Chapter 9: Level 1 Cannon Design Blueprint

After a moment of contemplation, Li Ye nodded.

“All right, then let their leader come.”

Soon after, the leader of the Azure arrived, traveling by off-road vehicle. The vehicle stopped three hundred meters from the Tomorrow, and the door opened. A middle-aged man with a left arm amputated slowly got out.

Upon seeing his appearance, Li Ye prepared to take the elevator platform down to the ground to speak with him.

Old Zhou quickly reached out to stop him.

“Ah Li, that man might not necessarily be the leader of the Azure. There could be deception! For safety’s sake, you shouldn’t appear in person. Let’s send someone to impersonate you instead.”

Li Ye smiled and waved his hand, signaling him to relax.

Old Zhou and the others might not have known, but Li Ye was perfectly clear on the matter.

Previous intelligence had mentioned that the leader of the Azure had lost his left arm due to severe injuries; that middle-aged man was indeed the real leader.

Since the other side had already shown enough sincerity, it would be unreasonable if he didn’t appear in person.

Out on the open plain, the two leaders stood face to face, their respective mobile cities visible in the distance behind them.

The middle-aged man extended his hand first.

“I am Li Jin, leader of the Azure.”

“Tomorrow, Li Ye,” Li Ye replied, shaking his hand.

Li Jin then explained his purpose.

“We need fresh water,” he said. “We haven’t found any water sources these past days and are almost at our limit. Originally, we had plenty of fresh water in our water tower, but a few days ago because of...”

He stopped, coughing a few times to cover up, and didn’t continue.

Li Ye couldn’t help but smile slightly.

In truth, the other party was unaware that he knew exactly where their attack had been, why the amputation occurred, why the water tower was damaged, and which resource points had been taken recently.

“We currently have enough fresh water and can sell you some,” he answered. “It would be best if you trade iron ore for it.”

Li Jin breathed a sigh of relief upon hearing this.

“Agreed,” he nodded. “We recently captured a mine and have been extracting quite a bit of ore there.”

After some bargaining, Li Ye traded 600 units of fresh water for 300 units of iron ore and 50 units of saltpeter.

During the exchange, Li Jin inadvertently noticed Old Zhou and his companions carrying Falcon assault rifles.

“Level 1 firearms? You actually have such good equipment?” he exclaimed in surprise. “We only have standard guns and usually struggle a lot when fighting monsters.”

Envious, an idea occurred to him and he hesitated before speaking.

“Could you possibly...?”

Li Ye smiled slightly.

“I can sell you one for 100 units of iron ore each.”

Li Jin’s expression instantly darkened.

“Although crafting a Level 1 firearm consumes a lot of iron ore, it shouldn’t exceed fifty or sixty units. Your price is outrageous!” he protested. “Could you make it a bit cheaper?”

“Then 90 units of iron ore per rifle. That’s the lowest I can go.”

“...”

After some back and forth, seeing that Li Ye would not budge, Li Jin hesitated for a long moment before sighing softly, as if making a difficult decision.

“This should be acceptable, right?” He pulled something out from his pocket.

Li Ye fixed his eyes on it and was instantly stunned.

[Frost Cannon - Blueprint]

[Item Name: Frost Cannon]

[Item Level: 1]

[Effect: Inflicts freezing upon hitting targets, making them brittle.]

[Crafting Requires: 300 units of Level 1 Frost Ore, 1 Level 1 Frost Crystal]

[Note: Frost Cannon ammunition requires 10 units Frost Ore and 1 unit Gunpowder to manufacture.]

He rubbed his eyes in disbelief.

He hadn’t expected the other side to have a Level 1 cannon blueprint.

Li Jin stated his terms.

He would hand over the Level 1 cannon blueprint to Li Ye, in exchange for six assault rifles, 3,000 rounds of ammunition, and an additional 300 units of fresh water.

In truth, Li Jin was reluctant to part with the blueprint. After all, the cannons on the Azure were only ordinary grade.

He had stumbled upon the blueprint three months ago on the corpse of an elite monster and had been ecstatic. But despite searching for frost ore veins ever since, he had found none.

Rather than wait aimlessly, he preferred to trade the blueprint for tangible improvement.

Li Ye agreed almost instantly.

A Level 1 cannon would greatly enhance the firepower of a mobile city.

He then presented five assault rifles and over a thousand rounds of ammunition. Using the iron ore Li Jin had just provided, he crafted one more rifle and the remaining ammunition to meet the required amount.

Though Li Jin was sincere, Li Ye, out of caution, dismantled some parts from the rifles before handing them over.

Moreover, he arranged for Old Zhou and the others to stand beside the heavy machine guns and cannons during the exchange.

Li Jin didn’t seem to mind much; after all, in the wilderness, people’s hearts are hard to read. He himself was always on guard against others.

“I must warn you, frost ore is only produced from rare frost ore veins,” Li Jin said. “And frost crystals only occur alongside frost veins, with an extremely low chance. Sometimes, even if you find a frost vein, you might not be able to extract any frost crystals.”

Li Ye nodded.

He was aware, but with his intelligence system, locating frost veins should be somewhat easier.

The deal concluded, Li Jin led his people away.

With a roar, the Azure slowly started moving and soon disappeared from Li Ye’s sight.

Li Ye tucked the blueprint into his pocket with satisfaction.

He was quite pleased with this transaction.

In fact, trading between mobile cities was quite beneficial.

Both sides could exchange needed resources and Level 1 items, fulfilling their needs and enhancing their strength.

However, such trade had to be based on mutual trust or at least enough demonstrated sincerity.

In the following time, Li Ye assigned personnel to continue mining at the mine.

The mine was not large, and with extra manpower Li Ye had arranged, it was fully mined within an hour and a half.

Li Ye tallied the yield.

They had extracted 230 units of iron ore, 49 units of saltpeter, and 23 units of copper ore.

Li Jin had originally traded 300 units of iron ore, but after Li Ye crafted one assault rifle and the remaining ammunition for delivery, only just over 100 remained.

Combined with the iron ore previously in storage and that from serpentmen corpses, Li Ye now had over 400 units.

He went to the production workshop and began operations.

He no longer had any Falcon assault rifles and needed to craft more. Now having saltpeter, he could process gunpowder for cannon shells. Also, the heavy machine gun ammunition was nearly depleted and needed replenishing.

Though he wished to upgrade the Tomorrow’s city components, replenishing armaments and firepower was more urgent.

Crafting assault rifles and bullets, manufacturing shells, producing machine gun rounds...

Before long, the iron ore count had dropped back to single digits.

Li Ye sighed.

“Alas, iron ore really is endlessly consumable.”