Chapter 40: An Unprecedented Harvest

When Li Ye opened his eyes again, it was already the morning of the next day.

He quickly dressed and walked out of the room.

After a night of rush repairs by Lin Wu and his team, the tracks and tires of the Tomorrow had finally been fixed.

Last night, Li Ye had once again reassigned a batch of ordinary residents to become combat personnel.

The new batch of bullets and shells had also been replenished.

At Li Ye's command, the crowd quickly assembled.

He nodded and gave a wave of his hand.

"Move out, we are going to hunt down the Crimson Hound!"

......

When the Crimson Hound was spotted within their field of view, the lookouts on board could hardly believe their eyes.

After taking another look to confirm he wasn't seeing things, he quickly shouted into the speaking tube.

"The Tomorrow has been spotted! It's three kilometers away to the northwest!"

Two minutes later, the Crimson Hound's convoy units boarded the lifting platform one by one, reached the ground, and quickly moved out.

The Crimson Hound itself slowly began to accelerate.

"Target distance is 2,000 meters, 1,900 meters, 1,800 meters..."

Up in the observation tower, Lin Xia reported rapidly in a tense voice.

Li Ye stood beside her, raising binoculars to look at the distant Crimson Hound.

"It's about to enter the ambush zone. I suppose the people from Firefly are ready as well?" he murmured softly.

At this very moment, three hundred meters ahead of the Crimson Hound.

The scar-faced man from the Firefly community, leading his companions, was lying in ambush inside the buildings and alley corners on both sides of the street.

Clutched in their hands were the Gale rocket launchers and Falcon assault rifles issued to them by the Tomorrow.

"Listen up, everyone," the scar-faced man said slowly. "When the target approaches, those with rocket launchers are responsible for blowing up the tracks and tires, and those with assault rifles are tasked with taking down the machine gunners and artillerymen."

"This is a golden opportunity for us to acquire a mobile city," he spat on the ground, speaking with fierce determination. "No one is allowed to screw this up!"

The instant the Crimson Hound stepped into the ambush zone, the scar-faced man and his companions poked their heads out from the windows, doorways, and street corners of multiple buildings, pulling the triggers of their weapons.

In a split second, an overwhelming barrage of firepower engulfed the Crimson Hound.

Several combatants, machine gunners, and artillerymen on the deck were shot dead before they could even react.

Multiple explosions erupted along the tires and tracks on both sides of the Crimson Hound, and its speed gradually slowed down.

"This tactic actually works!"

Seeing this scene, Li Ye was instantly overjoyed.

Unlike the open wilderness, deploying personnel familiar with the terrain to wage guerrilla warfare against an enemy mobile city within urban ruins—

This tactic was indeed viable.

After recovering from their initial astonishment, the Crimson Hound reacted swiftly, sending new combat personnel to take over the heavy machine guns and artillery, and firing wildly toward the buildings on both sides.

The scar-faced man and his companions had anticipated this and quickly withdrew from their original positions after scoring the initial hit.

The buildings constructed of concrete and steel provided them with solid cover, impenetrable to heavy machine gun bullets.

However, artillery fire was a different story; shells exploded one after another inside the buildings, and several members failed to evacuate in time, getting swallowed up by the blasts.

Taking advantage of the Crimson Hound being pinned down, the artillery on the Tomorrow opened fire on it in succession.

The enemy convoy was firmly held in check by the No. 2 convoy, and coupled with the firepower support from the surrounding Firefly members, they found it even harder to extricate themselves.

From the very beginning, the battle developed in a direction extremely unfavorable to the Crimson Hound.

The Crimson Hound attempted to turn the tide, but felt as though it were trapped in a quagmire.

On one hand, the distant Tomorrow was raining frantic fire upon it.

On the other hand, the nearby enemies were using buildings as cover, firing at it from all directions. Its tires and tracks were severely damaged, and the combatants on deck were being picked off one by one. These guerrilla-fighting survivors were far more troublesome than the Tomorrow.

Accompanied by yet another rocket-propelled grenade, the Crimson Hound's tracks and tires were completely destroyed, bringing it to a dead stop right in the middle of the street.

Immediately following that, a salvo from the Tomorrow struck it squarely in the front.

Swept by firepower from all directions, the enemies on the Crimson Hound fell dead one by one, while the survivors retreated from the deck back into the interior rooms, continuing to put up a stubborn resistance.

Over an hour later, the battle finally came to an end.

Under the joint assault of the Tomorrow and the Firefly community, the lord of the Crimson Hound, along with his confidants and combat crew, were all shot dead.

In addition, there were twenty to thirty survivors aboard the Crimson Hound.

Every single one of them was a slave, gaunt and haggard to the bone.

According to their accounts, they were people the Crimson Hound had plundered from other mobile cities and towns. As slaves, they were given minimal rations of fresh water and food every day, and were forced to labor endlessly without rest.

For these slaves, Li Ye and the Firefly community chose to spare their lives.

Right after, Li Ye impatiently tallied the spoils harvested from the Crimson Hound.

15,674 crystal coins.

2,452 units of iron ore, 1,623 units of coal, 782 units of fuel, 1,052 units of wood, 534 units of gunpowder.

2 Level 1 artillery pieces—Magma Cannons.

Even more to his surprise, he also discovered a Level 2 item blueprint.

[Black Hawk Helicopter - Blueprint]

[Item Name: Black Hawk Helicopter]

[Item Level: Level 2]

[Bonus Effects: 1. Flight speed increased by 15% 2. Fuel consumption reduced by 20%]

[Manufacturing Requirements: 200 units of iron ore (Level 2), 50 units of precision flying vehicle parts (Level 2)]

"I didn't expect capturing a mobile city would yield so much," he muttered to himself. "No wonder there are so many predator cities; the harvest is truly envy-inducing!"

Without delay, he eagerly entered the production workshop of the Crimson Hound.

As a predator city, the Level 1 projects and general projects owned by the Crimson Hound were exceptionally good.

After careful selection, he picked out more than half of the projects from the Crimson Hound's production workshop.

The most valuable among them were:

Level 1 City Building - Water Tower: Upgrade cost 300 iron ore, can store 6,000 units of fresh water.

Level 1 Item - Smoke Shell: Manufacturing cost 5 iron ore, can create a large amount of smoke in the target area.

Level 1 Body Armor: Manufacturing cost 20 units of fabric, can effectively defend against Level 1 bullets and below.

Level 1 Whole Wheat Biscuit: Manufacturing cost 0.5 units of flour, bonus effect: "provides an additional 10% nutrition."

Level 1 City Accessory - Mining Robotic Arm: Manufacturing cost 300 iron ore, can drastically increase mining efficiency.

Level 1 Artillery - Magma Cannon: Manufacturing cost 300 units of magma iron ore, 1 magma crystal, devastatingly powerful.

Among the general projects, there were also many good things, such as iced black tea, refrigerators, electric fans...

The remaining projects were already possessed by the Tomorrow, so he did not take them, leaving them behind for the Firefly community instead.

Furthermore, the Crimson Hound originally possessed two Magma Cannons; one was destroyed during the battle, while the other remained completely intact, and the warehouse still had 5 magma shells left.

For Li Ye, this was nothing short of an unexpected windfall.

Moreover, the Tomorrow had already unlocked the Magma Cannon project, so as long as magma ore was found in the future, more could be manufactured.

As for the remaining crystal coins, iron ore, and other resources, both sides chose to split them evenly.