By the time they returned to the Tomorrow, Li Ye still hadn't come back to his senses.
"Stop sighing, Lord. You should get back to work."
Lin Wu teased him.
"Ugh, I know." Li Ye sighed. "It's not easy for me to immerse myself in the atmosphere for once. Don't interrupt me so suddenly. That was a rare moment."
He then took a brief inventory of what he had gained from his trip to the Rotting Lands.
Level 1 Artillery—Frost Cannon.
Level 1 City accessory: Spore Armor Blueprint.
Level 1 Fruit Tree Seed—Sunshine Apple.
Level 1 Rocket Launcher Blueprint.
The Level 1 light armor project that came with the Production Workshop was a basic model with low defensive power, while building Spore Armor required 600 units of Iron Ore—twice as much. In return, Spore Armor's defensive power was far greater.
Judging from the appearance shown on the blueprint, Spore Armor looked rather like a mushroom cap and was pale yellow in color. Its attached effect was "absorbs 15% of the impact force from bullets and shells," reducing the chances of the armor being damaged.
The Level 1 Fruit Tree Seed was even far superior to an ordinary apple tree.
An ordinary apple tree took three to six years from planting to fruiting, while a Sunshine Apple Tree needed only one month. After that, it could be harvested once every two weeks.
The bag of seeds Li Ye had obtained contained a full thirty seeds. He planned to plant them in the garden in the upper district, since that was where the sunlight was best. Besides that, he also needed to arrange people to care for the apple trees.
Finally, and most surprisingly of all, was this.
Item Name: Individual Combat Rocket Launcher "Gale" Item Level: Level 1 Attached Effects: 1. +10% damage to buildings and vehicles 2. +100 meters range Materials Required: 80 units of Iron Ore (Level 1)
The Level 1 Rocket Launcher was second only to the Level 1 Artillery in power. It could be considered a major weapon aboard a Mobile City.
Its attached effects were also excellent. It could be used not only for attacking fortified positions, but also against Mobile Cities. The additional 100 meters of range was the icing on the cake.
The only imperfection was that building a Gale Rocket Launcher consumed a full 80 units of Iron Ore, making it far more expensive than the Falcon Assault Rifle!
The rockets it required also consumed 10 units of Iron Ore and 2 units of Gunpowder each.
Li Ye couldn't help feeling a headache coming on.
This Level 1 Rocket Launcher was indeed excellent, but how could an ordinary household afford to use it? Just building a few of them and making some rockets would consume hundreds of units of Iron Ore in no time.
"Looks like I'll have to find a way to get more Iron Ore."
Third were the spoils dropped by the Ant People over those three days.
More than 6,300 Crystal Coins, 235 units of Iron Ore, 158 units of coal, and 432 units of Cloth.
There were 35 ordinary weapons, including daggers, machetes, and repeating crossbows, along with five ordinary blueprints.
One Elite Ant Person had also dropped a packet of Level 1 Crop Seeds.
Item Name: Cloud Dream Cotton Seeds Item Level: Level 1 Attached Effects: 1. Grows two weeks after planting 2. +3% yield
When he picked up that packet of Level 1 Crop Seeds, Li Ye found it difficult to believe.
"What a great thing!"
Cotton had countless uses!
It was a natural fiber crop that could be made into gauze and Cloth, as well as daily necessities such as clothes, towels, and bedsheets.
It could also be made into canvas, rope, gauze bandages, and so on.
The prerequisite was that one had to obtain the blueprints for these items.
More importantly, cottonseed could be pressed for oil, while the leftover cottonseed meal could be used as feed or fertilizer.
Although it was somewhat inferior to lard and rapeseed oil, having it was better than having nothing.
Considering that cotton required abundant sunlight and water to grow, Li Ye decided to plant the cotton seeds together with the apple tree seeds in the upper district.
Aside from the cotton seeds, the most valuable item in this pile of spoils was probably the ordinary Cola blueprint.
After finishing his inventory, Li Ye began making arrangements.
First, he had to repair the Tomorrow.
This work was naturally left to the mechanic, Lin Wu.
After all the battles over the past few days, the Tomorrow was already covered in scars. Its outer shell and armored treads were riddled with arrows and bullet holes from the Ant People—yes, some of the Ant People carried firearms.
The Tomorrow had even been shelled by them.
Lin Wu stated his requirements.
This time, he needed Li Ye to assign him ten people and give him 2,000 Crystal Coins to purchase repair parts at the market.
Li Ye nodded and agreed without hesitation.
"How long will the repairs take?"
"Cleaning the tires and treads, dismantling and replacing the damaged parts of the city's outer shell, plus the routine troubleshooting..." Lin Wu stroked his chin and thought for a moment before answering. "About a week."
Li Ye thought about it, then shook his head.
"No, that's far too long," he said. "Try to finish within three days. We still need to leave as soon as possible."
Li Ye couldn't be blamed for being overly anxious, because that Epic Intelligence Report had mentioned that the Wasteland Zone would be destroyed in three months.
Under such circumstances, spending a week on repairs and troubleshooting was simply too extravagant.
Li Ye then assigned people to Lin Wu.
In fact, the battles over the past few days had been extremely intense. The Tomorrow's personnel had been divided into three shifts, spending every day searching for the Ant People and attacking their strongholds at high intensity.
After the battles ended, everyone was exhausted in both body and mind, and half of them were wounded. Three had even suffered serious injuries.
The first thing Li Ye did after returning to Roland Fortress was rush to the market to purchase emergency medicine and bandages.
On the wasteland, medical supplies cost far more than he had imagined. Li Ye soon spent more than 1,500 Crystal Coins.
Li Ye kept one person behind to care for the wounded and handed all the rest over to Lin Wu for allocation.
Even the helmsman Tang Fang and the Combat Captain Old Zhou were assigned to him.
As everyone aboard the Tomorrow busied themselves, Li Ye slowly walked toward the market and began preparing to open a shop and do business to earn more money.
He had originally possessed more than 6,000 Crystal Coins.
But he had spent over 1,500 on medicine, and Lin Wu had taken 2,000 for repairing the Tomorrow. By the time it was all added up, half of it was gone.
The remaining money was nowhere near enough to purchase supplies.
When he passed the market bulletin board, he discovered that all the prices listed there had risen.
Freshwater had gone from 3 Crystal Coins to 5, while Iron Ore had risen from 5 Crystal Coins to 8. Resources such as coal and fuel had also risen slightly in price.
He quickly understood the reason.
The intelligence had mentioned that the mining areas operated by Roland Fortress were close to exhaustion, and the Freshwater Lake nearby was also nearly dried up.
Looking around at Roland Fortress before him, he couldn't help shaking his head slightly.
No one had expected that this fortress standing tall on the wasteland was not as solid as it appeared. In truth, it was riddled with internal conflicts.
Li Ye had originally planned to sell some Freshwater to help cover expenses. The Tomorrow still had plenty stored, more than 2,300 units in total.
But after walking around, he discovered that ordinary shops were not allowed to sell it. Only Roland Fortress's authorities could do so. After asking around carefully, he learned that ownership of the Freshwater Lake belonged to Roland Fortress.
Li Ye wasn't surprised by this.
After all, operating a fortress with more than 2,000 people was extremely expensive.
Feeding the combat personnel who guarded the fortress, hiring the people needed to keep it running, spending money to care for the elderly and children who had no one to support them, building the artillery and firearms needed to protect the fortress, and supplying bullets and shells—each and every one of these things cost money.
Exclusive control over Freshwater sales was an excellent way to generate income.
The residents of Roland Fortress had no objections. In fact, they even took the initiative to support and uphold it.
After all, Roland Fortress provided them with a safe living environment, as well as vegetables, grain, and fruit. That was already quite good by wasteland standards.
Although he couldn't sell Freshwater, Li Ye could sell Cola.
Items such as Blue Heart Potato Seeds, Falcon Assault Rifles, Gale Rocket Launchers, and Level 1 Off-road Vehicles could also be sold.
At the market in Roland Fortress, if you were a lone individual such as a bounty hunter or lone wolf and were selling only a small quantity of goods, there were no requirements.
If you wanted to sell goods in large quantities, however, you had to apply for a shop in the market.
In addition, whether you were a lone individual or a shopkeeper, you had to pay a 10% tax. That was reasonable enough, considering that Roland Fortress provided a safe environment for trading supplies.
Opening a shop required a 2,000-Crystal Coin deposit. The minimum rental period was three months, at 500 Crystal Coins per month.
Just as Li Ye was hesitating, Lin Xia happened to walk over while leading a patrol through the market.
After finding out what had happened, she arranged the best-located shop in the market for Li Ye and waived his deposit and rent.
"Thank you. You've really helped me out this time," Li Ye said sincerely.
Lin Xia waved lightly and smiled sweetly.
"It's nothing."
After preparing the shop, Li Ye returned to the Tomorrow and used the Production Workshop to make 100 bottles of Cola.
He drove the Cola to the shop and, while he was at it, launched the lord's main products.
Cola: 8 Crystal Coins per bottle.
Falcon Assault Rifle: 500 Crystal Coins each, or processing with 60 units of Iron Ore.
Gale Rocket Launcher: 700 Crystal Coins each, or processing with 100 units of Iron Ore.
Blue Heart Potato Seeds: 500 Crystal Coins per packet.
Level 1 Off-road Vehicle: 2,000 Crystal Coins each.
After finishing all these tasks, he happened to glance toward the Tomorrow in the distance and saw everyone busily carrying out repairs.
The more Li Ye watched, the more an idea stirred in his mind.
"How about letting Old Zhou watch the shop while I go experience the repair work?"
Before you continue