Chapter 26: The Goblin and the Rolls-Royce

The second piece of intelligence followed: an undiscovered small-scale oil field. Oil fields are rare resources in the wilderness, and the petroleum they produce can be processed into fuel in a production workshop. Fuel is the most vital energy source for a mobile city. Furthermore, petroleum can also be processed into plastic, provided one possesses the necessary design blueprints.

The third piece of intelligence surprised Li Ye. "The Vanguard has already crushed two mobile cities in a one-on-two battle, and now it has easily defeated a predator city. Its strength seems set to surge significantly once again," he muttered. What surprised him even more was that the Vanguard had also seized a Level 2 item. For a Level 1 mobile city, the enhancement provided by a Level 2 item is immense. Li Ye was burning with curiosity about what that item might be.

The fourth piece of intelligence: a monster civilization had risen. The wasteland is teeming with countless monsters; some live in groups mimicking human forms, and others have even developed into monster civilizations. Generally speaking, the power of a monster civilization is terrifying. However, Li Ye did not pay much mind to this; after all, his own city, the Tomorrow, was just getting started and lacked the strength to tangle with a monster civilization.

He moved on to the fifth piece of intelligence: deep within Thunder Canyon, a bounty hunter had accidentally acquired a Level 1 aerial vehicle. A Level 1 aerial vehicle! A glint of fervor flashed in Li Ye’s eyes. The uses for such a vehicle were vast—not only for reconnaissance but also for mounting machine guns and bombs to rain destruction upon enemies during combat.

As for the sixth piece of intelligence, it made his heart race. Another field boss had descended. It was at the Gloss Mines, a place where, if he recalled correctly, the Azure had once met its doom. More importantly, there was a Level 1 city upgrade blueprint in the storage room of the Gloss Mines. A grave look settled in Li Ye’s eyes. It seemed that, no matter what, he had to find a way to take it. But with the current strength of the Tomorrow, a large-scale resource point heavily guarded by monsters, combined with a field boss, was beyond its reach. He would have to do as he did before: join forces with the Azure and the Conqueror, and coordinate a three-way assault. He didn't care about the Level 2 item the field boss might drop, but he was determined to secure that storage room key! After all, the benefits of upgrading to a Level 2 city were too great. First, a Level 2 mobile city has five times the space of a Level 1, meaning more living quarters, more fields, and the ability to support a larger population. It also stores more resources and has greater endurance. Second, while a Level 1 mobile city can carry and use Level 2 items, its production workshop cannot unlock them—only by upgrading to Level 2 can the workshop unlock the authority to produce Level 2 items. This was equivalent to "leveling up" in a game.

As for the seventh piece of epic-tier intelligence, it, as always, required waiting. Li Ye nodded to himself; he recognized the value of this epic intelligence, as it was indeed highly useful. He quickly made his decision. First, he would race to Thunder Canyon to acquire the Level 1 aerial vehicle from the bounty hunter. Then, he would head to the Rotting Lands to harvest that small oil field. Following that, he would coordinate with the Azure and the Conqueror to jointly attack the Gloss Mines.

Ten minutes later, the Tomorrow roared to life, crossed the open gates of the Roland Fortress, and set off toward Thunder Canyon.

...

"Finally found it." Li Ye, standing in the watchtower, lowered his binoculars and wiped the sweat from his brow. The Tomorrow had arrived deep in Thunder Canyon and had been searching for quite some time. The target he sought was not far ahead: the bounty hunter, his off-road vehicle, and the Level 1 aerial vehicle parked beside him.

Li Ye took a closer look and realized it was a rather retro-styled light combat helicopter. From its appearance, it wasn't particularly advanced; it was pieced together from wood and metal plates, with only the main and tail rotors being purely metallic. The helicopter was equipped with two machine guns and had a bomb bay. The space inside was limited, enough only for two people. Though crudely constructed, it was still quite remarkable for the wasteland.

The bounty hunter was startled to see a mobile city approaching. "Damn it, I don't know if I should consider myself lucky or unlucky..." he muttered to himself. Li Ye brought his men down via the lift platform and began to converse with the bounty hunter. In the wasteland, some capable lone-wolf survivors chose the life of a bounty hunter. They would purchase vehicles, equip them with Level 1 weapons or even machine guns, and roam the wastes to hunt monsters. The advantage of working alone is that all loot belongs to oneself; if one happened to find Level 1 crop seeds or a Level 1 blueprint, the profit would be massive. Thus, many were drawn to this profession.

Li Ye glanced at the combat helicopter. After a moment of thought, he asked the question he was most interested in. "How exactly did you get this trophy?"

The bounty hunter replied that he had headed deep into Thunder Canyon to find and kill wandering elite monsters to scavenge their drops. While driving in search of prey, he suddenly heard a commotion in the sky. When he rolled down his window to look, he saw a helicopter wobbling along, seemingly having suffered a malfunction during reconnaissance. Soon after, it made a forced landing. The bounty hunter snuck up on it, and when he saw the cockpit open, he was stunned. The pilot was a goblin. When the goblin frowned and pulled out a wrench to perform repairs, the bounty hunter shot it dead. While he was thrilled to have acquired an aerial vehicle, he faced a major problem: he was driving only an off-road vehicle and had no way to transport the helicopter back to town to sell it. Waiting around was not an option, as this was deep in Thunder Canyon, where monsters roamed—sometimes in packs. It was a "coincidence" that the Tomorrow had arrived just then.

"A goblin pilot?" Li Ye was astonished. He knew the monsters of the wasteland were intelligent, but to be able to fly a helicopter was absurd. Seeing his disbelief, the bounty hunter led him to the goblin's corpse. Upon seeing the pilot's uniform and helmet the goblin was wearing, Li Ye finally believed it.

Filled with suspicion, he suddenly recalled something, and his heart skipped a beat. This round of intelligence had mentioned that a monster civilization had risen in the wilderness area... Could this goblin and its helicopter have come from that very civilization? How terrifying must this monster civilization be if they were capable of building helicopters? Just thinking about it made his skin crawl.

The bounty hunter looked at Li Ye. "Tell me, do you want a Rolls-Royce?" he asked.

"Huh?"

Under Li Ye's bewildered gaze, the bounty hunter pulled a design blueprint from his pocket. It was exactly what the goblin pilot had dropped.

[Rolls-Royce Phantom - Design Blueprint]
[Item Name: Rolls-Royce Phantom]
[Item Level: Common]
[Bonus Effect: None]
[Crafting Requirements: 150 units of Iron Ore (Level 1), 10 units of Auto Parts]