No One Can Win Forever

"Stationmaster." Sitting cross-legged on the barren ground, Zhou Mo wiped the rainwater from his face and hesitated before speaking. "Finding a safe place to develop steadily is certainly better." "It's just..." "Even though we faced a massive crisis last night, we also gained a massive haul. The resources we seized won't just rebuild the camp—they'll dramatically boost its strength once more." "If we keep sustaining our growth through combat like this..." "Once we pick off the other three chieftains sent our way one by one, we might actually be able to confront the ghost king head-on." "If we leave for somewhere else, we'll never see rewards this rich again." Last night's losses had indeed been catastrophic. Right now, they didn't even have a shelter to keep out the rain. "Mm." Chen Fan nodded slightly and glanced at the others. Zhou Mo had a point. Fortune favored the bold, and while finding a place away from the ghost king would undoubtedly be safer, they would lose out on such windfall gains. "Zhou Mo, your idea hinges on the ghost king's remaining three chieftains coming one at a time. What if they show up all at once?" Wang Kui spoke up, shaking his head to dismiss Zhou Mo's thought. "Would the camp still be able to hold them off?" "I spent all of last night turning a question over in my mind." "Under the stationmaster's leadership, our camp has developed at breakneck speed, but there is one glaring flaw: we have no retreat. Whenever we meet an enemy, we must win." "If we don't win, we die." "A single defeat means total ruin." "No one can win forever." "We need to leave ourselves enough margin for error, to ensure that even if we lose once, it won't break our spine." "We can afford to earn less in the short term." "As long as we survive long enough, taking the long view is bound to be far healthier than this kind of life-or-death gamble." "I understand what you mean." "Safe spots yield meager gains, while dangerous spots offer huge returns at deadly risk." "That's why I spent last night thinking about how to solve this dilemma. In the end, based on our camp's current situation, I came up with a theoretical compromise. Whether it's feasible or not will depend on the stationmaster's judgment." "Oh?" Chen Fan looked at Wang Kui with mild surprise. He had indeed struggled to find a fitting balance between the two. "Let's hear it." "Stationmaster." Wang Kui met Chen Fan's gaze and took a deep breath, keeping his tone as calm as possible. He knew this was his moment to prove his worth. If his plan gained approval, his standing in the camp would be firmly established. "Our current camp has one fatal drawback." "Structures like the farmland and the warehouse can only be placed outside the perimeter walls. Whenever enemies strike, those buildings are at risk of destruction. There was no choice; building walls costs too much, and we never had enough ghost stones to support enclosing everything." "However—" "This camp can be stripped down entirely." "No farmland." "No warehouse." "No breeding farm, either." "We don't even need sentry towers or sacrificial towers. They're all dead weight." "We only need three things:" "Walls, arrow towers, and ghost fire." "That's enough to fulfill a defensive role." "..." Zhou Mo looked at Wang Kui, dumbfounded. "Did you sneak some liquor last night? I just brought back a few bottles yesterday—did you secretly drink them? Why don't we just ditch the people while we're at it?" "Exactly." Wang Kui nodded with utmost seriousness. "Ditch the people, too. People are dead weight." "Arrow towers can automatically attack any ghost creatures that step into the camp's perimeter." "When ghost creatures invade, people can accomplish very little anyway." "So—" He picked up a twig from the ground and gestured across the ghost-skin map. "If we can find a relatively safe location to serve as our base, we can house all the logistical structures—like the farmland and warehouses—inside that base." "Then we erect multiple 'unmanned outposts' across the wasteland." "Nothing but walls, arrow towers, and ghost fire." "Their sole purpose will be to strike down any ghost creatures that wander into them." "That way, we guarantee the absolute safety of our rear while ensuring we don't stray so far from the wasteland that we can't gather enough ghost stones." "Unmanned outposts give us immense tactical flexibility. We could even deliberately make noise to lure ghost creatures into them." "Like... fishing." "Casting net after net into the river to catch passing ghost creatures." Chen Fan lowered his head, mulling over the feasibility of the plan. It was a straightforward concept: strip away all the baggage from an outpost so that it served purely as a weapon. Without any people inside, it wouldn't even matter if the walls were breached. It would be equivalent to a giant bear trap. Meanwhile, they would hide away in a safe sanctuary, dodging cataclysms like the ghost king while quietly building up strength. Safe, yet profitable. Furthermore— He had copper pipes. He wouldn't even need to construct ghost fires. By connecting the altar to each unmanned outpost, he could repair damaged walls promptly from afar. A network of such unmanned outposts would not only yield ghost stones every night, but also act as early-warning scouts. If unmanned outposts across an entire sector were destroyed in large numbers, it would signal the arrival of a flesh worm ghost tide or the descent of the ghost king. And if he built a warehouse and upgraded it to unlock surveillance capabilities, he could monitor the situation in real time. It meant anchoring their base safely in the deep rear while extending deadly claws into the wasteland. Most importantly, if they ever ran into an overwhelmingly powerful entity like Qianhou again, they wouldn't be caught flat-footed. If they couldn't beat it, they could avoid it; if they could, they could lure it back to their stronghold. They could advance or retreat at will—the initiative would remain entirely in his hands. "..." Wang Kui covertly watched the stationmaster's expression with nervous apprehension, unable to tell whether Chen Fan approved or disapproved of the plan. He didn't know the exact ghost stone cost for Chen Fan's construction. Yet by keeping a watchful eye on the camp's total ghost stone income over the past days, he had a rough estimate. Any other architect wouldn't have had enough ghost stones to erect so many structures, leading Wang Kui to suspect that Chen Fan's stone consumption was far lower than that of ordinary architects. That was precisely why he dared to propose this strategy. With any other architect, the plan wouldn't even be viable. If his goal at the start had merely been to survive the rainy season, his mindset had transformed by now. He wanted to make the camp far stronger. After thirteen years of living as a worker bee for the Wang family, he had caught his first glimpse of an upward path. He didn't just want to survive; he wanted to live better. "All right!" Chen Fan spoke up, settling the discussion. "The relocation is decided. We'll find a safe spot to build our rear base. Now, tell me where we should go. If it's too far, we won't be able to make the journey." The group fell silent. That was indeed an issue. The rainy season engulfed the entire Jiangbei Wasteland, so finding a truly safe location would not be easy. "Could this place work?" Standing to the side, Da Yu hesitated before pointing at a coastal spot on the northern edge of the ghost-skin map. "This is my old village. It's a natural ghost fire zone, located on the northernmost coast of the Jiangbei Wasteland. Even if the ghost king visits the wasteland, I doubt he'd go there, right?" "Besides, it's not very far. We can definitely reach it before nightfall." "..." Chen Fan looked toward the designated spot on the map. He had heard Da Yu mention that natural ghost fire zone before. Surrounded by steep mountains on all sides, its previous destruction had occurred because ghost creatures had leapt into the village from the cliffs. However... he could first construct a Level 5 cannon tower to carve out a massive cavern within a cliff face, then utilize the newly acquired Mountain Skeleton Embryo to stabilize the subterranean structure. That way, he would only need to erect a single wall across the cavern entrance. That would drastically cut the cost of wall construction. Instead of being surrounded on four sides, they would only face enemies from one, forging an impregnable stronghold in the deep rear. His mind made up, Chen Fan paused, looked up at the others, and smiled. "We'll settle on this spot." "Put your backs into it, everyone. Dig out all the ghost stones, pack up, and get ready to move." "Let's find a place to digest this massive harvest."