Chapter 40: Mining

Inside the prison.

Liao Bufan swallowed hard.

His eyes were filled with stars as he stared at the three mercenaries behind Fang Heng, muttering incessantly to himself.

"Incredible, truly incredible..."

"I heard these mercenaries are very expensive."

"Big boss, what level did you buy?"

Fang Heng replied casually, "LV: 5."

"Awesome! Top tier!"

Liao Bufan couldn't help but admire them, feeling a surge of envy.

Is this what it feels like to be a big boss?!

Commanding so many subordinates with guns, going *rat-tat-tat-tat*, watching the enemies flee in terror...

This feeling is so damn amazing!

Fang Heng glanced at the consumption.

In less than a minute, they had spent over fifty bullets.

Mercenaries were useful, but they were a bit of a resource sink.

And these were high-level LV: 5 mercenaries.

Their accuracy and damage with firearms were quite high, making them relatively more efficient with ammunition; if they were low-level mercenaries, the bullet consumption would certainly be much higher.

Fang Heng really wanted to chase after them to finish off Prisoner Snake's group once and for all, but the risk was too great.

Prisoner Snake and his group all possessed combat-type talents. If he pushed them too hard, the mercenaries would inevitably suffer casualties.

He couldn't afford the exorbitant compensation.

"Great God!"

Lu Yu and Zhou Yi walked out from the prison guardhouse.

"Oh, you're back."

Fang Heng waved to greet them.

Zhou Yi possessed a special talent skill—Earth Vein Exploration.

It was precisely because of this that Fang Heng had chosen to cooperate with them not long ago.

Through the "Earth Vein Exploration" skill, Zhou Yi could roughly discern whether an area contained mineral deposits.

This talent was rated as A, making it a relatively rare skill.

In the early stages of the game, players didn't have the time to mine, so this skill was currently useless.

It wouldn't be until the mid-to-late game, once players had established primary shelters, that they would begin mining.

Mineral resources in the apocalypse were limited; in the later stages, game companies often fought tooth and nail over the extraction of certain ores.

Fang Heng had already completed the construction of his entry-level shelter. Moving forward, if he wanted to enhance the shelter's defenses—such as reinforcing wooden houses with steel or reinforced concrete—he would need a large amount of ore and materials.

Two days ago, Fang Heng had asked Zhou Yi to help look for mineral deposits as a preemptive measure for the next step of reinforcing the shelter.

But now, plans had changed.

Currently, he urgently needed a sum of Apocalypse Points to purchase equipment for adventuring in the towns.

As long as he found mineral deposits, Fang Heng could mine the ores and resell them to the Apocalypse Camp merchants, quickly exchanging them for survival points through the ore collection quests issued by the merchants.

Fang Heng noticed that Zhou Yi looked preoccupied and unhappy, sensing that they might have run into trouble.

"What's wrong? Did you encounter trouble?"

"Sigh!"

Looking at the three high-level mercenaries armed with pistols behind Fang Heng, Zhou Yi let out a long sigh.

"No."

Fang Heng was puzzled, thinking: *If there's no problem, is there a need for such a long sigh?*

They had completed the mission so quickly and made a huge profit; why was he unhappy?

Lu Yu said, "We found a small mineral vein, but the distance is a bit far. The location is at coordinates (38912, 29123). Great God, we can set off to take you there at any time."

"Alright, I'll prepare a bit and then we'll head out."

In a vague sense, Fang Heng felt that he had taken another tiny step toward his dream of "emptying out the entire Apocalypse Merchant Camp."

...

On a small path hugging the foot of a mountain.

A group of zombies dressed in logger clothes had completely taken over the road, marching forward in a massive swarm.

Trapped in the middle of the zombie crowd, Lu Yu and Zhou Yi were trembling with fear.

Terrifying!

They were all zombies!

If they were accidentally grabbed, they would be instantly infected and it would be GG.

At the same time, the two couldn't help but feel a sense of awe.

So this was the Great God's talent skill!

Summoning a zombie horde!

They had never heard of any similar talent skills in the Lord Game.

This was definitely a 100% S-rank talent!

"We're almost there. Over there—in less than a hundred meters, we'll reach the coal mine."

At a crossroad ahead of the path, Zhou Yi stopped.

"My character level is only level 3 right now, so I can't pinpoint the exact location. I estimate we can find coal if we dig into the mountainside for a while."

"Since my skill level is low, we can only find a micro-scale coal mine, and the reserves won't be very high."

Fang Heng looked in the direction Zhou Yi pointed.

They were already at the edge of the mountain forest area.

It had taken them nearly three hours to walk all the way from the prison.

It was indeed quite far.

"We've scouted it; less than two hundred meters down that fork in the road, there are two small huts. No players are living there."

"We cleared the huts when we passed by earlier, so we can rest there tonight."

Seeing that there was only about an hour and a half left before dark, Zhou Yi began to consider the issue of staying overnight.

"As long as we keep watch, it shouldn't be a problem."

Zhou Yi sought Fang Heng's opinion.

"Great God, what do you think?"

Fang Heng had no objection to Zhou Yi's plan.

"I have no objection. I'll leave the repairs of the dwelling to you two; I'm going to check out the mine."

"No problem. I'll go reinforce the dwelling and clear out the nearby zombies so we can sleep peacefully tonight."

When they first left the prison, Zhou Yi had been very cautious, as staying overnight far from a base carried more risks.

But now, he had completely relaxed.

After all, the Great God had so many zombie summons.

What could possibly go wrong?

The three of them split up.

"The coal mine."

Fang Heng walked straight ahead along the path, muttering to himself.

Coal was a high-value resource in the game.

From the mid-game onwards, players would use large amounts of iron blocks for constructing shelters and crafting tools.

And the furnaces required to produce iron blocks needed fuel twenty-four hours a day.

Ordinary wood was inefficient as fuel.

Players would use coal as fuel instead.

Additionally, in the mid-to-late game, players would need large amounts of coal to produce gunpowder.

Compared to other mineral resources, the production of coal in the game was relatively high.

Walking along the path to the rock face, Fang Heng pulled firewood, stones, straw, and some basic materials from his backpack, dropping them on the ground one by one.

Then, Fang Heng sat to one side.

The zombie clones began to move.

They waddled over to the materials, picked them up, and began crafting stone pickaxes.

[Prompt: You have completed the crafting of a stone pickaxe. Your basic crafting experience +1.]

[Prompt: You have completed the crafting of a stone pickaxe. Your basic crafting experience +1.]

[Prompt: You have completed the crafting of a stone pickaxe...]

[Prompt: Your basic crafting level has reached its current limit. Please increase your character level.]

Once the crafting was finished, each zombie clone took a stone pickaxe, walked to the rock face, and began swinging.

Soon, the rhythmic *thud, thud, thud* of mining echoed in the air.

[Prompt: Your zombie clone has destroyed a small portion of the mountain. You have obtained Small Stone *1.]

[Prompt: Your zombie clone has destroyed a small portion of the mountain. You have obtained Small Stone *5.]

[Prompt: Your zombie clone has destroyed a small portion of the mountain. You have obtained Small Stone *2. You have comprehended the basic life skill—Mining. Your basic mining experience +1.]

[Prompt: Your zombie clone obtained Small Stone *3 and Large Stone *1 through mining. Your basic mining experience +7.]

[Prompt: Your zombie clone obtained Large Stone *1 through mining. Your basic mining experience +3.]

[Prompt: Your zombie clone obtained...]

Fang Heng pulled a can of cola from his backpack and popped the tab.

*Gulp, gulp, gulp...*

After finishing the can, Fang Heng let out a comfortable burp.

Watching others do the hard labor of mining was truly relaxing.

In Fang Heng's memory, this body had previously done similar manual labor to earn money, working himself to death.

"How embarrassing. I should have bought some iron pickaxes when I was at the Apocalypse Merchant Camp. This mining efficiency is a bit slow..."

Fang Heng glanced at the gradually setting sun.

"It's too late to rush back now. I'll just have to wait until tomorrow."