Wasteland Lord: Starting from Thirty Days to Live

Vittorio sat in his chair, reviewing the two simulations that had just taken place.

The first time, I only completed half of the game.

The second time, they defeated all their enemies, including Lina, but at the cost of Edmund's life.

At the end of the second simulation, Vittorio was prepared to return empty-handed, but Edmund's sudden outburst changed the outcome of the simulation.

This also brings up Edmund's past.

Vittorio knew that Edmund would never have spoken of such a private matter involving his past if not for some specific opportunity.

I never imagined he carried such a heavy past, but that's normal. Which survivor living in the Reach isn't both lucky and miserable?

However, this gave Vittorio a wake-up call. Edmund's loyalty had reached a bottleneck, and the system had prompted him that he needed a catalyst to continue increasing it. Vittorio sensed that this heavy past might be the final catalyst to boost his loyalty.

Moreover, these two simulations have basically uncovered most of the inside story of Shangbu Town.

And ultimately, they came to the conclusion that conventional methods could not defeat Lina.

Although Lina has now become his biggest worry, a thorn in his side.

However, she has too many secrets and is very powerful. To defeat her, we need to plan carefully.

Fortunately, Lina's strength is mainly reflected in home-field advantage, and she currently has no intention of launching a full-scale attack on the south bank of the Reach, which gives Vittorio a chance to catch his breath.

As Vittorio was pondering this matter, someone suddenly knocked on his door.

He opened the door and found an unexpected visitor outside.

Arthur, the apprentice blacksmith.

Vittorio had previously asked Arthur to make the cannon barrel, but he hadn't expected Arthur to produce the finished product quickly. However, just a few days later, Arthur came to him again.

"Sir, I've made the thing you requested. Would you like to go and inspect it now?"

Upon hearing this news, Vittorio's spirits lifted, and he nodded, signaling Arthur to lead the way.

The two soon arrived at a row of large houses near the castle.

This place was originally the castle's stable and some of the servants' rooms. Now, a small part of it is used to house the modified livestock, while a larger part is filled with blacksmith tools scavenged from various villages at the foot of the mountain.

When Vittorio arrived at the blacksmith shop, he felt waves of heat coming from the direction of the furnace and beehives. Inside, two people were fiddling with the bellows.

Because Arthur couldn't complete such a large task by himself, he found two clever young men to help him.

In the center of the blacksmith's shop, on the open ground, stood a huge, dark, round cannon.

Vittorio was initially very interested, but upon closer inspection, he was immediately disappointed.

Although he only asked Arthur to make an iron cylinder because there were no blueprints, he knew that Arthur might not do a very good job on his first try, but he was still very disappointed when he saw the finished product.

First of all, the size of this cylinder is not very uniform from front to back; it is thicker in the front and thinner in the back.

Moreover, if you look from one end of the barrel to the other, you will find that the barrel itself is not straight. You should know that the most important thing about artillery is that the barrel must be straight, otherwise the shell cannot be smoothly ejected from the barrel.

And most importantly, this is a cannon barrel made entirely by hand, and many air bubbles are still inside.

Although Vittorio didn't know much about cannon making, he knew that this kind of thing was definitely completely substandard.

Arthur didn't actually understand what the lord wanted to do; he simply did as the lord asked.

It took Arthur quite a while to create this finished product. For someone of his skill level, this was already an exceptional achievement, which is why he enthusiastically invited the lord over to see the finished product.

He had expected Vittorio to praise him, but Vittorio's disappointment was palpable after seeing the finished product, and Arthur realized that he seemed to fall a little short of the lord's requirements.

Arthur immediately felt a little awkward and at a loss.

However, Vittorio did not blame him, because he knew that the young man had done his best.

Instead, Vittorio saw an opportunity in this immature, unfinished product.

[A crude cannon barrel has been discovered, which will yield a new blueprint – the Hongyi Cannon]

Vitorio made an excuse to go out for some fresh air alone, and that's when he saw this message on the system.

He was really sleepy. When the pillow was handed to him, Vittorio didn't even think twice and immediately said he wanted to exchange it.

However, the system prompted that there were prerequisites for the exchange, meaning that the recipe for gunpowder needed to be exchanged first.

The recipe for gunpowder had already been unlocked when saltpeter was discovered in the cave, but Vittorio simply didn't redeem it at the time.

There were currently many surplus Lord Points available, so Vittorio chose to exchange them all.

These two items cost a total of 4500 points.

Two-thirds of the 7000+ Lord Points he had just earned vanished in an instant. Vittorio felt that Lord Points really came and went quickly.

Upon receiving the new blueprints and examining the raw materials, Vittorio immediately felt a bit overwhelmed.

First, they don't have the sulfur needed to make gunpowder. Second, they need metals other than iron to make the cannon barrel to increase the strength of the cannon itself.

Those are metals like copper and tin.

And this kind of thing doesn't exist in his territory either.

Vittorio's hopes, which had just been ignited by the appearance of the blueprints, were quickly dashed.

Even a skilled cook can't cook without rice; now that we have the blueprints, without the raw materials, everything is just empty talk.

But he can't conjure up raw materials out of thin air, so where should he look for them?

Just when he was at his wit's end, someone else approached him.

Arthur approached hesitantly from a short distance away and told Vittorio that old Martin was also looking for him.

It turned out that the barley planted a couple of days ago had been harvested, and old Martin remembered that Vittorio had asked him to brew wine, so he asked Vittorio if he wanted to start working.

Vittorio first patted Arthur on the shoulder to calm the young blacksmith down.

"I have a set of blueprints here. I'll give them to you in a couple of days. You can study them first. There's no need to rush to produce any results. This is a big project, and we can't rush it."

Arthur nodded honestly.

Then Vittorio met old Martin outside the blacksmith shop.

Old Martin, beaming with joy, smiled at Vittorio and offered his congratulations.

"My lord, this is incredible news!"

"What good news?" Vittorio asked, puzzled.

Old Martin explained with a smile.

"What a bumper harvest! Everyone's rushing to harvest the grain. I've never seen such a bumper harvest before, even in Zhakou City!"

The mention of a bountiful harvest stirred Vittorio's heart, and he followed old Martin toward the fields.

"Come on, let's take a look!"