Chapter 264: The Vast Stone Mountain Range and Enormous Harvest |
“So overall, there still aren't enough jobs inside the city,” Lin Wu said to Li Ye.
Although some residents were willing to join the land, sea, and air combat forces in order to earn more Contribution Points, they were ultimately a minority.
The people aboard Tomorrow generally preferred internal jobs because they were much safer.
Li Ye immediately frowned.
Without work, the residents would become idle. On one hand, that was a waste of manpower. On the other hand, once people had nothing to do, disputes would easily arise, leading to public security problems within the Mobile City.
“Do you have any good ideas?” he turned to ask Lin Wu.
Lin Wu spoke slowly.
“At the end of the day, this is still the wasteland. We can't possibly have a mature and complete urban employment system like the Old World,” he said with a sigh. “This problem is actually very difficult to solve.”
“A city employment system...” Li Ye muttered.
“Forget it. We'll put it aside for now,” he sighed.
Just as Li Ye was about to leave, Lin Wu suddenly stopped him.
“The Game Department has finished developing its first game. Would you like to come take a look?”
“Already?” Li Ye asked in surprise.
He remembered that only a few days had passed since the Game Department had been established and the project approved.
Lin Wu briefly explained.
The Game Department members had developed the game inside the Simulation Training Pod.
That made the process not only convenient but also incredibly time-efficient.
“So that's how it is.” Li Ye suddenly understood.
The Simulation Training Pod wasn't just useful for training soldiers and specialists—it had tremendous potential in many other fields as well.
He followed Lin Wu to the Simulation Training Pod and tried the Game Department's first game.
Stardew Valley.
It was a farming simulation game, and its gameplay had been personally described to the developers by Li Ye.
The two entered the game through the Simulation Training Pod.
Everything before their eyes was astonishingly lifelike.
The members of the Game Department had clearly put in tremendous effort. They had recreated almost everything Li Ye had described on a one-to-one basis while even adding some original content.
After experiencing it for several minutes, Li Ye nodded slowly.
The experience was genuinely excellent.
Moreover, this was a fully immersive holographic game, making everything feel incredibly real.
Combined with the 1:72 time ratio, players could spend an entire day inside the game while only a few hours passed in reality.
“The new game has become very popular,” Lin Wu said. “Quite a few residents have already started playing it. Development of the next game is already underway.”
This was precisely what Li Ye and the City Committee had intended.
By charging residents to use the Simulation Training Pods, they could recover Contribution Points circulating among the population.
Lin Wu also made another suggestion.
“How about building another Simulation Training Pod dedicated exclusively to city residents?” he said. “That way, it can be separated from the pods used for training soldiers and specialists.”
“Alright.” Li Ye nodded.
Once the next batch of Level 4 Steel was produced, he would have it built.
Thinking about it carefully, Tomorrow still had many projects that required large amounts of Level 4 Steel.
Their conversation came to an end, and Li Ye took the elevator back toward his room.
At that moment, activity outside suddenly caught his attention.
Following the commotion, Li Ye looked over and discovered it was Titan Throne's Nature H6.
The Level 1 Mobile City was deploying a small unmanned exploration submersible into the Stone Sea.
An additional tank had been installed on the submersible.
The tank was filled with slime extracted from the Petrified Giant Crab.
Once inside the Stone Sea, the tank would continuously coat the outside of the submersible with slime, allowing it to move freely through the Stone Sea.
“That's actually quite a clever solution,” Li Ye thought. “But then again... just how deep is the Stone Sea?”
At present, Nature H6's primary objective was exploring the Stone Sea.
Li Ye, on the other hand, planned to explore outward through the tunnels branching off from the supermassive cavern in hopes of discovering new caverns.
Mainly because hunting Mutant Creatures in the Stone Sea was far too troublesome.
Ideally, he wanted to find an area where Mutant Creatures could be hunted easily and in large numbers while also gathering abundant mineral resources.
Following his orders, multiple units from Tomorrow advanced simultaneously through tunnels of various sizes, using the supermassive cavern as the center while gradually exploring the upper layer of Bedrock Abyss.
Several hours later, Li Ye received unexpected news.
A wormhole had actually appeared inside their supermassive cavern.
“Even the Elemental Plane has wormholes?” he asked in surprise. “I wonder where it leads.”
Fang Ying quickly answered that question.
He dispatched an exploration robot from Nature H6 and sent it through the wormhole.
The exploration robot was Level 4 and fully equipped.
The results surprised everyone.
The wormhole was one-way.
It led to another supermassive cavern.
According to the sonar transmitted by the exploration robot, this newly discovered cavern was fully three times larger than their current one.
“My goodness...” Fang Ying muttered in astonishment.
The cavern before them was already unimaginably vast and even contained an endless Stone Sea.
What kind of spectacle would this newly discovered supermassive cavern contain?
“Can your exploration robot map the terrain of that cavern?” Li Ye asked.
Fang Ying nodded.
“Yes.”
Over the next ten-plus minutes, the survey results arrived.
According to the exploration robot's radar, the cavern contained enormous mountain ranges, plains, forests, lakes, swamps, and many other terrains.
Li Ye made his decision immediately.
The Tomorrow Alliance would travel through the wormhole into the newly discovered supermassive cavern.
There were certainly many Level 4 Mutant Creatures there, making it the perfect hunting ground.
Hunting within the Stone Sea was simply too inconvenient.
Fang Ying, however, hesitated.
On one hand, Nature H6 had only just begun exploring the Stone Sea, and abandoning the mission now would be a tremendous waste.
On the other hand, he was genuinely fascinated by the newly discovered cavern.
“We need to stay together, Dr. Fang Ying,” Li Ye reminded him.
After all, there was only one Recall Device.
“Very well. We'll go with you,” Fang Ying nodded.
After making simple preparations, the seven Mobile Cities headed toward the wormhole.
At first, Li Ye worried that the wormhole wouldn't be large enough to accommodate Tomorrow, now a Level 4 Mobile City.
He soon discovered that his concerns were unnecessary.
The moment Tomorrow approached the wormhole, its enormous opening expanded several times over.
The instant they emerged on the other side, everyone froze.
Before them stretched an incomparably magnificent stone mountain range.
By rough estimation, it extended for well over a thousand kilometers.
The petrified mountain range resembled the skeleton of an ancient primordial god lying silently within the supermassive cavern.
Countless peaks were shrouded in drifting mineral mist, appearing and disappearing as the light shifted.
The foothills were scattered with countless crystallized stone trees.
Their silicified trunks reflected amber-colored light beneath the setting sun, making the entire forest appear enchanted.
Along the mountain ridges, wind erosion had carved tens of thousands of natural stone pillars ranging from a few meters to well over a hundred meters in height.
The mountain walls themselves displayed strange wave-like patterns.
At the foot of the mountain range stretched a vast petrified plain.
Looking into the distance, the gray-white ground was covered with countless cracked patterns resembling the dried skin of some colossal beast.
Twisted silicified tree trunks stood everywhere across the plain.
At its center rose a magnificent petrified forest whose gigantic trees were covered with countless sharp crystal clusters.
Just as Li Ye had expected, the petrified plain contained numerous Level 4 Mutant Creatures.
Crystal Fang Tigers.
Each measured five to six meters long and was covered in gray-white stone scales.
Stonebone Eagles.
With wingspans reaching eight to ten meters, their feathers had degenerated into slate-like plates that produced scraping sounds like grinding stones while flying.
Rockscale Giant Pythons.
Each stretched over a hundred meters in length, their bodies composed of hundreds of basalt-like segmented bone plates while their heads were covered by obsidian armor.
Crystal Core Giant Tortoises.
Their shells consisted of countless overlapping agate plates, with a giant crystal core embedded directly in the center.
Petrified Vine Demons.
Resembling gigantic vines, they could writhe and move like living creatures.
The moment Li Ye saw this, excitement filled him.
Hunting on the petrified plain was far easier than hunting in the Stone Sea.
However, amidst his excitement, he suddenly felt that something was wrong.
That strange feeling had existed ever since entering Bedrock Abyss.
After thinking carefully, he finally realized what it was.
Light.
Bedrock Abyss was an underground cavern.
Sunlight shouldn't be able to reach it.
Logically speaking, the Elemental Plane should have been dark and damp.
Yet ever since entering Bedrock Abyss, the surroundings had remained brightly illuminated.
“...”
Li Ye instinctively looked upward toward the ceiling of the supermassive cavern.
There, he discovered an enormous band of glowing fault lines.
Some special mineral appeared to exist within the rock walls, forming dense fluorescent patterns.
Together with the countless petrified crystal clusters hanging from above, they illuminated the entire cavern.
What pleased Li Ye even more was that this supermassive cavern was over a thousand meters high.
There was finally enough vertical space to deploy aerial combat units freely.
“It's time to deploy our forces and start hunting the Mutant Creatures on the plain,” he thought.
However, just as he was about to organize the offensive, another idea suddenly occurred to him.
Iron Whale had just been equipped with the Gravitational Wave Controller.
Why not let it have a try?
It would also serve as the perfect opportunity to test the power of the Level 5 item.
Upon receiving the order, Iron Whale immediately sped across the petrified plain.
The ground trembled beneath it.
As Iron Whale activated the Gravitational Wave Controller, an invisible force radiated outward.
Within a radius of one kilometer, the laws of gravity were completely rewritten.
Several Crystal Fang Tigers that had been wandering while hunting suddenly collapsed.
Gravity dozens of times stronger crushed them into the earth.
Their stone scales shattered beneath their own weight, while the fragments floated within the distorted gravitational field like deadly rings of stars.
The flocks of Stonebone Eagles flying overhead became entangled by invisible gravitational chains.
Their feathers curled backward under reversed gravity before they completely lost control and plummeted from the sky.
The groups of Petrified Vine Demons shrieked madly.
Their bodies collapsed inward under the overwhelming gravity, compressing into a hollow tree tumor over one hundred meters across.
A Crystal Core Giant Tortoise attempted to retreat into its shell for protection.
The gravitational waves simply passed straight through the shell, crushing its internal organs into glowing pulp.
The crystal core upon its back flashed brilliantly as it overloaded under the immense gravitational force.
In barely one minute, Iron Whale had hunted over a hundred Level 4 Mutant Creatures using nothing but the Gravitational Wave Controller.
“Wow... this is unbelievably easy!” Zhou Xing exclaimed.
The Mutant Creatures across the petrified plain were immediately alarmed and began fleeing.
To everyone's surprise, they didn't flee into the distance.
Instead, they secreted slime from their bodies, liquefied the petrified ground beneath them, and burrowed underground.
A strange light flashed through Li Ye's eyes.
Apparently, not only the Mutant Creatures living in the Stone Sea possessed this ability—even the land-dwelling ones did as well.
“It's fine. No need to rush,” he muttered to himself. “They'll reappear on the surface after a while.”
As usual, he dispatched people to collect the drops left behind by the Mutant Creatures.
The loot consisted of the usual Iron Ore, Coal, Saltpeter, and Crystal Coins.
This time, however, only a single Blueprint had dropped.
When the person responsible for retrieving the Blueprint came running toward him with an excited expression, Li Ye was momentarily stunned.
“Is this Blueprint something good?” he asked.
Filled with anticipation, he slowly opened it.
The moment he saw its contents, he was speechless.
“...An aircraft carrier?”
【Item Name: "Final Bastion" Aircraft Carrier】
【Level: 4】
【Effects:
Sailing Speed +40%
Turning Efficiency +30%
Defense +50%
Energy Consumption -50%】
【Construction Requirements:
10,000 units of Level 4 Iron Ore
5,000 units of Level 4 Alloy
2,000 units of Level 4 Precision Vehicle Components
Level 4 Nuclear Reactor】
Judging from the blueprint, the "Final Bastion" Aircraft Carrier resembled a colossal steel beast.
Its streamlined black hull was covered with multiple layers of composite armor.
The bow featured a sharp wave-piercing design, while six fluid-thruster intake ports extended from both sides.
Its flight deck measured 450 meters in length and featured a segmented folding design.
Atop the island stood a twin-helix communications mast, while multiple electromagnetic catapult tracks ran across the deck.
For a moment, Li Ye's hands holding the Blueprint trembled uncontrollably.
The value of Blueprints wasn't measured by quantity.
It was measured by quality.
This harvest was simply enormous.
After crowding around to see the Blueprint, everyone stood frozen.
“An... aircraft carrier?” Fang Yong exclaimed excitedly.
“My God... Did we just hit the jackpot?” Yang Zheng asked in utter disbelief.
Zhou Xing carefully thought things through.
“Alliance Leader, if I remember correctly, we already have the Blueprint for a Nuclear Reactor, don't we?” he said. “Doesn't that mean we can actually build this aircraft carrier?”
His words immediately woke Li Ye from his daze.
He quickly began thinking.
Should the Tomorrow Alliance build an aircraft carrier now?
A question immediately surfaced in his mind.
Back when they had visited the official shop on Skydream Island, one of the elders had told the four of them something.
A Level 4 Mobile City could build aircraft carriers.
A Level 5 Mobile City, however, could build aerospace carriers.
“Everyone, don't get excited just yet. Let me think this through carefully...”