"Dragon Hornets. In Hefei."

The camp's leadership had already been carrying the weight of too much bad news. This darkened their faces further. The Violent Ape swarm. The Golden Jiao. And now Dragon Hornets ranging a hundred kilometers from the Oasis to hunt in Hefei's urban district. The threat signals were compounding.

"We accelerate the Shushan excavation and underground shelter construction. That's the only answer."

How the camp handled it was their problem. Shen Cong moved on.

The day's haul converted to 541 points. Added to his previous 759, his total reached 1,300. He remained the camp's leading point-holder at Silver tier.

"Where did you go yesterday? You didn't come back to camp." Li Aiping returned with the transaction paperwork and asked in the same breath.

Shen Cong didn't answer. He was already busy.

He'd called in Research Institute staff to help establish the onboard laboratory. This space would be his field analysis station for future solo operations — specimen examination, bone-gold research, material testing. From the camp's salvage pile, he'd had a full set of laboratory equipment restored to working condition.

Glass instruments, measurement and calibration tools, environmental sensors, optical equipment, magnification systems, material testing devices, chromatography instruments, reaction vessels, gas detectors — enough to fill several shelves, some of it advanced enough that he didn't recognize all the names. The Research Institute staff had written a comprehensive reference manual for the complete collection.

Whether he'd use all of it immediately was beside the point. Having it was the point. Science was the primary productive force. Eventually, the evolution of both Great Vajra and Shen Cong would need scientific frameworks to guide it — and in this new world, the old frameworks only partially applied. Mapping the new ones required tools.

While the Research Institute team handled the laboratory, Shen Cong built out the supply room.

The butchery area already housed a large cold storage unit, powered by a dedicated solar panel array on one side of Great Vajra — enough capacity to keep meat fresh. The kitchen had its own refrigeration. The supply room, therefore, held no food.…