Plundering the Wilderness Yields Treasures!

Chapter 34: Found Something Good While Scavenging! (4.2K)

Noon.

Li Ye stood on the watchtower, gazing into the distance.

"I didn't expect to reach the central area so quickly," he murmured.

As the distance closed, Li Ye could gradually make out the city ruins before him.

It was a scene straight out of the apocalypse.

Buildings had collapsed, and weeds and vines choked the mottled walls.

Sparse, rusted abandoned vehicles littered the streets. In the distance, the skeletons of skyscrapers still stood, but much of their outer shells had peeled away, their steel rebar frameworks stabbing towards the sky from the concrete debris like the ribs of dead behemoths.

This city ruin was vast, stretching almost as far as the eye could see from left to right.

Based on Li Ye's estimation, the city's population had likely reached a million.

He couldn't help but rub his hands together in excitement.

Within the city ruins, he could dispatch people to collect rebar from the building concrete, scavenge metal from pots, pans, and old appliances, and smelt it all into iron ore in the Tomorrow's furnace.

However, Tomorrow's current mechanical arm was only at a normal level, making the excavation of concrete inefficient. Relying solely on manual dismantling would be even more troublesome.

Moreover, the furniture in the city buildings could be disassembled into wood.

"Might as well grab what I can," he thought.

Compared to rebar, concrete was the least scarce resource in the city.

But once concrete hardened, it couldn't be removed for use.

Li Ye planned to rest in the city ruins for about a week, collecting as many resources as possible.

More than that, he was concerned about the situation here.

This was the central area of the Wasteland Zone, where any survivor, convoy, or mobile city would pass through.

Since it was a city ruin with plenty of resources to scavenge, many factions would flock here.

How many survivors, survivor convoys, and mobile cities were here? Were there any Zombie Hordes, monsters, or even Wild BOSSes?

Li Ye had a big question mark in his mind.

As a Level 1 city, Tomorrow could travel on the city's main roads, but it would occupy all lanes. Moreover, it would occasionally scrape against nearby buildings.

The outskirts of the city ruins were manageable; there were fewer buildings constructed there, and the roads were relatively wide. The city center, however, would be problematic.

With several hours still remaining until the new intelligence report refreshed, Li Ye had no intention of idling. He chose a relatively good spot on the outskirts and had Tomorrow anchor there.

Li Ye then issued a series of commands.

Helmsman Tang Fang and Ah Bai were on standby in the cockpit, Lookout Lin Xia was responsible for sentry duty, and Artilleryman Ning Wen was on standby by the Frost Cannon.

Ning Wen had been quite busy these days.

This was mainly because he had to train the combat personnel in operating the cannons – after all, he was only one person and couldn't operate so many cannons simultaneously.

In fact, calling him an artilleryman was more like calling him an artillery captain.

Old Zhou led the combat personnel, dividing them into two groups: one group on standby by the Normal Cannons and Heavy Machine Guns, and the other group on ground alert.

Fifteen residents responsible for external resource extraction boarded the lifting platform and descended to the ground to begin their work. For the next few hours, they would be responsible for collecting rebar from the concrete, scavenging abandoned vehicles, and searching houses for old appliances and various metal items.

Mechanic Lin Wu, along with his deputy and four logistics personnel, continued Tomorrow's repair work.

After the incident at Gross Mine, many parts of Tomorrow had been damaged. And without Roland Fortress as a safe harbor, Tomorrow had to conduct repairs while moving in the wilderness.

Wave after wave of personnel took their positions, each beginning their assigned tasks.

With a crash, Tomorrow's mechanical arm chipped away at a section of a house. Immediately after, it struck again, shattering a large portion of the concrete and revealing the rebar within.

Two nearby residents stepped forward, using their portable mining pickaxes to break apart the remaining concrete and collect the rebar, placing it on the lifting platform.

On the other side of the street, three to four residents cautiously entered a house, beginning to collect usable metal.

Two combat personnel were responsible for escorting them, holding Falcon Assault Rifles in their hands. On the street, a squad of combat personnel was patrolling, one of whom carried a Gale Rocket Launcher.

Onboard Tomorrow, the Normal Cannons, Heavy Machine Guns, and Frost Cannons were all in position, ready to provide fire support if any situation arose.

The most valuable items were the abandoned vehicles on the street, their bodies containing a good amount of metal. However, there was only one abandoned vehicle on the entire street.

This was not surprising; countless mobile cities had visited this city over the years, and they naturally understood that abandoned vehicles were the most valuable, so they would prioritize collecting them.

This rebar, abandoned vehicles, and metal objects collected from the houses could be re-smelted into iron ore on the mobile city.

More than ten minutes later, movement could be heard from afar.

It was a series of intense booming sounds.

The people working on the street stopped their actions and looked in the direction of the sound.

That was the center of the city.

"This sounds like cannon fire," Li Ye mused. "It's possible a mobile city is bombarding some monster stronghold, or perhaps two mobile cities are at war."

Since he hadn't determined the true nature of this city ruin, he still felt a lack of security.

"No, we still need to find a way to scout out the situation of this city," he shook his head. "If we really have no other choice, we'll send out the convoys to scout the way."

Currently, Tomorrow had already produced 4 Level 1 Off-road Vehicles.

These off-road vehicles were parked in the lower levels of Tomorrow, where there was a dedicated parking lot capable of holding 12 off-road vehicles.

The convoys would reach the ground via the lifting platform before being deployed. When there were no missions, the convoys would be parked in the lot, and mechanics from the mobile city would bring people to inspect and maintain them.

Thinking of this, Li Ye couldn't help but feel a pang of pain. Four off-road vehicles were equivalent to spending 1000 units of iron ore.

But it was necessary.

For a mobile city, convoys were equivalent to its left and right hands.

Convoys could scout ahead, be sent out to collect supplies, or even, during battles between two mobile cities, carry heavy machine guns and rocket launchers to assault the enemy mobile city.

Li Ye divided the two off-road vehicles into a team, forming two convoys. Each convoy was assigned 2 drivers and 4 combat personnel.

The convoys were currently equipped with Falcon Assault Rifles and Gale Rocket Launchers. Additionally, Li Ye had manufactured 4 Normal Heavy Machine Guns in the production workshop and equipped them to the convoys.

With this setup, the combat effectiveness of the convoys was quite considerable.

While waiting for the intelligence report to refresh, Li Ye opened a cup of instant noodles and started eating.

This Level 1 cup noodle only required 0.2 units of flour to produce. The taste was decent, and it also provided a +10% satiety bonus, making it quite good food.

When the convoys went on external missions for several days, they could be equipped with this food, as it was convenient for both eating and carrying.

While eating, Li Ye also opened the system. There were still a few hours until the next round of intelligence refresh.

Looking at the combat personnel patrolling on the deck, he suddenly had an idea.

"Since I'm idle during this time, why not go 'farming' nearby!"

The term "farming" was a common saying within the mobile city.

It meant that the mobile city would dispatch convoys and combat personnel to sweep through monsters and their strongholds along the way.

After all, in the wasteland, monsters were also a form of resource.

Killing them would drop materials like Crystal Coins, iron ore, and coal. Some humanoid monsters would drop fabric.

Mutated monsters like Lava Spiders and Steel-Clawed Hyenas would drop specific materials such as Lava Spider Silk and Hyena Steel Teeth.

In addition, monsters would drop a series of finished products.

They ranged from daily necessities, books, to weapons and knives, and could even be Level 1 Items.

Of course, what everyone wanted the most was blueprints.

Li Ye then dispatched Convoys 1 and 2, along with Lin Wu piloting a Goblin Helicopter, to go "farming."

In fact, there were quite a number of monsters wandering in the city ruins.

Boar People, Goblins, Snake People, Ant People, Jackalmen...

Some of these monsters patrolled in small squads, some gathered around bonfires, and some occupied their lairs.

However, they were not easy prey. They were basically armed with swords, clubs, and sticks, and some even directly wielded firearms or rocket launchers.

What's more, some had set up heavy machine guns and cannons in their own strongholds.

These monsters knew how to find cover, how to evade artillery fire using standard stances, and even had tactical coordination.

Li Ye put away his binoculars and wiped the sweat from his forehead.

He couldn't understand why the monsters in the wasteland were so hardcore.

Tomorrow had recently formed Convoys 1 and 2 and expanded its combat personnel, so Li Ye felt it was necessary to train them in advance.

Over the next few hours, everyone successively brought back the spoils from their "farming" expeditions.

Crystal Coins, iron ore, coal, fabric...

Among them were also common finished products like flashlights, axes, mining pickaxes, and professional books.

Various materials piled up into small mountains before Li Ye.

What surprised him the most was that when Convoy 1 killed an Elite Captain-level Jackalman, they unexpectedly obtained a Level 1 City Building Blueprint.

[Level 1 Blueprint - City Simulation Training Pod]

[Item Name: City Simulation Training Pod]

[Item Level: Level 1]

[Effect: Allows personnel entering the pod to undergo various simulated training]

[Crafting Requirements: 200 units Iron Ore (Level 1), 50 units Wood (Level 1), 100 units Copper Ore (Level 1)]

"What is this thing?"

Li Ye frowned in confusion.

After carefully reading the blueprint's description, his eyes widened instantly.

This City Simulation Training Pod could construct corresponding training scenarios, ranging from driving vehicles, maintaining the mobile city, to external combat.

The training scenarios required inputting a series of professional books or accurate data to be constructed.

If you want to fight enemies, you need to input the basic data of your own weapons and the target enemies, such as monsters, enemy sea, land, and air vehicles, or even mobile cities!

The training pod comes with a handheld scanner; just scan the target to input the data.

"So that's how it works!" He rubbed his hands together excitedly. "I've really struck gold this time!"

With this City Simulation Training Pod, he could train combat personnel, as well as specialists like mechanics, helmsmen, and artillerymen.

It could even simulate battles against enemy mobile cities.

It could also train cooks, craftsmen, maintenance personnel, and other talents needed by the mobile city.

The prerequisite is that you need to input corresponding professional books or provide precise data.

Li Ye quickly input the blueprint in the production workshop and used resources to build the City Simulation Training Pod on the middle level.

The City Simulation Training Pod occupied about sixty square meters, with its shell being a square house.

Inside, there were 10 enclosed pods, each equipped with a seat and a consciousness-linking helmet.

Upon seeing the finished product, Li Ye's excitement diminished by more than half.

The main reason was that the city building was too crude. The exterior of the training pod looked like a big metal box, and the seats, scanners, parameter-setting machines, and consciousness-linking helmets were all extremely rough, as if pieced together by hand.

"Forget it, it only cost this many resources to build. What more could you expect?" He comforted himself.

On a whim, Li Ye input the car driving professional book he had obtained from his recent scavenging into the training pod, then lay down on the seat and put on the linking helmet.

His consciousness immediately entered a square data space, and a crudely modeled car appeared before him.

Li Ye then got into the car and began a series of driving operations.

Although the training pod's configuration was very basic, it could at least be used for training.

"If I could upgrade it to Level 2, the experience might be much better," he thought.

In the following time, Li Ye used the scanner to input the data for his Level 1 weapons, heavy machine guns, and Frost Cannons. He also had the first and second teams search for some monster corpses and scan them.

Next, he entered the specific data on the training pod's screen.

[Number of trainees: 1]

[Weapon held: Falcon Assault Rifle]

[Target location: Jungle]

[Enemy types: Goblins, Jackalmen, Boar People]

[Number of enemies: 15]

[Combat difficulty: Normal]

As he completed the settings and put on the linking helmet, a scene immediately appeared before him.

However, the modeling of everything – the jungle, the monsters, the weapons, and even himself – was very crude.

Li Ye tried moving and shooting, and found the tactile feedback to be acceptable.

"Whatever, it's fine if the modeling is crude. It's good enough that it can train people. What more could I ask for?" he muttered to himself.

In the following time, he had Old Zhou and the others take turns entering the training pod for training.

Despite the crude experience, everyone still seemed very excited.

They deliberately increased the number and difficulty of monsters and created combat scenarios such as swamps, plains, and cities.

Meanwhile, Li Ye began to ponder.

It seemed that to cultivate more talents, he now needed to collect as many professional books as possible.

For example, vehicle driving, mechanical maintenance, or even cooking, first aid, cleaning, and other books.

If this training simulation pod was used well, it could provide Tomorrow with a steady stream of technical talent.

When they upgraded to higher-level training pods in the future and collected a series of professional books, they might even be able to train pilots, submarine operators, and other talents.

According to Li Ye's plan, the resources for the current City Simulation Training Pod would be prioritized for the following projects.

First, simulate field operations for combat personnel.

Second, routine maintenance and upkeep of the mobile city.

Third, off-road vehicle driving, operating firearms, and operating cannons and heavy machine guns.

As for building corresponding training scenarios and a series of training programs, he assigned the task to Lin Wu.

With this, the quality of personnel on Tomorrow would improve significantly.

After arranging everything, Li Ye opened the system panel.

Now, the new intelligence report had been refreshed.