Chapter 59: Exchanging Resources, Full Mobilization for Battle!

The first to catch the eye was the Bronze Wanderer, a mobile city painted in bronze, equipped with heavy urban armor, and fitted with gigantic tracks and tires. It appeared to be a defensive-type mobile city.

Next came the Moon Shadow and the Wanderer. These two mobile cities boasted numerous standard artillery pieces and heavy machine guns, each possessing a fleet of vehicles and a single Tier 1 cannon, making them seem like assault-type mobile cities.

In fact, the Tomorrow could also be considered an assault-type mobile city.

As a side note, assault-type cities made up the largest number among all mobile cities.

Following closely was the Echo. The most prominent feature of this mobile city was its arsenal of 20 standard artillery pieces and 4 Tier 1 cannons. Clearly, much like the Magician belonging to the Tarot group, it was a fire-support-type mobile city.

After that came the Industrial, a mobile city finished in a bluish-gray urban coating and equipped with a multitude of city accessories such as cranes, robotic arms, and working claws. According to its lord, the Industrial also possessed the capability to construct Tier 1 fortresses, Tier 1 traps, and Tier 1 urban bunkers.

Finally, there was the Vanguard, led by the alliance leader. This mobile city featured a pale gold urban coating, 8 standard artillery pieces, 16 heavy machine guns, 4 vehicle fleets, along with 3 Tier 1 cannons and a series of Tier 1 items.

After some communication, the group decided to head first toward the Twisted Garden mentioned by the Moon Shadow, continuing their discussions via the city radio.

The agenda was to trade resources with one another, taking what each needed.

First was the Industrial.

The task assigned to it was to build combat fortifications such as fortresses and traps within the Twisted Garden, which would consume anywhere from 100 to 300 units of iron ore. The Industrial stated that it required 4,000 units of iron ore. This sounded like an astronomical figure, but when split evenly among all the mobile cities, it came out to roughly 660 units of iron ore per city.

Next was the Vanguard.

It expressed its specific needs: all of its Tier 1 cannons were Radiant Cannons, and the greater the number of these Tier 1 cannons, the stronger their combined salvo would be. Because of this, it had requested everyone in the communication channel to help search for radiant ore and radiant crystals.

The members had brought along radiant ore in varying amounts, totaling 623 units. Meanwhile, the Wanderer spent 3,500 crystal coins to purchase a radiant crystal. The Vanguard expressed its gratitude to everyone and reimbursed the expenses. It then crafted another Radiant Cannon and used the remaining ore to manufacture a full batch of shells.

Then came the Bronze Wanderer. As a defensive-type mobile city, its propulsion system was exceptionally powerful, which correspondingly consumed a vast amount of fuel. Therefore, it requested everyone to spare some extra fuel and coal.

To this, everyone naturally responded with generosity. After all, the role of a defensive-type mobile city in combat was that of a meat shield; it needed to charge at the very forefront to draw enemy fire, launch attacks, and shatter enemy formations.

Finally, there was Li Ye.

His current resources were relatively sufficient, and what he desired most were ores and crystals of the frost and lava varieties.

To his surprise, the other six mobile cities pooled their resources together and actually managed to scrape together 472 units of frost ore and 1 frost crystal.

This was already enough for him to craft a Frost Cannon along with a dozen frost shells.

Amidst his pleasant surprise, Li Ye could not help feeling a bit troubled.

These resources were worth nearly ten thousand crystal coins in total, but his own crystal coins had just been completely spent. If he were to pay for them using resources like iron ore, coal, fuel, or copper, silver, and gold ores, he would genuinely find it hard to part with them.

Fortunately, everyone had their own demands.

The Tier 1 heavy machine guns, Tier 1 rocket launchers, and smoke shells possessed by the Tomorrow were things the others currently lacked.

Consequently, Li Ye custom-crafted these Tier 1 weapons for the various members and additionally gifted each of them a pack of Morning Glory wheat seeds and Blue Heart potato seeds as repayment for the costs.

During this period, everyone also exchanged information regarding the Tier 1 items they possessed.

The Wanderer possessed the blueprint for a Tier 1 sniper rifle.
The Moon Shadow possessed the blueprint for Tier 1 armor-piercing shells.
The Vanguard possessed seeds for the Tier 1 crop "Black Corn."
The Bronze Wanderer possessed Tier 1 goblin sapper grenades.
The Industrial possessed Tier 1 urban landmines.

"These are all fantastic things," Li Ye could not help sighing with emotion.

He collected a bag of complimentary seeds from the Vanguard, and through custom crafting, acquired 20 armor-piercing shells, 40 goblin sapper grenades, and 2 Tier 1 sniper rifles.

As for the urban landmines, he chose not to take any.

Additionally, the members showed exceptional interest in the instant cup noodles, Sachima, cola, and iced black tea possessed by the Tomorrow, providing flour and fresh water for him to help process a substantial amount of them.

Upon arriving at the entrance of the Twisted Garden, the members temporarily parked and began trading the various supplies they had prepared.

Li Ye picked up his binoculars and looked out toward the Twisted Garden.

Once the home of the giant treants, the Twisted Garden towered two to three hundred meters high.

The first to greet the eye was an irregular gravel path, flanked on both sides by bizarre floral, vegetation, and arboreal growths tens to a hundred meters tall.

Some of these plants displayed twisted double-helix structures, others had serrated edges along their leaves and branches, while certain flower pistils resembled the eyes of colossal creatures, appearing as though they might still writhe.

This Twisted Garden spanned several hundred square kilometers in size. It seemed to have been abandoned for a long time, with the overwhelming majority of the plants within the garden already withered.

At the center of the garden lay an elliptical lake. The body of water had not yet dried up, but the water had clearly stagnated for a long time, choked with various aquatic plants. The water quality was appallingly turbid and even emitted a foul stench.

Upon closer inspection, one could even spot numerous corpses of giant treants.

They stood hundreds of meters tall, their faces bearing elderly features and their lean torsos marked by numerous strips of peeling bark.

The mobile cities then drove into the Twisted Garden, beginning to survey the terrain, discuss intelligence, and formulate tactics.

Before long, everyone realized that the terrain of the Twisted Garden belonged to the category of being easy to defend and difficult to attack.

Following that, everyone exchanged intelligence regarding the Tarot Alliance.

After a series of intelligence exchanges and summaries, the group learned the following information:

The division of labor among the members of the Tarot Alliance was roughly as follows:
The Chariot and the Tower belonged to the defensive type.
The Hermit belonged to the sapper type.
The Hanged Man, Death, the Devil, and Lovers belonged to the assault type, among which the Hanged Man had already been wiped out.
The Magician belonged to the fire-support type.
The remaining Emperor, the World, Judgment, and the Sun had yet to make an appearance, and their strength remained entirely unknown.

Li Ye focused intently on these Tarot members, beginning to ponder which of them might possess Tier 2 items.

Among them, the one that concerned him the most was undoubtedly the "Sky-Soarer" light drone combat platform.

If a mobile city equipped this Tier 2 item, it would essentially transform into a mobile aircraft carrier on land, capable of dispatching its payload of combat drones for bombing runs at any moment.

In fact, the Vanguard Alliance had also been continuously gathering intelligence on the members of the Tarot Alliance and trying every possible means to collect information on the Tier 2 items they possessed.

Yet, this still amounted to mere glimpses of the whole picture.

Prompted "intentionally or unintentionally" by Li Ye, the group came to understand the information regarding the Tier 2 items held by the members of the Tarot Alliance.

Immediately afterward, the Vanguard spoke up.

And what it revealed were the Tier 2 items currently possessed by the Vanguard Alliance.