Chapter 203: Chapter 203

Chapter 203: Operation Codename “Scalpel”

“Now, we had completely cleansed Tourism State.” Li Ye told everyone.

After the battle, the various units began collecting the giants’ drops.

What the Tomorrow Alliance would do next was to gather as many metal resources as possible in Tourism State.

As he spoke, a voice came through Li Ye’s radio.

“Report, Lord. We picked up a Level 3 city structure blueprint.”

Li Ye’s eyes lit up instantly.

“A Level 3 city structure? What type is it?”

“It was a City Shipyard.”

“Bring it to me immediately.”

An hour later, Li Ye saw the blueprint with his own eyes.

【Item Name: City Shipyard】

【Attached Effect: Construction speed for waterborne vehicles +100%】

【Crafting Requirement: 500 units of Level 3 iron ore】

After reading the blueprint’s description carefully, Li Ye quickly understood.

The Mobile City’s production workshop was limited in scale; when producing large ships like destroyers, it could not fully assemble them inside the workshop.

Therefore, during production it only manufactured a series of ship components, which were then assembled by the Mobile City’s mechanical arms and work claws.

The City Shipyard’s function was to assemble and construct these large warships — it was specialized for that role.

Not only that, it could also build and assemble speedboats and mini-submarines, and it did so faster than the production workshop.

Most crucially, the shipyard could fully link with the production workshop’s crafting system for fully automated construction.

Following that line of thought, Li Ye continued to think.

With the current production workshop scale, producing tanks, fighters, and speedboats was already at the limit.

Not only conventional power submarines and destroyers now, but in the future it would also be responsible for crafting mobile mechs and giant airborne combat vehicles.

At that time there would certainly be corresponding city tank manufacturing plants and city aircraft manufacturing plants.

Having learned the situation, Lin Wu immediately sped over in his wheelchair.

“Are you saying we should build a shipyard on the coast now?” Li Ye asked.

After all, 500 units of Level 3 iron ore were not cheap.

Lin Wu did not answer hastily; he took the blueprint and looked it over carefully.

“It was 150 meters long, 60 meters wide, and 15 meters high.”

As he spoke he turned to look at Li Ye.

“The scale was not that large; perhaps we could build a shipyard on the edge of the Tomorrow.”

His words instantly enlightened Li Ye.

As a Level 3 Mobile City, the Tomorrow had vast space — accommodating a shipyard was naturally not a problem.

It would make future ship production on the Tomorrow much more convenient.

Ship components manufactured in the production workshop would be sent nonstop via conveyor belts to the shipyard, which would then quickly complete assembly and launch the finished vessels.

After careful selection, the two of them chose the shipyard’s site on the Tomorrow.

“I did not expect that after promotion to Level 3, the Tomorrow would become more and more function-oriented,” Li Ye could not help but say.

“Yes. Actually, I did not expect the changes to be this big either.”

In the following time, Li Ye successively received Level 3 blueprints that the troops had picked up.

Level 3 reconnaissance plane “Iron Crow” blueprint.

Level 3 drone parts — Light Machine Gun blueprint.

Level 3 smoke grenade blueprint.

He first looked at the reconnaissance plane blueprint.

【Item Name: “Iron Crow” Reconnaissance Plane】

【Attached Effect: 1. Reconnaissance range +35% 2. Target identification accuracy +50%】

【Crafting Requirement: 250 units of Level 3 iron ore, 75 units of Level 3 precision flying vehicle parts】

From the blueprint, the reconnaissance plane’s appearance gave off a rugged yet utilitarian industrial aesthetic; the fuselage lines were not as sharply angular and acute as modern fighters, but presented a rounded, barrel-like contour.

The cockpit’s glass canopy protruded slightly, and each side of the fuselage had a row of round observation windows.

“Overall, it was pretty decent,” Li Ye thought.

This time his air force had gained a new member.

With the light machine gun parts, the drone could be deployed into combat.

As for the Level 3 smoke grenade, Li Ye hoped even more that it would be a Level 3 smoke shell.

When Xie Jie heard that there were no more giants in Tourism State, he could hardly believe the news.

“Is that for real?” His voice trembled as he spoke.

Only after seeing Li Ye nod did the man come back to his senses and excitedly hug him.

Li Ye gently patted his back.

“Now you all could live here properly,” he said softly.

After bidding farewell to Xie Jie, he opened the system panel.

【Time until next intelligence refresh: 6 days 23 hours 19 minutes 39 seconds】

【Number of intelligence entries: 7】

“Seven days until the next one?” A trace of oddness appeared in his eyes. “Fine — we would use that time to develop properly!”

Under his arrangement, the Tomorrow Alliance began to wildly collect metal resources in Tourism State. In addition, Li Ye also dispatched Black Hawk Helicopters to gather wild resources across Tourism State.

After a new batch of Level 3 steel had come out hot from the smelters, Li Ye immediately went to the production workshop.

He had a big pile of things to craft.

Level 3 radar, Level 3 signal-jamming device, Level 3 city armor, Level 3 power engine.

But one item was at the head of the list.

That was the Level 3 City Shipyard, the Zhenlang Destroyer, the Deep-sea Hunter submarine, and the Mechanical Squid.

To attack the Taranis Ocean, the Tomorrow now needed to form a fleet.

After discussion, they decided on the Tomorrow’s fleet composition.

1 Flight III-class destroyer.

2 Zhenlang destroyers.

2 Deep-sea Hunter submarines.

The destroyers would carry Seahawk anti-submarine aircraft.

The Waveblade and Viper speedboats from Fleets One and Two were honorably retired.

The Swordfish mini-submarine would continue to serve as a scout and shine on.

As for Level 3 Magnetic Storm Speedboats, if the Tomorrow Alliance could collect Level 3 Thunder ore, they would consider producing several.

For large naval combat vessels like destroyers, submarines, and Mechanical Squids, once the shipyard was built and operational, constructing them would be much more convenient.

After finalizing the fleet scale and allocating the steel resources for construction, Li Ye began to plan the use of the next batch of steel.

First, he would craft two Level 3 radars, installing one each on the Tomorrow and the Peacemaker.

Then he would craft a Level 3 power engine each for the Stellar and the Iron Whale.

In addition, for safety and protection, all Mobile Cities in the Tomorrow Alliance would need to craft and install Level 3 city armor.

Everything tallied up, the required Level 3 steel had already reached tens of thousands of units.

Li Ye was not worried about this, so at present the Tomorrow Alliance controlled the entire Tourism State.

If the metals in that state were not enough, they would take other states.

Besides, the Taranis Ocean had many Tier-2 monstrous civilizations; they owned numerous Mobile Cities and had fortresses on islands.

As long as one Tier-2 monstrous civilization could be wiped out, the Tomorrow Alliance would gain a great deal of metal.

He estimated that before the next intelligence refresh, the Tomorrow Alliance would be able to finish building the fleet and assign the corresponding crews.

Soon, the Tomorrow finished constructing the Level 3 City Shipyard.

Although the shipyard could be fully linked with the production workshop’s crafting system for fully automated construction,

the daily cleaning of the shipyard and maintenance and upkeep of its various machines still required manpower.

For this reason, Li Ye specifically asked the City Committee to select a group of residents to work at the shipyard.

As Li Ye selected the Zhenlang Destroyer production project and allocated the corresponding resources, the production workshop began to operate and craft.

The destroyer parts processed by the production workshop arrived at the shipyard in an orderly fashion via conveyor belts, mechanical arms, and cranes.

Inside the shipyard, the workers looked both nervous and expectant.

The shipyard could operate fully automatically, but it could also be run entirely by manual operation.

Li Ye required them to learn manual operation as much as possible.

As destroyer components arrived, the workers activated various large and small machines in the shipyard, beginning the destroyer’s assembly.

Keel sections, bow modules, engine compartments, superstructure, vertical launch cells, point-defense systems.

When the last hull number plate was welded on, Li Ye breathed a sigh of relief.

In truth, he had been rather nervous himself.

“Since this was the first destroyer the Tomorrow had built, shouldn’t we hold a launching ceremony?” Old Zhou asked casually.

Li Ye thought for a moment, then shook his head.

With the Zhenlang Destroyer officially launched, the destroyer crew that the Tomorrow had pre-trained came up to the deck one after another and began the destroyer’s first sea trial.

“You all must get ready as soon as possible.”

When the crew departed, Li Ye spoke to them over the radio.

By his estimate, a naval battle would definitely break out in the future.

There might even be island landing operations.

To be safe, the Zhenlang Destroyer’s first sea trial was only carried out in nearby waters and was escorted by flying units.

In the following time, Li Ye also built a Deep-sea Hunter submarine.

After completion, the submarine was launched.

As the bow plunged into the water, boiling white foam crawled along the streamlined hull like a living thing. The rumbling as the submarine sank made nearby onlookers instinctively step back.

With the ballast tank valves opened, a “hiss————” of exhaust mixed with the dull sound of seawater rushing in, and the hull began to submerge with millimeter precision.

Like the destroyer, the submarine also required a full crew system.

When Li Ye had acquired the submarine blueprint in the Old Civilization Zone, he had already instructed the City Committee to begin screening and training submarine personnel on the Tomorrow.

Now, the first group had boarded the submarine and began its first trial dive.

With the crew operating tensely, the submarine slipped through the deep like a silent leviathan, quietly tearing the veil of the deep. Its steel shell ground through dense water pressure; floodlights cast a hazy light corridor in the pitch-black water. A low-frequency vibration from friction with the current faintly transmitted through the hull, and bubbles gushed from the drainage outlets.

After the Deep-sea Hunter submarine entered the water, Li Ye furrowed his brow slightly.

As time passed, the Tomorrow’s demand for high-quality personnel for sea, land, and air vehicles had indeed become greater and greater.

Whether tanks, submarines, or destroyers, all required organized squads, and various warplanes required pilots of even higher caliber.

“From this, if we wanted to fully staff the sea-land-air units, even ten thousand people might not be enough,” he thought.

Although turning residents into combat personnel might seem bellicose, this was the apocalypse — they had to find ways to master force.

While slowly building the fleet and consolidating the internal population, Li Ye also sent out the Swordfish Mini Submarines to scout the waters.

At sea, they were more agile and covert.

A few hours later, one Swordfish found something new.

Forty-seven nautical miles to the northwest, there was an island controlled by a Sea-Crocodile civilization.

The Sea-Crocodiles had built a Tier-2 fortress on the island, deploying a large number of cannons and heavy machine guns.

As for the number of fortress defenders, that was not yet clear.

“A Tier-2 fortress, huh.” Li Ye nodded. “Maybe we can try to take it out.”

This time he did not plan to deploy Mobile Cities, fleets, air units, or ground forces.

Instead, he would send Special Forces for a special operation.

Now, Li Ye had high expectations for the Special Forces — mainly because the loot of blueprint designs the Tomorrow Alliance had been getting were mostly single-soldier combat types.

The construction of sea, land, and air units had been mediocre, but the Special Forces were being equipped better and better; they were getting well-fed.

Whenever he thought of this, Li Ye felt somewhat amused and exasperated.

The Tomorrow had currently trained two hundred Special Forces; after accounting for some casualties, about 150 could be deployed.

Late the next night, the Stellar — modified for surface travel — set out.

Its deck carried Special Forces, Bullfrog Vehicles, and gunboats.

To clearly observe the battlefield, Li Ye also boarded the Stellar.

As time passed, the Stellar activated city-camouflage and approached the island.

To be cautious, Li Ye sent a Special Forces operator piloting a Swordfish Mini Submarine to the island’s shore. Under the cover of camouflage combat suits, he observed the fortress through the scope of a Level-3 sniper rifle.

There were no Mobile Cities inside the Sea-Crocodiles’ Tier-2 fortress; roughly six to seven hundred Sea-Crocodiles guarded the fortress.

“With the Special Forces’ capability, we should be able to take this fortress,” Li Ye thought.

After finalizing the attack plan yesterday, he had Lin Wu design this Tier-2 fortress within the City Simulation Training Pod and had the Special Forces run multiple simulation assaults.

To better observe the results, Li Ye himself also entered the training scenario.

From his viewpoint, the Special Forces with Level-3 gear had cut through the defenses like a hot knife through butter, nearly sweeping the Sea-Crocodiles out of the fortress.

“If the Special Forces could actually pull this off, their combat power would be quite astounding,” Lin Wu, standing next to him, had sighed. “By the way, shouldn’t we give this operation a codename?”

After thinking for a moment, Li Ye slowly spoke.

“This operation will be codenamed ‘Scalpel.’” ɴᴇᴡ ɴᴏᴠᴇʟ ᴄʜᴀᴘᴛᴇʀs ᴀʀᴇ ᴘᴜʙʟɪsʜᴇᴅ ᴏɴ N0veI.Fiɾe.net