Chapter 44: He Called It the “Arrowcart”
????“Fight our way back?”
??Zhou Mo barely registered the words at first. His legs still trembled uncontrollably as he glanced at the sky outside the Wall, where dusk deepened and shadows thickened. Only half an hour remained before the Eternal Night would descend.
??Ti was running out.
??Besides—
??He knew the Station Master was a Builder with extraordinary potential, but Builders excelled at fortifying Camps, not open-field combat. Outside the protective walls, their options were next to nothing. How were they supposed to fight their way through?
??“How far are the impostors from the Camp?”
??“Not far. They’re just behind that hill, near where Wang Kui’s old camp used to be.”
??“Let’s go.”
??...
??Chen Fan climbed down from the Wall and strode to the Camp’s edge, his gaze landing on the “wooden trike” parked out on the Wasteland. Without hesitation, he summoned an Arrow Tower and fused it seamlessly onto the trike’s flatbed.
??Then he began upgrading—again and again.
??He pushed it straight to Level 4 in one go.
??At Level 3, he chose a specific Upgrade Path:
??“Bolts now carry the power of lightning, paralyzing enemies and chaining to up to three nearby targets for additional damage.”
??He knew these impostors—these Ghostbeasts in human skin.
??Their defenses were weak.
??Their real danger was their confusion and deception, but this effect would devastate them.
??At Level 4, he selected increased firing speed.
??Soon—
??The Arrow Tower transford into an Arrow Bastion, its size compacting as it rged perfectly with the wooden trike.
??The fusion of Arrow Tower and trike.
??He gave it a na.
??“The Arrowcart.”
??“Get on. You take the power lever.”
??Chen Fan vaulted onto the vehicle first, positioning himself at the control stick. He shot a glance at the stunned Zhou Mo. “We’re out of ti. Don’t just stand there.”
??“Right!” Zhou Mo snapped out of it and jumped onto the flatbed, his eyes still red from the loss of his comrades. The veins on his hands bulged as he gripped the power lever with all his strength. Once the Station Master set their course, Zhou Mo shoved the lever forward.
??With the power engaged,
??The Arrowcart rolled out of the Camp and vanished into the rain-soaked gloom.
??...
??“Young Master...”
??Chen Fan had left so quickly, barely exchanging a word with those who remained. Only a handful were left in the Camp, but—
??“What a stroke of genius.”
??Crippled Monkey stared after his Young Master, dazed. “Yeah. Fuse an Arrow Tower with a cart, and you get a mobile Arrow Tower. Why has no one done this before?”
??“Actually, so have,” Wang Kui replied, his expression conflicted. “But it never caught on for a few reasons. For one... Arrow Towers can’t attack anything outside Camp limits.”
??“Right, so... how’s the Young Master’s Arrowcart supposed to hit anything out there?”
??“I don’t know. But I trust the Station Master has thought of sothing.”
??“What if he hasn’t?”
??Crippled Monkey paced anxiously, frustration etched across his face. The Young Master had left too quickly, without even sharing the impostors’ coordinates. Even if he wanted to follow, he wouldn’t know where to begin searching.
??...
??Waystation No. 37 of the Jiangbei Chen Clan wasn’t far from Wang Kui’s old post.
??After cresting a hill,
??They saw them.
??A whole pack of impostors, crowded inside Wang Kui’s abandoned camp.
??Even through the rain, they could make out more than twenty impostors, writhing and rutting in a frenzy, their faces contorted with madness.
??...
??Chen Fan stood at the front of the trike, his expression unreadable as he watched the scene. In truth, he was furious. Out here on the rain-soaked Wasteland, every human resource was precious.
??Utterly irreplaceable.
??To him, a single life was worth more than a hundred Ghoststones.
??Now, one was dead.
??Which ant he’d have to pull another person from Camp duties to assist Zhou Mo.
??They’d started with ten. Now, only nine remained.
??Just then—
??The impostors spotted them. With shrill, piercing screeches, those hiding in the wooden cabin burst out, joining the ones outside. All of them howled, charging straight for Chen Fan and Zhou Mo!
??They were faster than a grown man sprinting for his life.
??No more pretense, no disguises—just raw, rabid aggression, eyes wild as they tore across the Wasteland.
??A hundred ters.
??Eighty.
??Fifty.
??In a blink, they were less than thirty ters away. Yet the Arrow Bastion mounted on the trike didn’t respond at all—it was outside the Camp’s boundary, unable to activate.
??Chen Fan didn’t hesitate.
??He crushed three Ghoststones in his palm. Instantly, white lines coalesced on the trike’s flatbed, forming the spectral outline of Ghostfire—then solidifying.
??At that mont, the impostors crossed into Camp range.
??The Arrow Bastion, dormant until now, flared with a cold white light deep within its black barrel.
??The next instant—
??“Thwip-thwip-thwip!”
??Bolts, crackling with lightning like thunder god’s spears, shot out at blinding speed toward the onrushing Ghostbeasts.
??The first impostor struck froze in place, its body charred black, stumbling a few steps before collapsing. At the sa ti, a surge of electricity burst from its corpse, arcing to the three nearest impostors.
??In a heartbeat,
??All three were reduced to charcoal.
??That was the Level 3 upgrade of the Arrow Bastion.
??On hit, it chained lightning to up to three nearby enemies, paralyzing and shocking them.
??The main effect was paralysis, with only moderate damage—but the impostors’ defenses were so weak, even that was deadly.
??Every bolt could claim three lives.
??But—
??...
??Chen Fan narrowed his eyes as more impostors spilled from the wooden cabin into the rain. There weren’t just thirty—there were more, and these new ones were noticeably younger.
??If the first wave outside the cabin were all middle-aged,
??Then this batch was their “youth.”
??“I see.”
??He glanced at a middle-aged female impostor, then calmly swung the trike around—keeping just enough distance to stay within range, he picked off the frontrunners one by one.
??Once the last of the outside impostors had fallen,
??The Arrow Bastion fell silent.
??He didn’t attack further.
??Instead, he began deploying Beast Traps, scattering them along the path where the young impostors would give chase. He wanted them alive.
??The impostors had so intelligence, but not much. One by one, as they pursued the trike in circles, they stepped right into the Beast Traps, getting snared and left howling, unable to move.
??...
??About a quarter of an hour later,
??The trike rolled to a stop.
??Not a single impostor remained standing. The older ones were all dead. The young were all caught in Beast Traps, eyes burning with violence and madness as they struggled in vain.
??...
??Standing atop the trike, Chen Fan gazed at the wooden cabin of Wang Kui’s camp not far away. He’d circled it several tis, but not a single impostor had erged. Turning to Zhou Mo behind him, he spoke quietly,
??“There should be so impostor younglings inside. Go check.”
??“I’ll cover you from here.”
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