Chapter 266: Super Airborne Vehicle |
From the moment this Level 1 Mobile City entered within one kilometer of the Iron Whale, the game had already been decided.
As the Gravitational Wave Controller increased its output, space itself gradually began to distort.
The assault-type city looked as though it had been seized by an invisible giant hand, lifted into the air, and then slammed viciously back into the ground. Like a toy overturned by a child, it twisted and deformed under the sudden surge of gravity.
Space folded completely.
The assault-type city was torn apart by opposing gravitational fields pulling in opposite directions. The city's buildings stretched like molten sugar before snapping apart, then exploded into countless fragments.
"...It's really this powerful?" Fang Yong asked in astonishment.
According to his original plan, the Iron Whale was supposed to immobilize the target city with gravity before accelerating toward it and completely crushing it with the Crusher Jaws.
But now it seemed that idea had been completely unnecessary.
Thinking of this, Fang Yong subconsciously rubbed his bald head and sighed regretfully.
Just then, Li Ye's voice came through the walkie-talkie.
"Be careful, Fang Yong! The other assault-type city is opening fire on you!"
Fang Yong immediately turned around.
Several kilometers away, the assault-type city had already unleashed its full firepower.
Its main cannons, autocannons, and missile launchers all roared to life, sending a dense barrage toward the Iron Whale.
The next second, the Iron Whale's Gravitational Wave Controller activated once again.
The surrounding space warped violently.
The first wave of incoming missiles suddenly slowed to a crawl when they were still three hundred meters away, as though they had plunged into invisible gelatin.
The space in front of the warheads was compressed by overwhelming gravity, while their tails remained in a state of weightlessness. Under the enormous pressure differential, the missiles detonated prematurely, blossoming into dazzling fireballs.
The autocannon rounds simply froze in midair.
As for the artillery shells—
Their trajectories abruptly bent under the influence of gravity. Their speed was rapidly stripped away by the gravitational field until, like the bullets, they quietly hovered motionless in the air.
After a series of commands from the operators, the Gravitational Wave Controller reversed the direction of gravity.
Every captured bullet and shell shot back along its original path at twice its initial speed, streaking straight toward the assault-type city.
When the smoke cleared, the Iron Whale remained completely unscathed.
A hint of surprise appeared in Li Ye's eyes.
Although he had known that the Gravitational Wave Controller possessed gravitational defensive capabilities, witnessing it firsthand was still deeply shocking.
"It can attack and defend equally well... It's practically invincible..."
Fang Yong was equally thrilled.
"With the Gravitational Wave Controller's capabilities, it should be able to withstand the bombardment from that fire-support Mobile City, right, Alliance Leader?"
Li Ye immediately fell silent in thought.
The seven main cannons mounted on the fire-support Mobile City were highly unusual.
Rather than firing physical shells, they seemed to create explosions of light directly at the targeted location.
Whether the Gravitational Wave Controller could stop such attacks... he honestly wasn't sure.
"Better to stay cautious, Fang Yong," he reminded him. "Don't take unnecessary risks."
"Understood!"
With Fang Yong's command, the Iron Whale charged aggressively toward the Level 1 Mobile Cities.
The latter hurriedly scattered in panic, desperately trying to avoid it.
The carefully planned decapitation assault immediately fell into complete disorder.
Taking advantage of the opportunity, Lin Wu commanded the Stardust toward a defensive-type city.
The Frost Cannon, Molten Cannon, and Hunter Cannon on the Stardust all opened fire simultaneously. Combined with the newly installed Titan's Grip used at close range, they successfully immobilized the enemy city and destroyed its tires.
Li Ye finally breathed a sigh of relief.
Once a city's tires were destroyed, it completely lost its mobility.
That defensive-type city was effectively finished.
Soon afterward, he frowned slightly.
Although the Stardust's firepower was formidable, it still only possessed a Level 3 configuration. Against a city equipped with Level 4 technology, it was clearly struggling.
Had it been facing a Level 3 Mobile City instead, such overwhelming firepower would have reduced it to scrap long ago.
"After this battle, it's probably time to upgrade the Stardust's firepower."
With the combined efforts of the Iron Whale and the Stardust, the War Alliance's Mobile City offensive was forcibly brought to a halt.
At that moment, Li Ye received a report from the front.
The fire-support Mobile City had revealed itself once more in order to fire.
He immediately ordered Yang Zheng and the aerial forces to concentrate their firepower and destroy it.
Meanwhile, inside the Petrified Forest, the Tomorrow Alliance forces gradually seized control of the battlefield.
The biggest reason was the relentless assassinations carried out by the Acid Maw Individual Chemical Warfare Mechs and the Silence Reaper Sniper Rifles.
The War Alliance's land combat vehicles and soldiers steadily dwindled in number.
Combined with the constant bombing from the aerial forces overhead, their morale rapidly collapsed.
After hearing the report, Li Ye slowly nodded.
It seemed the War Alliance's forces weren't nearly as frightening as they had appeared.
After more than an hour of fierce fighting, the Tomorrow Alliance finally emerged victorious.
As Li Ye let out a long breath of relief, his mood immediately improved.
The Tomorrow Alliance had officially secured control over this supermassive cavern and could now mine its resources without worry.
While ordering the War Committee to tally the casualties, he also instructed everyone to begin collecting the spoils of war.
In this battle, the Tomorrow Alliance had destroyed five Level 1 Mobile Cities, along with countless land combat vehicles.
All of them represented real metal resources.
On top of that, they had killed one to two thousand War Alliance soldiers, yielding another substantial amount of resource drops.
"Please give me some great blueprints... preferably something on the level of an aircraft carrier," Li Ye thought.
As for ordinary resources such as Level 4 Iron Ore, Level 4 Coal, Level 4 Saltpeter, Level 4 Fabric, and Crystal Coins, he didn't even bother checking them.
Instead, he went straight to the blueprints that had been gathered by the soldiers.
There were seven Level 4 blueprints in total.
Four Level 4 blueprints.
One City Building Upgrade Blueprint.
One Work Claw Upgrade Blueprint.
One Engineering Vehicle Upgrade Blueprint.
Li Ye immediately began allocating the upgrade blueprints.
First came the City Building Upgrade Blueprint.
At present, Tomorrow's most urgently needed facilities—the City Steel Mill and Textile Factory—had already been upgraded to Level 4, so he needed to think carefully about the next choice.
After some consideration, he decided to upgrade the City Shipyard to Level 4 first.
After all, building an aircraft carrier fleet had already become part of the Tomorrow Alliance's future plans.
A mere Level 3 City Shipyard would probably be incapable of constructing aircraft carriers.
As for the Work Claw and Engineering Vehicle Upgrade Blueprints, they naturally belonged to the Engineer.
However, the Engineer itself was only a Level 3 Mobile City, making the upgrade blueprints unusable.
Fortunately, this posed no difficulty for Li Ye.
He headed to the Engineer's Production Workshop and used his Lord's Wristband to acquire its Work Claw production project along with one engineering vehicle production project.
He then imported both into Tomorrow's Production Workshop and used the upgrade blueprints to complete their upgrades.
As a result, Tomorrow could now manufacture Level 4 Work Claws and Level 4 Engineering Vehicles for the Engineer.
"I have to admit, this Mobile City level-dividend system is incredibly practical!" Zhou Xing exclaimed excitedly.
According to Li Ye's plan, he intended to transform the Engineer into a Mobile City equipped with full Level 4 technology.
That would give the Tomorrow Alliance extremely powerful engineering capabilities.
But it was by no means an easy task.
Becoming an engineering-type city was simple.
Becoming an excellent engineering-type city was another matter entirely.
That meant Li Ye would need to upgrade the complete trio of Mechanical Arms, Work Claws, and Cranes to Level 4.
In addition, he would have to purchase a massive number of Level 4 Engineering Vehicle Upgrade Blueprints, as well as a whole collection of engineering building blueprints.
The Tomorrow Alliance would have to invest an enormous amount of resources.
"In a way, an engineering-type city isn't much cheaper than an assault-type city," Li Ye sighed.
After finishing with the upgrade blueprints, he turned his attention to the four Level 4 blueprints.
The first thing that caught his eye was a Level 4 flying vehicle.
As soon as he read its contents, surprise appeared in his eyes.
"...A nuclear-powered bomber?"
【Item Name: Night Owl-N99 Strategic Stealth Nuclear-powered Bomber】
【Level: 4】
【Bonus Effects:
Self-repair Capability
Operational Time +100%
Anti-radar Tracking
Stealth Coating】
【Construction Requirements:
600 units of Level 4 Iron Ore
200 units of Level 4 Precision Flying Vehicle Components
Level 4 Nuclear Reactor】
"My goodness... This is unbelievable," Li Ye muttered.
In fact, no nuclear-powered bomber had ever officially entered active service on Blue Star.
During the Cold War, however, the two superpowers had both launched nuclear-powered aircraft projects.
In the end, both had failed.
"If the high-level vehicles from this world ever appeared on Blue Star... they'd completely overturn modern warfare..."
Li Ye found it difficult to believe.
Right from the start, he had obtained such an extraordinary aerial combat vehicle.
This nuclear-powered bomber possessed four bonus effects.
Two of them were even Anti-radar Tracking and Stealth Coating.
That effectively turned it into a ghost of the skies.
Its tremendous endurance even allowed for ultra-long-range deployment.
Naturally, such performance came at an equally astonishing cost.
Not only did it require huge quantities of Iron Ore and vehicle components, but it also demanded a Nuclear Reactor.
According to the blueprint illustration, the nuclear-powered bomber resembled a black reaper descending directly from a battlefield of the future.
Its Level 4 design perfectly blended cutting-edge technology with the aesthetics of war.
The aircraft adopted a highly integrated flying-wing tailless configuration, resembling a curved razor blade soaked in darkness.
Its wingspan exceeded eighty meters.
The fuselage was covered in anti-detection composite materials, displaying a matte gradient that transitioned from deep gray to midnight black, reflecting almost no sunlight at all.
The cockpit featured a fully enclosed pyramidal design, allowing the pilot inside to enjoy a 360-degree holographic battlefield view without blind spots.
Once the Night Owl Nuclear-powered Bomber entered service, Tomorrow's Level 3 Black Rain Bomber could finally retire.
The former completely outclassed the latter in every aspect.
"Not just the Black Rain Bomber... even the Vanguard Armed Gunship can probably retire now," Li Ye thought.
The second blueprint was for a pharmaceutical compound.
【Item Name: Titan Serum X Enhancement Drug】
【Level: 4】
【Bonus Effects:
Muscle Explosive Power +100%
Neural Response Speed/Dynamic Vision +30%
Blocks 40% of Pain Signals】
【Construction Requirements:
1 unit of Level 4 Technological Medicinal Solution】
"Technological Medicinal Solution? What's that?" Li Ye asked in surprise.
The Three Major Human Organizations should know what it was and be capable of producing it.
When the time came, he would simply purchase it in bulk.
The blueprint also emphasized one important drawback.
After the enhancement period ended, the user would fall into a weakened state for an entire week.
The third blueprint was considerably more unusual.
It was a Level 4 personal recreational aircraft.
【Item Name: "Skylark" Personal Recreational Aircraft】
【Level: 4】
【Bonus Effects:
Stability +100%
Energy Consumption -70%】
【Construction Requirements:
20 units of Level 4 Iron Ore】
According to the blueprint, the vehicle resembled a futuristic rolling suitcase that could easily be pulled with one hand.
Once deployed, however, it transformed into a hovering surfboard-like aircraft with a three-meter wingspan.
Four silent fans were concealed beneath it.
Its biomimetic gull-wing design gave it smooth, elegant lines like a bird in flight.
"Maybe I should just sell this blueprint," Li Ye thought.
Although twenty units of Level 4 Iron Ore wasn't particularly expensive, using such valuable resources merely to improve residents' quality of life felt far too extravagant.
The Tomorrow Alliance simply had too many urgent uses for Level 4 Iron Ore.
Had this been a Level 1 or Level 2 recreational aircraft instead, Li Ye would certainly have kept it.
To determine its actual market value, he specifically sought out Fang Ying for advice.
"You should just keep it," Fang Ying said. "It's neither a land, sea, or air combat vehicle, nor a city building or individual combat equipment. On top of that, it consumes Level 4 Iron Ore, making it rather impractical. At best, it would only sell for a few tens of thousands of Crystal Coins."
"I see. Thank you for the reminder," Li Ye replied gratefully.
He then looked at the fourth blueprint.
This one belonged to the city building category.
【Item Name: Weather Controller】
【Level: 4】
【Bonus Effect:
Manipulates atmospheric conditions to generate any desired weather within a designated area.】
【Construction Requirements:
350 units of Level 4 Iron Ore】
"...There's actually such a miraculous city building?"
According to the blueprint, the Weather Controller took the form of a thirty-meter-tall hexagonal metal tower.
Its peak consisted of three concentric rings, between which high-voltage electrical arcs continuously flashed.
At first, Li Ye had assumed it was some kind of weather weapon capable of creating tornadoes or sandstorms to devastate enemy territory.
But he had guessed wrong.
According to the blueprint's description, the Weather Controller could only generate weather such as strong winds, rainfall, snowfall, and drought.
After reading the explanation, Li Ye's feelings became rather complicated.
"If it reaches Level 5 or Level 6, its power should become much greater, right?" he thought. "If that's the case, then its future potential is still promising."
Immediately afterward, he glanced at the System Panel.
The system cooldown had already finished.
【Time Until Next Intelligence Refresh: 6 Days 22 Hours 59 Minutes 59 Seconds】
【Available Intelligence: 7】
"With a full seven-day accumulation, the value of this intelligence should be excellent," he thought.
During this period, the Tomorrow Alliance had no intention of making any major moves.
Instead, they planned to remain peacefully inside this supermassive cavern while gathering resources.
Once the next round of intelligence was refreshed, they would decide how to proceed with their future development.