Chapter 30: The Wasteland District Map?!

"I'll take this one as my priority choice!"

Li Ye didn't hesitate, immediately claiming the design blueprint for the instant cup noodles. Seeing him smile as he tucked the blueprint into his jacket, Li Jin and Lei Jian couldn't help but sigh in unison.

"This kid really has a sharp eye!"

Following that, the three turned their attention to the Level 2 item.

[Item Name: Goblin MVP Baseball Bat]
[Item Level: Level 2]
[Special Effect: Stuns the target for 3 seconds upon impact.]

The three looked at this Level 2 item with complicated expressions. For lone wolves and bounty hunters, it was a powerful weapon for solo combat in the wild. But for entities the size of mobile cities, its utility was negligible. It was clear that the Level 2 items dropped by wild bosses could be hit or miss, and their luck this time hadn't been particularly good.

After a round of bidding, Lei Jian ultimately secured the Level 2 item for 2,000 crystal coins. The reason he was willing to bid was to fulfill his dream of owning a Level 2 item. As for the remaining three items, the three of them simply bid for those as well. Li Ye took the foreman's universal wrench, while Lei Jian claimed the foreman's vest and the goblin canteen. The auction proceeds, along with the crystal coins, coal, and other loot dropped by the boss, were split equally among the three. All three parties were quite satisfied with this outcome.

As a lord, Lei Jian enjoyed collecting a series of Level 1 items with magical functions, especially those of the combat variety. In his words, putting together a full set of Level 1 gear to fight monsters in the wild was a great feeling. This Level 2 weapon was decent enough for him. As for the travel canteen, he was so fond of this item with its magical properties that he declared he would never sell it.

As for Li Ye, it went without saying; while he appeared to be at a disadvantage on the surface, he was actually quietly making a fortune. As long as he could gather the necessary resources, he would be able to upgrade to a Level 2 city. The foreman's wrench was naturally left for Lin Wu.

After dividing the spoils, the three parties exchanged their hostages back.

"I think we won't need to exchange hostages the next time we cooperate," Lei Jian remarked sincerely.

Li Ye nodded. "Indeed."

Through these two collaborations, trust had gradually built up between the three sides. In the wasteland, where order had collapsed and human hearts were unpredictable, this was something precious. Li Jin gave both of them a firm hug. After the defeat they had suffered, the *Azure* had been in a difficult position, but after these two collaborations, it had gradually begun to recover.

It wasn't just the loot; the Gloss Mine still had plenty of remaining mineral resources. After clearing out the rest of the goblins, the three parties demarcated their respective mining areas. Li Ye took a quick inventory of his available manpower. This time, there were no casualties aboard the *Tomorrow*, but 15 people were wounded. Counting those who hadn't yet recovered from previous injuries, the number of casualties had reached as many as 22. This accounted for half of the *Tomorrow*'s current workforce. The monsters in the wasteland were simply too hardcore, and even the goblins were no exception. If it had been the *Tomorrow* alone, it would have been impossible to take the Gloss Mine.

In contrast, the *Conqueror* had a staggering 79 people due to its use of slaves. Although the *Azure* had no slaves, it still had 62 people. While chatting with Lei Jian, Li Ye had inadvertently learned that newcomers on the *Conqueror* started as slaves, but could become ordinary residents after completing a certain amount of labor. Although being a slave was bitter, it at least provided a path for advancement, offering a sliver of hope.

In the time that followed, Li Ye went to the storage room of the Gloss Mine. To his surprise, besides the city upgrade blueprint, the storage room also contained precious ores stored by the goblins.

320 units of copper ore, 164 units of silver ore, and 75 units of gold ore. This was already equivalent to more than 10,000 crystal coins. He hurriedly called for people to transport these minerals back to the *Tomorrow* and deployed personnel for mining. Except for Tang Fang, who was on standby in the cockpit, and the lookout stationed in the watchtower, everyone else went into the mine to extract resources.

He returned to his room and slowly opened the city upgrade blueprint.

[Level 1 mobile city promotion requires the following Level 1 resources:]
[Iron Ore: 2,000 units]
[Wood: 2,000 units]
[Fuel: 2,000 units]
[Saltpeter: 2,000 units]
[City Alloy: 1,000 units]
[City Structure Blueprint: 1 copy]
[City Crystal: 1]

"These conditions are too harsh!" Li Ye couldn't help but be dumbfounded.

Iron ore, wood, fuel, and saltpeter—these Level 1 resources were manageable; with some frugality, he could scrape them together in a few weeks. As for city alloy, forging 1 unit of city alloy required 1 unit of iron ore, 1 unit of copper ore, and 1 unit of any rare vein ore. Shadow, thunder, light, frost, wind-eroded... any ore would suffice. But 1,000 units was an absurd amount—enough to forge three frost cannons.

As for the city structure blueprint, it was a resource that only elite-level monsters or higher could possibly drop, and the drop rate was extremely low. Li Ye had heard a bounty hunter say at Roland Fortress that a fortress had once auctioned this city structure blueprint, and it had sold for 57,000 crystal coins at the time.

As for the City Crystal... it was even more priceless and unavailable. The entire region produced fewer than a handful.

"I'll have to take it slow," he said, wiping sweat from his forehead. "Although it's difficult, at least there's something to look forward to."

For the next while, he started doing one thing: searching the goblin corpses. At this moment, the Gloss Mine was covered in goblin corpses. The three lords had divided the area and were each searching the corpses within their territory. For a mobile city, monster corpses were considered a type of resource. They dropped crystal coins, cloth, iron ore, and other resources, and occasionally finished weapons, equipment, or design blueprints.

Li Ye began looting the goblin corpses. He was unexpectedly patient this time; after all, every search felt like a lottery draw. However, the goblins seemed as poor as zombies; they usually dropped cloth and crystal coins, and with luck, 1-2 units of iron ore. Elite-level goblins dropped slightly better loot, such as knives, firearms, and common finished goods like furniture.

Just as Li Ye was beginning to sigh repeatedly, he accidentally found something on an elite goblin.

[Green Source Poultry Feed - Design Blueprint]
[Item Name: Green Source Poultry Feed]
[Item Level: Level 1]
[Special Effect: 1. Increases the growth rate of fed poultry and livestock by 10%. 2. Reduces the disease rate of poultry by 20%.]
[Crafting Requirements: 1 unit of grain]
[Note: The higher the quality of the grain used, the better the effect.]

"Level 1 poultry feed?" Li Ye's eyes lit up. This was a very good harvest. The *Tomorrow* already kept a few pairs of chickens and ducks and had planted Morning Light Wheat. Once the wheat matured, he could set aside a batch to craft into feed for the poultry.

Li Jin and Lei Jian had only average luck with the goblin corpses, picking up a few common item blueprints at most, all of which were furniture or household goods. Learning that Li Ye had found such a good item, both of them grew envious. Since the *Azure* and the *Conqueror* also grew Morning Light Wheat and had just harvested a batch, they asked Li Ye to help them process a batch of Green Source Poultry Feed. Li Ye took the opportunity to "fleece" them a bit, taking some of the feed for himself.

He grabbed a handful of the feed and inspected it closely. The Level 1 feed was smooth, evenly colored, moderate in hardness, and emitted a faint, pleasant fragrance. Seeing this, Li Ye nodded sincerely. With this Level 1 feed, the growth rate of the poultry on the *Tomorrow* would increase significantly, and he would soon have a steady supply of meat and eggs.

...

"The harvest this time is not bad at all," Li Ye remarked sincerely, looking at the list in his hand.

This time, he had mined 1,021 units of iron ore, 103 units of copper ore, 33 units of silver ore, and 15 units of gold ore in the Gloss Mine. As for the frost ore he had been longing for, there was none. Including the more than 500 units of iron ore from the boss share and the 100-plus units from the goblin corpses, he had gained a total of over 1,700 units of iron ore. The goblin drops were mostly crystal coins and cloth, with occasional common-grade weapons and furniture. The biggest gain was undoubtedly the Level 1 feed design blueprint.

By now, the *Azure* and the *Conqueror* had also finished their mining. The three mobile cities set off together to return to Roland Fortress, preparing for a routine rest and to digest their spoils. On the deck, Li Ye opened the intelligence system. During the days spent attacking the Gloss Mine, that epic-tier intelligence had finished refreshing, and even the cooldown had expired.

[Time until next intelligence refresh: 1 day, 19 hours, 59 minutes, 59 seconds]
[Number of intelligence reports: 5]

"This refresh takes a full two days, so the value shouldn't be bad..." Li Ye thought to himself. "Regardless, let's see what the epic-tier intelligence is."

To his surprise, this epic intelligence was particularly unique.

[5. The Wasteland Region map has been completed. (Intelligence Value: Epic)]
[Click here to view]

"Intelligence can even be displayed in the form of a map?" Li Ye was astonished. As he clicked on it with a mixture of skepticism, a map appeared before him.

Looking at the map, the southern part of the Wasteland Region was distributed with the Fire Feather Forest, the Thunder Canyon, and the Rotten Lands—the locations where Li Ye and the others were currently. The central region was a vast area of city ruins coupled with a giant forest. The eastern region was a mobile maze of astonishing scale. The western region consisted of an endless stretch of mountains. As for the northern region, there was a large freshwater lake named "Tranquil Lake."