same time.

Goudan had completely finished his preparations to depart.

Before leaving, he instinctively glanced toward Lu Yuan’s small shop.

In the frantic rush, he hadn’t found the time to think, but now that everything was arranged, he began to sense something subtle in Lu Yuan’s attitude.

Lu Yuan had actually taken the initiative to say, “I’ll handle the rest.”

Clearly, among the areas he had circled, only the one near the volcano was truly desperate. The others had only been affected by the earthquake. Those people could have rebuilt their homes on their own; there was no need to bring them all here to settle… and certainly no need to trouble Lu Yuan with the arrangements.

Goudan frowned slightly, tempted to go back and ask for clarification, but he knew Lu Yuan would likely be too lazy to explain.

“Forget it, I’ll ask when I get back,” he muttered, then looked at the group before him. “Move out!”