Chapter 52: Come at Me if You Have What It Takes

The following morning, An Wen headed to the other world.

It was certainly too early for him to perform any labor work, but he was so anxious that he could not sit still at home or even play games.

As such, he went to the other world in the morning to work out.

After such a long period of working out consistently, An Wen's physique had already reached the limits of an ordinary person.

Of course, that did not mean that his physique would be the best in the world.

That was not possible.

There was no shortage of gifted and naturally talented people in this world.

As a result, there would be certain gifted individuals guided by scientific training methods who were still stronger than An Wen in certain individual aspects.

The best boxers in the world would still be slightly more powerful than An Wen in terms of their fist strength.

The best weightlifting champions in the world would certainly be stronger than An Wen in weightlifting.

All of that was not unusual.

With scientifically-driven training, in addition to their exceptional potential, it was completely possible for them to become stronger in certain individual aspects. 

However, when they grew older, their injuries would torture them for much of their lives.

In contrast, An Wen's strength was balanced and all-rounded. He had no weaknesses in any aspect.

Putting observable physical characteristics like weight-lifting and bouncing aside, in terms of vitality alone, An Wen would certainly be several times stronger.

Moreover, with the effects of the attributes, his physical condition would be continually enhanced, even surpassing human limits.

"It'll take about three more months before my physical condition reaches the enhancement limits."

An Wen estimated the time required for him to reach the limits of enhancement when he finished working out and recorded down the results of his workout.

Of course, it was not necessarily accurate, but the actual timeline should be close.

After a refreshing bath, An Wen went out of the bathroom. By then, the sun was gradually rising from the east and the sky was brightening.

Half an hour later...

An Wen drove the modified Sacred War Beast to the mountain mine.

He turned on the electric motor of the projecting beam, and the beam extended outwards.

Clack clack clack...

Sounds of the gears and its belts in action could be heard, and the long projecting beam extended toward the top of the mountain mine.

A few minutes later, the projecting beam was extended fully.

An Wen started the electric generator, transmitting electricity to the air-powered excavation tools at the very front of the projecting beam.

Brum brum brum...

Five hundred air-powered excavation tools were powered-up and ready.

Click!

An Wen pulled the joystick downwards, and the circular wheel at the front of the projecting beam began spinning while the beam slowly moved closer to the cliff wall.

Brum!

Less than two seconds after the air-powered excavation tools came into contact with the cliff wall, a pile of stone material appeared.

"Holy crap!"

An Wen exclaimed upon seeing such a sight.

That doesn't seem 'right'?

His hand that was moving the joystick to control the projecting arm froze, and he became completely stunned.

From his prior experimentation, he had certainly confirmed that an air-powered excavation tool would require 20 seconds before excavating one block of stone material.

However, the time taken for the air-powered excavation tools to excavate one layer of the cliff wall had dropped to less than two seconds.

Where did the remaining 18 seconds go?

Eaten up by Yuan Pan?

"Eh? Could it be because of the additional effects resulting from the attributes of the Sacred War Beast?"

Looking at the joystick in his hand, An Wen suddenly thought of such a reason, which was possibly the only plausible explanation.

That was most likely part of the settings of the game world, so the speed of excavation would be calculated differently depending on whether the hand, various tools, or large machinery was used.

"Who cares, this is even more advantageous for me anyway. With such speed, I want to complete... Hold on, let me make some calculations first."

"500 cubic meters are excavated in two seconds, so that's 250 x 60 x 60 = 900 thousand cubic meters per hour."

"Based on the original plan of 300 x 300 x 60 = 5,400,000 cubic meters, dividing that by a speed of 900 thousand cubic meters per second gives a total duration of six hours."

"There's no problem. This is something I can boast about."

After calculating the total duration required and confirming that he would not make a fool out of himself, An Wen was instantly full of himself.

"I will flatten this mountain by tonight. I have already said that I will do so, and no one can stop me."

An Wen shouted loudly zealously.

Pushing the joystick forward, the projecting beam swung downwards, and the air-powered excavation tools on the circular wheel rapidly continued excavating the cliff wall.

Blocks of stone material appeared continuously, similar to the effect of gold emerging from boss characters in poorly-designed online games when fighting them.

"There are too many blocks of stone material appearing. If I don't organize and keep them, they will start piling up."

An Wen was at a slight loss for words when he saw the blocks of stone material in front of him quickly piling up into another 'mountain'.

He stopped moving the joystick in his hand and turned off the electric generator.

"I need to construct a conveyor belt first to transport the continuously emerging blocks of stone material directly to the warehouse."

The conveyor belt was extremely simple to construct, and An Wen completed it in under 20 minutes.

"Yuan Pan, start crawling on this so that the conveyor belt would move."

"When all of the stone material around this area has been transported to the warehouse, move the conveyor belt to another area where there is stone material."

"I'll leave this job to you."

An Wen tapped on Yuan Pan's shell and gave him a task.

As an outstanding worker tortoise, Yuan Pan could do many things in the other world.

He looked at An Wen, then used his claws to draw the shape of a ball in the air.

"Ball? What ball are you referring to?"

An Wen was bewildered - you're a tortoise, not a cat, why do you want to play with a ball?

Yuan Pan shot An Wen another glance and continued gesturing.

This time, after drawing the shape of a ball in the air, he put the 'ball' into his mouth and 'chewed'.

"Oh... You want to eat the fruits?"

An Wen understood now - he wanted to eat the fruits in the warehouse.

"Alright, but you can only eat ten of them and no more."

He agreed after giving it some thought.

Although the fruits had not been tested in the laboratory, the fact was that Yuan Pan was unharmed after he ate them the previous time, and even 'evolved' instead.

In that case, it should not pose any problems allowing him to eat ten more of them.

An Wen was not afraid of anything else, except that his house would no longer be able to fit Yuan Pan if he 'evolved' once more into his final, mature and complete form.

The deal was sealed.

Yuan Pan, the worker tortoise, got down to work.

After settling the problem of transporting and storing the stone material after they appeared, An Wen continued controlling the projecting arm to excavate the cliff wall.

Two hours passed.

An Wen had completely removed the walls around the tunnel of the mountain mine, exposing the mineral vein within.

"Let me try, what's the spawning pattern of the monsters?"

Looking at the mineral vein, An Wen was prepared to start mining it.

He had been frightened by the monster the previous time, so he stopped exploring the mineral vein then, and did not know what was the spawning pattern of monsters there.

Now that he had the opportunity to find that out, he would certainly not miss it.

Moving the joystick, An Wen controlled the projecting beam to move closer to the mineral vein.

Brum brum brum...

This time, when the air-powered excavation tool came into contact with the mineral vein, the ore did not appear as quickly as the stone material did.

Nevertheless, it still did not 'hold out' for long, and a pile of copper ore emerged in about five to six seconds.

"Roar!" 

At that moment, the roaring of a monster echoed from the depths of the mineral vein, which was also the mine cave leading to the underground.

An Wen stopped mining and waited for the monster to appear.

Very quickly, the figure of a monster appeared near the entrance of the mine cave. It was a monster with a sharp horn and a body full of scales.

"A mutant pangolin? A pangolin spirit?"

An Wen muttered when he saw the appearance of the monster in the cave before he started pondering.

This monster isn't powerful, but it isn't weak either.

Based on the relative strength of the monsters that attacked the city, this monster is part of the second batch of monsters that appeared. That was when my income of Survival Points was 250,000 per second.

"It's a mid-tier monster?"

Following the same line of reasoning, this means that I have only triggered mid-tier monsters to appear from using the air-powered excavation tools, and not those giant monsters.

Is it because the tools are not strong enough?

Or is it because the mining speed is not fast enough?

Or perhaps, is it because the quality of the mineral vein is too low? 

After pondering for a long while, An Wen still could not comprehend the situation.

Meanwhile, the monster was still right behind the entrance of the cave, roaring continuously.

"What are you roaring for? Come over if you dare! I'll use my fifth 'leg' to break your arms and legs, and hammer you to death!"

An Wen challenged the monster in the cave in provocation.

"Roar!"

The monster stared intently at An Wen with its bloodshot eyes. There was no trace of emotion in his eyes; only the thirst for blood and brutality.

"Do you dare to come up here? You don't, right?"

"Roar!"

"You're about to die, come up here!" 

"Roar!"

"I'm scolding you now, do you dare to come up here?"

"Roar!"

"How useless."

An Wen did not continue provoking and challenging the monster. He realized that those monsters were truly devoid of any intelligence and emotion, and so relied completely on their innate ability... No, more accurately, they were moving and acting based on the rules of the game world and had no mind of their own that was capable of independent thought.

Such a setting was actually beneficial to the player; if the monster knew war tactics, would the player still be able to enjoy the game?

An Wen focused his attention on operating the Sacred War Beast again and continued mining.

He did not care about that monster since the sun was still shining brightly in the sky, and so it would not be able to emerge from the cave.

Five hours later...

An Wen completely flattened the mountain, and all of the rocks around the mineral vein was cleared, freeing up an enormous empty area.

The closest cliff wall to the mineral vein was at least 300 meters away, so it would not hinder the mining of the cliff vein in any way.

The mining area he created was twice as large as he had estimated.

"I've already said that I'll flatten it by tonight, and of course, I had accomplished that. I'll never postpone anything for another day."

An Wen remarked, standing proud on the 'tortoise' shell of the Sacred War Beast.