BEFORE THE WORLD FROZE, I BUILT MY OWN KINGDOM

Chapter 12: Choosing the Base Site

As Ethan emerged from the cave by the same route, a blast of cold air hit him and woke him up instantly.

But he was soaked through, and it was winter. Before the chill could sink in after the heat of the cave, he hurried to find a spot to change his clothes.

No one had measured the water in the cave. But from the thickness of the steam, Ethan judged that the spring was close to 100°C. That would be more than enough to generate power.

The cave itself was impressive, but the spring made it unusable as it stood. The temperature inside was far too high, and the air was thick with sulfur. He couldn't turn it directly into a fortress. It would need further work.

While he was still thinking, Tyler came over in his dry clothes, laughing. "Brother, now you can pay me the rest, right? Being your guide was rough."

"Of course, hehe. I should thank you for stopping me back there. If it weren't for you, I might have been in real danger," Ethan said with a smile. "Tell you what. On top of the four thousand I owe you, I'll add five thousand more."

As he spoke, he transferred nine thousand dollars to Tyler on the spot.

Tyler lit up. "Brother, you're too generous. It was the least I could do!"

But despite his words, his finger didn't hesitate a second as it tapped "accept payment."

"Hehe. You're a local, right?" Ethan asked.

"Yep. Grew up around here," Tyler replied casually.

"Do you know who this mountain belongs to?"

"Oh, it used to belong to Millbrook Village. But Millbrook was relocated a while back. Now I think the mountain is under the Oakridge District Council!"

"Oakridge?" Ethan asked, puzzled.

"Yeah. Once you cross this mountain, you're in Oakridge city!"

Ethan suddenly realized that the straight-line distance between Oakridge and the hot spring resort wasn't far at all, only four or five kilometers. But since the resort sat deep in the mountains, the roads wound through ridges and valleys, and made it seem much farther. They had already driven nearly eight kilometers up the mountain and were almost at the top. If they went around it once more, they would be in Oakridge.

The reason Ethan hadn't realized it sooner was that he didn't know the area well. He never imagined that the ground under his feet was Slabrock Mountain, the very peak he saw every day when he stepped outside.

Slabrock Mountain stood on the west side of Oakridge, right beside the urban area. Although Ethan had grown up in Oakridge, he had never climbed it. The mountain was so steep it looked like one enormous cliff. Without professional gear, no one could climb it, much less build a road on it. If not for the hot spring resort, who knew when that winding mountain road would ever have been built?

The Oakridge District Council had been tormented by it for years. That wall of rock, seemingly impossible to cross, had seriously blocked the city's plan to expand westward.

As he thought about all this, Ethan climbed the cliff above the cave and reached the highest point of the mountain.

A gust of cold wind swept past, and for a moment he felt as if he were looking down on every mountain in the world.

The summit was flat and bare, with no tall trees, only weeds and a few scrubby bushes. It was a sharp contrast to the lush trees and grass below the cliff.

He walked another two hundred meters or so and reached the very edge of the mountain.

The view opened out below him. The towering buildings of Oakridge and the desolate slopes of Slabrock seemed to belong to two different worlds.

Ethan drew a deep breath. His heart was pounding.

Wasn't this the perfect place for his doomsday base? Easy to defend, hard to attack, close to the city, and almost impossible for anyone to find.

It was exactly the kind of thing you searched everywhere for and then found without even trying. He had never imagined he would solve the problem of choosing a base site so quickly.

"Brother, you're not really going to build a power plant here, are you? Haha." Tyler had caught up with him at some point. He had made ten thousand dollars so easily today, and he was clearly in a great mood.

"Hehe, I was joking. If I built a plant in a place like this, I'd have to build a highway first," Ethan laughed.

And he was right. After all, they had walked for more than an hour on that mountain trail after leaving the car. A power plant needed an enormous amount of material transported in. Without roads, it was impossible.

"That's true. Building a road in a place like this would be crazy. The investment would be huge," Tyler agreed.

Ethan said no more about it. After a while, the two began their trip back. It was getting late, and they still had that long hike down the mountain path.

…………

It was almost ten at night when Ethan got back to his rented room.

Lying in bed, his heart stayed restless for a long time. He had made up his mind. Slabrock Mountain would be his.

He had already begun planning his doomsday base in his head.

First, the geothermal power plant. It could be built right inside the hot spring cave, making use of what was already there.

Second, the fortress itself would have to be built from scratch. Not far from the hot spring cave, he would carve out another cavern and embed the fortress deep in the mountain. The two caves would connect to the power plant through a passage. If conditions allowed, he could even link the inside of the fortress to the summit and build a helipad on top. That way he could move between the outside world and his bunker whenever he wanted.

But a project that large was far beyond what he could do alone. He would have to hire a professional construction team. And in that case, he could forget about using the extradimensional space to move supplies. Wouldn't that expose him? The road would probably need to be repaired too, which would make the investment even bigger.

And one more thing gave him a serious headache. The mountain belonged to the government. He needed official approval to develop it. Investing in a geothermal plant was obviously a good excuse, but he didn't want too many people to know about his project. He couldn't have it both ways. It was a hard choice.

As he turned it over in his mind, his eyelids grew heavier and heavier.

Just as he was about to fall asleep, his eyes snapped open.

A bold idea had flashed into his head.

Oakridge's westward expansion plan had been blocked by Slabrock Mountain. Although a mountain road existed now, it ran all the way around the mountain and forced travelers into long detours. And the road was narrow and inconvenient.

Not long ago, he had heard the District Council was considering a tunnel. A professional firm had reportedly been hired to study whether it was feasible. But the firm had concluded that Slabrock was made mostly of hard granite, which made construction extremely difficult and costly. Each kilometer through the mountain would cost at least eight hundred million dollars, and the chain of mountains connected to Slabrock stretched for more than ten kilometers. The whole tunnel would cost billions.

As soon as they heard the numbers, the District Council dropped the idea. The west of Oakridge was mostly mountains, so it wasn't worth burning through such an enormous sum. The district's finances were already tight. They simply couldn't afford it.

In the end, the Council had no choice but to take the cheaper option of widening the mountain road, and that plan had already been approved.

But from his experience in his past life, Ethan knew the road-widening project never got built before the end of the world. The reason was simple. A year later, the current head of the district was transferred elsewhere, and Oakridge got a new one. The new Commissioner didn't want to be a stepping stone for his predecessor, so everything was started over from zero.

That was a matter for later. For now, Ethan's idea was this. Since the district wanted that tunnel so badly and couldn't afford it, why not fund it himself? The district wouldn't have to spend a single cent, and the tunnel would still get built. Wouldn't that be a win for everyone?

Of course, Ethan didn't have the money to build a tunnel either. But would he really have to build one just because he said he would? He could dig a kilometer or two for show, add a few "personal touches" along the way, and use any excuse to build his bunker. He would have invested a fortune to build a tunnel for free. Surely the district wouldn't refuse such a small request in return.

And if construction dragged on, then when the extreme cold hit a year and a half later, no one would hold anyone accountable.

Ethan felt a surge of excitement. The plan could really work.

But he still had to find a way to raise the funds. Two hundred and twenty million was nowhere near enough. A two-kilometer tunnel alone would cost more than a billion.

"Oh, right! I can invest in the stock market too! The money comes slower, but I have plenty of time. And I clearly remember some of the best-performing stocks from my last life!"

The idea hit him in a flash.