Old Zhou, who had been looking after the shop, returned as well, bringing back 20 newcomers.
When he opened the shop, Li Ye had also put up a recruitment notice.
Naturally, he left the interviews to Old Zhou.
The Level 1 Items sold in the shop indirectly displayed the current strength of the Vanguard.
Moreover, when the Vanguard had been docked for repairs, quite a few residents had seen the Frost Cannon installed on its deck, so many people had signed up for the interviews.
Soon, the first task for these 20 newcomers was to follow mechanic Lin Wu in repairing the Vanguard.
To Li Ye's surprise, Li Jin and Lei Jian came along as well.
Only after asking did he learn that they had also opened shops in the market and had even purchased his Level 1 Rocket Launchers.
Li Ye immediately handed them two packets of Blue Heart Potato Seeds, as he had promised earlier.
When Lei Jian and Li Jin prepared to pay, he waved his hand and declined.
To him, producing a packet of Blue Heart Potato Seeds cost no more than one potato.
Rather than take their money, he might as well do them a favor.
After thanking him and putting away the seeds, Li Jin and Lei Jian did not hurry to leave. Instead, they remained where they were, chatting idly with Li Ye.
During that time, their eyes flickered, and they seemed to want to say something but held back.
"What is it? Is there something else?" Li Ye asked in puzzlement.
After asking them carefully, he was both amused and exasperated.
It turned out that these two had set their sights on his fruit tree and cotton seeds.
As lords, they naturally understood the value of these Level 1 Crops. In the future, this meant their Mobile Cities would have another kind of fruit to eat.
As for cotton, there was even less need to explain its value.
Li Ye thought it over, then nodded.
He had 30 Sun Apple Seeds in total, so sparing a few was no big deal. He had even more cotton seeds—several hundred of them.
After some negotiation, he sold both types of seeds to the two men for 2,000 Crystal Coins.
The price made Li Jin and Lei Jian grimace.
That amount was enough to buy three or four bags of Level 1 Crop Seeds.
But in all fairness, Level 1 fruit tree seeds were exceedingly rare. Once they matured and bore fruit, they could obtain seeds to plant again, or even sell the seeds to recoup their money. Cotton seeds were also high-value Level 1 Crops.
All things considered, the price was still acceptable.
With 20 additional newcomers helping out, the Vanguard's repair speed increased dramatically, and the work was completed within three days.
Li Ye then made a simple inventory of the shop's earnings over those three days.
More than 16,000 Crystal Coins and over 1,900 units of Iron Ore.
The shop's earnings on its first day had already accounted for more than half of the total. During the remaining two days, customer traffic had dropped sharply.
During this period, Li Ye had spent 600 units of Iron Ore to create Spore Armor, then another 500 units in total to upgrade the Propulsion Tracks and Power Wheel Assembly.
Lin Wu was naturally put in charge of installing and replacing them. With the sudden increase in manpower, the work proceeded extremely quickly and had now been completed.
Li Ye had also crafted six Gale Rocket Launchers and 30 rockets.
Then he discovered that his previously plentiful Iron Ore had instantly hit rock bottom.
"This is only the beginning!" he exclaimed in shock.
According to Li Ye's plans, he still intended to make 10 Falcon Assault Rifles and four Off-road Vehicles.
He also needed to stock up on enough bullets, shells, and rockets,
while leaving some Iron Ore in reserve for emergencies.
After a rough calculation, he still needed at least 2,500 units of Iron Ore.
At the prices in the Roland Fortress market, that amounted to 20,000 Crystal Coins.
The more Li Ye thought about it, the more he shook his head.
At the current price, buying Iron Ore in large quantities was simply not worth it. In any case, he had the Intelligence System, so finding Iron Ore and Mines in the wilderness was not difficult.
Thus, he only bought 500 units of Iron Ore for emergencies.
Unfortunately, the Roland Fortress market did not sell Frost Ore. He had originally planned to make more Frost Shells. If he could purchase Frost Crystals, he had even wanted to build another Frost Cannon.
After all, he had already experienced the power of Level 1 Artillery.
During the following period, Li Ye purchased a large amount of coal and loaded it into the Vanguard, bringing its energy back to the safe line of 60%.
Next, as usual, he bought some fruits and vegetables, as well as daily necessities and furniture for the residents who had newly moved onto the Vanguard.
Looking at the Vanguard before him, he felt a natural sense of pride.
The Vanguard now had forty or fifty people, Falcon Assault Rifles, Gale Rocket Launchers, four Level 1 Crops, an Off-road Vehicle, three upgraded Level 1 City components, and Level 1 Artillery.
It also possessed a Level 2 Item—City Camouflage!
It had to be known that only around half a month had passed, yet it had developed so rapidly.
After finishing his reflections, Li Ye began making personnel arrangements for the newcomers.
He gave them two choices.
They could either become ordinary residents, repairing the Vanguard, tending the fields, fruit trees, and cotton, working in the lower power room, or cleaning the Vanguard.
Or they could become combat personnel, enjoy better treatment than ordinary residents, and be responsible for dangerous external battles and maintaining order in their daily lives.
The newcomers made their choices one after another. The vast majority chose to become ordinary residents. Although the treatment was somewhat worse, the work was easy and involved no danger.
After completing the personnel arrangements, Li Ye frowned slightly.
The Vanguard's increasing strength and growing population were good things, but its material supplies remained at their previous level.
Although the warehouse stored fruits and vegetables, they became scarce once divided among forty or fifty people.
Moreover, they had a short shelf life and usually had to be consumed within a week.
What Li Ye wanted was for the Vanguard to achieve self-sufficiency in fruits, vegetables, meat, and eggs. Ideally, they would all be Level 1 Crops.
But gathering Level 1 Crops was not as easy as he had imagined. He could only proceed step by step.
As for ordinary poultry that supplied meat and eggs, Roland Fortress did sell them, but the prices were extremely high. Li Ye had bought some before.
Ordinary poultry took a long time to raise, required freshwater and feed, and also needed space.
"That should do for now. I'll check the intelligence first and plan the route ahead."
After completing the repairs and troubleshooting, the Vanguard would need to set sail again.
After all, less than three months remained.
Now, the new intelligence had finished refreshing.
This time, one Ordinary, one Excellent, two Rare, two Outstanding, and one Epic Intelligence Report had appeared.
As usual, he carefully read through the report.
1. Twenty kilometers southwest of Roland Fortress, a group of Steel-Blade Hyenas is wandering around in search of food. (Intelligence Value: Ordinary)
2. On the northeastern edge of the Rotting Lands, there is a small undiscovered Oil Field. (Intelligence Value: Excellent)
3. Last night, the Vanguard easily defeated a Predator City and acquired its population, resources, and the projects in its Production Workshop. The spoils also included a Level 2 Item. (Intelligence Value: Rare)
4. In the Wasteland Zone, a Monster Civilization has gradually risen and is slowly becoming a tremendous threat to humanity. (Intelligence Value: Rare)
5. Deep within Thunder Canyon, a bounty hunter accidentally obtained a piece of loot—a Level 1 Flying Vehicle. At this moment, he is troubled because he has no way to bring the loot out. (Intelligence Value: Outstanding)
6. Three days from now, the Level 1 Wild BOSS "Foreman Jeremy" will descend upon Gross Mine. This BOSS will drop a Mine Storage Room Key, and the storage room contains a Level 1 Mobile City Promotion Blueprint. By gathering the materials required by the blueprint, a Mobile City can be promoted to Level 2. (Intelligence Value: Outstanding)
7. Refreshing. (Intelligence Value: Epic)
Li Ye stroked his chin and analyzed the information.
The first piece of intelligence concerned the group of Steel-Blade Hyenas twenty kilometers southwest of Roland Fortress.
Steel-Blade Hyenas were Level 1 elite monsters. Their bodies were incredibly tough, and several narrow, twisted steel blades grew all around them.
These monsters liked to charge their targets in groups, slicing them to pieces with the steel blades on their bodies. They also charged extremely quickly and were considered a nightmare in the wasteland.
Even Mobile Cities feared these things. Their jumping power was astonishingly strong. If cannons and machine guns could not deal with them, they would zip straight onto the deck, and then—
"Although it's only Ordinary, it still has some value." Li Ye nodded lightly.
When the Vanguard left the fortress, they would have to avoid heading southwest.
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