After getting back from a supply run, Shen Cong split his days between two things: devouring fire-spirit mediums, and pouring the rest of his time into overhauling the Great Vajra.

Metal-steel — hard or soft at will — was like modeling clay in his hands; he could knead it into whatever shape he pleased. And as his Talent kept evolving, the Third Eye Radar had grown reliable enough that he could scrap the closed-circuit camera system altogether.

Which meant the only real hurdle in the new build was the drivetrain.

Even that wasn't much of a problem. The Eastern Theater Command files Han Shoucheng had brought included a set of modification blueprints for the Push-Pull Three-Core Totem Engine — a streamlined evolution of the three-core totem engine, and Shen Cong had already chewed through every last bit of the theory.

"The totem in my three-core engine is about worn through anyway. Might as well spend these few days building the Push-Pull version — that can be the Vajra Fortress's powerplant."

Working from the blueprint, he began sketching out the Vajra Fortress.

First, the whole closed-circuit setup — cameras, infrared, radar, and every screen that fed off them — could go. All he needed was a single central console: maps, a bit of music, the odd movie, data transfer. Done.

He'd wanted to keep the self-driving system, but it was more trouble than it was worth, and in the end he cut that too. The reasoning was simple: there wasn't an intact stretch of road left anywhere. Too many craters, too much debris to clear at every turn — autopilot just didn't earn its keep. He'd be doing most of the driving himself regardless. With it or without it, little changed.

Strip all that out, and the only part of the cab left with any real complexity was the drivetrain.

Mount the Push-Pull Three-Core Totem Engine, fit two electric motors, fold in the old control system, then tune and calibrate the transmission efficiency — fiddly, maybe, but not hard.

The cab would come out simpler than ever.

He was strong enough…