Chapter 157: Chapter 157

Using the islands in the Taranis Ocean as anchors, a semicircular island chain was jointly constructed to block the southern part of the Western Wasteland Continent.

Through this island chain, the Monstrous Civilizations completely sealed off the maritime route from the Western Wasteland Continent to the Southern Continent.

Any forces from the human side that attempted to pass through this route would suffer frenzied assaults from these Monstrous Civilizations.

"So that’s how it is!"Li Ye couldn’t help but take a deep breath.

He instantly understood everything.

The Western Wasteland Continent was classified as a Level 1–2 zone. Once an ordinary Mobile City reached full Level 2 configuration or was promoted to Level 3, the resources produced in this continent could no longer satisfy the city’s development needs.

Thus, going to sea and heading toward other continents became a necessary choice.

It was precisely because the monsters understood this that they joined forces to construct the island chain.

By maintaining the chain and preventing any human Mobile City from heading out to other continents, they forced them back to the Western Wasteland Continent.

Song Jing informed everyone that this island chain was built under the directive of a world-class organization from the monster side.

The Monstrous Civilizations in the Taranis Ocean were obedient. They did not internally wear themselves down through Slaughter Evolution, but instead, unanimously executed the superior’s orders.

Or perhaps... no matter how much internal strife there might have been, when it came to dealing with humans, the monsters naturally united with utmost effort.

"Since the southern sea has already formed an island chain, what’s the situation in the northern and central seas?"He turned to ask the other party.

To this, Song Jing gave a concise reply.

"Still fiercely contested."

After digesting the information, Li Ye continued with his questions.

"May I ask how many world-class organizations exist on the human side currently?"

"Only three in total,"Song Jing replied blandly.

"And what about the monster side?"

"Also three,"Song Jing’s expression remained unchanged as he answered.

Li Ye’s eyes immediately lit up.

"Then may I ask you to tell me about these three world-class monster organizations?"

Song Jing shook his head.

"Given my rank, I normally don’t have access to much intelligence regarding world-class monster organizations."

"However, I can tell you the names of these three world-class monster organizations."

"Listen carefully—they are the War Alliance, the United Sect, and Natural Selection."

Li Ye nodded, silently memorizing the three names.

After finishing his exchange and farewell with Song Jing and the others, he made a decision.

Tomorrow Alliance would temporarily rest at Storm Island for one day, conducting routine maintenance, troubleshooting, and personnel organization. Early tomorrow morning, everyone would proceed together to the Black Fog Sea Region to mine veins.

When Li Ye rode the lift platform back onto the deck of Tomorrow, Lin Wu rolled over in a wheelchair and handed him a list.

The list clearly detailed various expenditures made by the City Committee while shopping at the marketplace in the Red Ridge Zone.

Each item was meticulously and clearly listed.

Li Ye examined it carefully and saw blueprints for a basketball court, a badminton court, a pool table, and various balls.

He looked up at Lin Wu. The latter shrugged.

"Did you forget? I mentioned it to you back in the Eternal Night Zone. This is also for enriching the lives of Tomorrow’s residents."

Li Ye thought about it and agreed. Life aboard a Mobile City was indeed monotonous. Aside from work and combat, people mostly wandered aimlessly through the Mobile City or stayed cooped up in their rooms.

Going outside to relax was utterly impossible. People in the Wastelands had an inherent mistrust and fear of the wild. Once they left the Mobile City, anxiety would creep in.

The sports venues and equipment blueprints purchased by the City Committee were all ordinary grade, generally priced between 100 to 500 Crystal Coins.

These blueprints naturally had to be input into the Production Workshop by Li Ye, the Lord, and crafted using consumed resources.

Incidentally, although the marketplace had blueprints for a soccer field and soccer balls, Lin Wu and the others did not purchase them, as such venues simply occupied too much space.

Space aboard a Mobile City was extremely precious. Unless it was a high-level Mobile City, construction might not even be feasible.

Moreover, the marketplace also sold playing card blueprints.

Initially, the City Committee intended to buy them, but after considering the negative implications of gambling and its tendency to lead people astray, they abandoned the idea.

"Alright, I’ve confirmed it."Li Ye returned the list to Lin Wu.

The latter did not take it, but instead pulled out a pen from his pocket.

"You need to sign to confirm,"he reminded.

After signing and handing the list back to Lin Wu, Li Ye pushed his wheelchair and headed toward the Production Workshop.

He input the blueprints into the Production Workshop and selected a mid-level area to begin immediate construction of these sports venues.

This time, he built ten small basketball courts, badminton courts, and pool tables in one go.

During this period, Lin Wu handed over another list.

Li Ye took a close look and found it was an application by the City Committee to open a barber shop.

The barber shop was an official franchise of Tomorrow, with each haircut temporarily set at 15 Contribution Points.

Design blueprints for items such as scissors, razors, and combs had already been procured by the City Committee.

The purpose of building sports venues and opening a barber shop was to help consume the Contribution Points held by residents.

In fact, the Contribution Points of Tomorrow were essentially an internally circulating "City Currency".

Outside the city, they held no value.

After a thorough investigation by the City Committee, it was discovered that residents had accumulated an increasing amount of Contribution Points.

At present, there were only a few ways to reclaim Contribution Points aboard Tomorrow.

First, daily food and drink from the Public Canteen.

Second, the periodically opened Small Bathhouse.

Overall, the options were pathetically scarce.

"That does make sense,"Li Ye nodded slowly.

His original intent in establishing Contribution Points was to mobilize the enthusiasm of residents, thereby better contributing to Tomorrow.

To current residents of Tomorrow, Contribution Points merely allowed for better meals, access to more drinkable freshwater for brushing teeth and washing faces, or even the luxury of bathing.

Put plainly, Contribution Points failed to embody much additional value.

In the long run, residents would feel that Contribution Points had limited use, and their enthusiasm for work and combat would decline.

"Not just the barber shop, the City Committee will also think of more ways to open public stores in the future,"Lin Wu said."Through these public stores, we aim to amplify the value of Contribution Points and further motivate residents."

Li Ye patted Lin Wu’s shoulder and nodded sincerely.

Lin Wu truly had thought things through more thoroughly than he had.

"Then let’s open a furniture store as well,"he suggested.

Tomorrow had many common furniture production items, which only consumed wood. The resource cost was low, and it helped recycle Contribution Points—a win-win.

Following Li Ye’s line of thought, Lin Wu continued speaking.

Not only ordinary wooden furniture, but there should also be items like lounge chairs, small sofas, spring beds, curtains, and mats—to increase furniture variety as much as possible.

In addition, the recently acquired Level 1 Plastic Blueprints could also be put to use—for producing plastic cups, plastic basins, plastic bags, plastic chairs, and other items.

In the future, whenever they encountered a marketplace, the City Committee would continue to apply for funding from Li Ye to purchase production blueprints for ordinary furniture and daily necessities.

Besides the furniture store, Tomorrow could also open a food store.

However, for now, Tomorrow’s snacks were pitifully few—just Instant Noodle Cups, Whole Wheat Biscuits, and Sachima.

Therefore, the City Committee planned to add new procurement items in the future, such as potato chips, bread, cakes, chocolates, and other snacks.

"Currently, ordinary residents on Tomorrow have limited living space—only 9 square meters in total,"Lin Wu said."That amount of space can't accommodate much furniture, let alone home appliances like air conditioners, electric fans, or electric kettles."

"Once Tomorrow is promoted to a Level 3 Mobile City, space will become much more abundant,"Li Ye continued along his line of thought."When residents have more space, they’ll naturally spend a lot of Contribution Points on large furniture and home appliances."

"If we can achieve full power supply for Tomorrow and let everyone use appliances, reclaiming Contribution Points would be much easier."

Amid these thoughts, Li Ye shook his head.

At present, Tomorrow already had more than a thousand residents. The daily electricity consumption for over a thousand people was an astronomical figure. Just imagining it was difficult enough.

At that moment, a Deacon from the Apocalypse Sect of Storm Island arrived aboard Tomorrow and found the two of them.

"Our Bishop has prepared some small gifts for you."

Reminded by Professor Hao, Song Jing and his group learned that Tomorrow was the very Mobile City that had destroyed the Flesh Furnace.

Thus, they decided to offer some small gifts to Tomorrow.

Level 2 Crop: Shadow Kelp.

Level 2 Crop: Seabreeze Sorghum.

Level 2 Crop: Giant Soybean.

Level 2 Crop: Silver Needle Sprouts.

"Not bad at all,"Li Ye’s eyes instantly lit up.

These were obviously crops grown on Storm Island.

In the Wastelands, exchanging crop seeds among allied factions was a popular practice. On one hand, it cost little; on the other, it was very practical.

Incidentally, all crops appearing in the Wastelands originally began as Level 1.

To upgrade them, Level 2 Upgrade Blueprints were required.

The same applied for Level 3, Level 4, and Level 5 crops thereafter.

Therefore, Lords of Mobile Cities would prioritize upgrading staple grains or crops with strong functionality.

These four Level 2 crops had a total value of over ten thousand Crystal Coins.

Additionally, there were boxes of fry: squid, eel, cutlassfish, and yellow croaker.

This time, Li Ye remained silent.

The reason was simple—after experiencing the attack from the Giant Fish Swarm, he harbored a sense of fear.

Tomorrow already raised freshwater fish, but he no longer had any appetite for them.

"Let’s just accept them,"Lin Wu reassured."This way, our dining table aboard Tomorrow will be a lot richer."

Li Ye reluctantly nodded in agreement.

"Come to think of it, can we even keep these marine fish alive?"he asked hesitantly.

"Leave that to me,"Lin Wu replied.

Just as Li Ye was preparing to share some seeds and fry with Yang Zheng and the others, the Deacon reached out to stop him.

"Your companions have already received theirs. Bishop Song Jing has sent others to deliver them."

"I see. Your bishop is truly thoughtful,"Li Ye remarked.

After seeing off the Deacon, the two continued discussing matters.

Li Ye fondly gazed at the four bags of crop seeds in front of him.

Overall, these crops were of high value.

Sorghum was a staple grain, soybean could be used for oil extraction, and bean sprouts were nutritious and yielded well.

"We can now attempt self-sufficiency in oil, salt, sauce, and vinegar,"Lin Wu reminded.

Currently, all oil, salt, sauce, and vinegar aboard Tomorrow were procured externally.

Now, with the population having surged past one thousand, the demand for these condiments had spiked.

In the Wastelands, blueprints for oil, salt, sauce, and vinegar existed, and as long as the corresponding resources were consumed, they could be produced in the Production Workshop.

However, the taste was quite unpleasant.

Therefore, people in the Wastelands often made them manually.

Moreover, with a series of excellent quality Level crops, the resulting condiments tasted quite good. Updates are released by novelꜰire.net

Li Ye began to contemplate.

Now that Tomorrow had Level 2 soybeans, once the first batch matured, they could be pressed for oil.

The leftover soybean pulp could be used to feed livestock and poultry.

As for salt, it was mainly obtained through evaporating seawater and crystallizing it.

For soy sauce, Giant Soybean and Morning Wheat could be used as raw materials.

As for vinegar, Seabreeze Sorghum or Sunshine Apples could be used.

"By what you’re saying, we really can achieve self-sufficiency in oil, salt, sauce, and vinegar,"he concluded.

Considering Lin Wu was far too busy, Li Ye handed over this task to the City Committee for planning.

Mentioning the City Committee, Lin Wu added a reminder.

"We’ll need to expand the City Committee. With just ten members, it’s not enough to handle everything."

The City Committee was made up of residents who actively competed for the position—it came with power, status, good treatment, and safety.

He could already envision the lively scene of campaign voting.

As the new day dawned, the four Mobile Cities of the Tomorrow Alliance set off.

For this, Li Ye specially asked Song Jing and the others about the Black Fog Sea Region and the Ark of the Old Era.

The three gave detailed information about the location of the Black Fog Sea Region but knew nothing about the Ark of the Old Era.

On the deck, Li Ye slowly opened the System Panel.

At that moment, the Epic Intelligence had already refreshed.

【6. In the southwestern Taranis Ocean, the Star Sand Reef hosts a Level 2 Naga Monstrous Civilization. The ruler of the Naga, “Naga King Vasuki,” wears a crown embedded with a Level 2 City Crystal. It travels aboard the Level 2 Mobile City “Trident.” (Intelligence Value: Epic)】

Regarding this piece of intelligence, Li Ye felt both joy and frustration.

Although he had found the whereabouts of a City Crystal, it clearly would not be easy to obtain.

Back in the Eternal Night Zone and the Northern Icefield Zone, he had already witnessed the strength of Level 2 Monstrous Civilizations.

Even though the Tomorrow Alliance had excellent configuration, it was no match for a Level 2 Monstrous Civilization.

What troubled Li Ye most was that a Level 2 Monstrous Civilization certainly had a Level 2 Mobile City—likely not just one—and might even be equipped with Level 3 Items.

"Why are the monsters in the Wastelands so outrageous?"he muttered while scratching his head.

To this, Li Ye could think of only one solution.

That was to somehow persuade the three administrators of Storm Island to rally the human forces stationed on the island to assist the Tomorrow Alliance in attacking the Naga Civilization.

But that was nearly impossible.

A Level 2 City Crystal was the most valuable item among Level 2 Items. Every Level 2 City desired it. Even if it wasn’t used personally, selling it would fetch a fortune.

Which faction would be willing to work for free for the Tomorrow Alliance?

This time, Li Ye could only sigh wistfully at the ocean.