The Hungry Fortress Wants to Build a Battleship in Another World – World of Sandbox-Chapter 17Vol 3. : Oil Port

The new oil-loading outpost had been given a name—plain and functional: Oil Port.

There was a chance it might turn into a permanent installation depending on the size of the reserves, but the plan was to withdraw in the short term. No need to waste time coming up with anything elaborate.

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"Speaking of names, I think it's about time we gave Fortress No. 2 an official designation, don’t you think?"

"Yes-affirmative, Commander Ma’am. Do you have anything in mind?"

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"Nothing springs to mind yet, honestly."

Then again, it wasn’t urgent. This was still a covert installation, hidden from foreign eyes—for now.

At present, Oil Port was in the middle of pier construction and subsea excavation. The pier itself was made of steel, and the spider drones were busily piecing it together, crawling all over it.

The seafloor excavation had begun immediately after the arrival of the construction ship yesterday. It had already dropped its equipment and gone to work, blasting through the seabed with high-pressure water jets, then sucking up the slurry—sediment and seawater together—and separating it using a multistage filter system.

The sediment was then stuffed into cellulose-fabric bags, which were tossed into the water one after another to help fill and reclaim space.

"It's incredible how fast it can dig."

"Yes-affirmative, Commander Ma’am. These construction methods were all refined during the Fortress No. 2 project. We've selected the most efficient ones. Excavation should be completed in about three days. With the pier in place, we’ll be able to load and unload directly from the heavy cargo ships—and then we can push straight for the oil field."

"So we’re using those cargo ships—the ones we designed for resource transport? Are they carrying equipment?"

"Yes-affirmative, Commander Ma’am. They're en route with eighty multi-legged tanks, one hundred fifty construction mechs, one hundred twenty light work units, a complete petroleum extraction plant, and twenty multi-wheeled articulated transporters. Honestly, trying to move all that by cargo plane would be impossible—sea transport is essential."

"I see... Well, I’ve got to say, it’s impressive how far we’ve come. I’m almost... emotional."

She recalled the early days after the transfer. Supplies had been desperately short. Every day was a tightrope act, stretching thin reserves, rationing every resource just to keep going.

Even now, they weren’t exactly rolling in surplus, but their production capacity had soared dramatically.

"Still, we’ve got a long way to go if we’re aiming to get back to our former strength. I wouldn’t mind stumbling across a nice big iron ore deposit."

"Yes-affirmative, Commander Ma’am. We’re currently exploring for one. Right now, seabed deposits look the most promising. We had to pause the exploration for this oil plant project, but once it's running, we’ll redirect resources back. With the use of resin-based materials, platform construction will proceed more smoothly."

It had been 690 days since The Tree first discovered signs of a seabed mineral deposit.

It had taken an absurd amount of time, but now... there was finally light at the end of the tunnel.

Estimated reserves? A hundred million tons.

And that was just in the waters around The Tree. There were still unexplored areas that could hold hydrothermal vents, methane hydrates, and other lucrative underwater resources.

"The possibilities are endless... Though, I suppose there’s still the monster problem."

The ocean was vast. According to Ringo’s estimates, this planet had three times more sea than land.

So far, no marine monsters had been detected near The Tree’s waters—but that likely meant they just hadn’t run into one yet.

The wider The Tree expanded its operational reach, the greater the chance of encountering those threats.

"The Northern Continent doesn’t do much open-sea navigation, either. Their information on sea monsters is limited and not particularly useful. With no one else having explored the ocean, we’ll have to figure it out for ourselves."

And to do that, they’d need firepower. That much had been made abundantly clear during the battle with Rain Kroin.

Fighting monsters required overwhelming force. That meant any underwater platform would need serious defensive and offensive capabilities—and balancing that with resource constraints had been a nightmare.

In the end, she’d just gone with Ringo’s recommended configuration.

"For now, we need to secure the oil right in front of us. How’s the forward recon team?"

**"Yes-affirmative, Commander Ma’am. Aerial reconnaissance is proceeding smoothly. So far, no creatures of concern have been spotted.

The coastline is sandy, but the interior seems to fit a steppe climate—dry earth with short grasses stretching out as far as the eye can see.

There’s not much elevation, but there are areas with exposed rock, so creating a straight path may be tricky.

Once the geological map is complete, we’ll begin advancing with the multi-legged machines."**

At present, propeller planes from Fortress No. 2 were being used to build out the regional maps surrounding Oil Port. Because of altitude limits, they couldn’t rush the aerial photography, but that couldn’t be helped.

The map would be essential in choosing the path from the oil wells to the port—and for planning out the pipeline.

Until that pipeline was complete, they would use multi-wheeled articulated transports to haul the oil.

Since they weren’t multi-legged, they’d need somewhat leveled ground. They could handle minor rough terrain, but steep inclines like those navigated by the spider-mechs were out of the question.

They had considered developing multi-legged transports, but the ground pressure under full oil loads made that unfeasible. You could theoretically solve it by attaching a centipede’s worth of legs, but the number of moving parts would skyrocket—and so would the breakdown rate. It just wasn’t worth it.

"Still, I kinda like the idea of multi-legged transports."

"Yes-affirmative, Commander Ma’am. If it’s for lighter cargo, we could implement something like that. But for oil hauling, it's simply not viable."

"Ah well. Can’t be helped, huh."

It could make a good local resupply vehicle though, she mused. For now, she shelved the idea.

"Alright. Olive submitted a defensive plan for the extraction facility, right? Let’s take a look at it together."

"Yes-affirmative, Commander Ma’am."

Day 700 since the transfer.

For the first time ever, The Tree deployed a large-scale unit group onto foreign soil.

In addition to the airborne units already dropped, the force included:

4 multi-legged ground command carriers

112 multi-legged tanks

180 multi-legged construction mechs

161 light work units

20 multi-wheeled articulated transports

All advancing into the desert.

Some units stayed behind to guard and continue building Oil Port, but the bulk pushed forward along a preselected route.

The tanks blazed a trail through the sand, with the ground command carriers following behind, and the construction mechs moving in clusters like a herd.

The hundreds of multi-legged machines stamped the desert flat enough that even the multi-wheeled transports at the rear could cruise at high speed.

By the way, the multi-wheeled articulated transports looked like rolling fuel tanks.

As long as they had space to carry oil, nothing else was needed. Since they were autonomous, there were no driver’s cabins, and they ran on in-wheel motors—no need for giant engines in the chassis.

The result was a simple but unsettling design: massive tanks with tires stuck straight into them.

And there were four of them, linked together, crawling across the desert.

"Is this the Demon King’s army or what?"

That ➤ NоvеⅠight ➤ (Read more on our source) was Commander Eve’s honest reaction.

Though, considering she was the one who insisted on this unit composition, it was a bit late for second thoughts.

"As a precaution against the Forest Kingdom of Levresta, especially with the scout walkers potentially being spotted, we may want to redesign some to resemble living creatures—for camouflage."

So some of the machines had their armor plating swapped out for curvier, more organic-looking designs. If they were ever spotted by the Levresta forces, the hope was they’d be mistaken for monsters.

"Yeah, showing up unannounced with these things? People are gonna scream ‘Demon King’s vanguard’ and panic..."

The armor layout—especially around the leg joints—only added to the ominous look.

The plan was to assign these multi-legged scout units to security detail around the oil wells. If resources allowed, they’d consider extending into the old fortress line region as well.

"Well... as long as we don’t get caught, we’re fine... probably."

She muttered, not sounding particularly convinced.