Chapter 17: 'You Have Become Prey”

“By the way, what do you want so much Molten Spider Silk for?” Li Ye asked curiously. Just like him, Li Jin also looked over with curiosity. Lei Jian pondered for a moment, then displayed a design blueprint. 【Level 1 City Accessory - Molten Tread Design Blueprint】 【Item Name: Molten Tread】 【Item Level: Level 1】 【Attached Effects: 1. Increases Mobile City traction by 10%. 2. Grants the Mobile City climbing capability, with a maximum climbing angle of 30 degrees.】 【Crafting Requirements: 500 units of Molten Spider Silk, 100 units of Iron Ore】 According to Lei Jian, he obtained this during an attack on a Monstrous Town. “That's quite a decent city accessory,” Li Ye nodded to himself. Compared to the standard Level 1 treads upgraded in the Production Workshop, this Molten Tread was far more effective, even granting climbing ability to the Mobile City. Thirty degrees—now that was quite a steep slope. Before his eyes, a vivid scene appeared: a mountain-sized Mobile City, flexibly climbing through the mountains using its base treads. According to the previous agreement, the remaining spoils were to be divided between the Conqueror and Azure in a 6:4 ratio. The division of Iron Ore and Crystal Coins went smoothly, but when it came to the Molten Armor, some disagreements arose. As the strongest and most contributive, the Conqueror had greater say, so Lei Jian held more authority. After a round of negotiation, the Conqueror obtained the city accessory, while Azure received 300 units of Iron Ore and 300 units of coal as compensation. Although the compensation was substantial, Li Jin still felt a little regret—his Azure had just regained momentum and urgently needed to boost its strength. But to be fair, Azure had the weakest standing in the Three-City Alliance this time. After all, Tomorrow had the Wild BOSS intel and initiated the alliance, and Conqueror was the most powerful. All in all, he still came out with a gain this time and secured a fair amount of resources—the only thing that made Li Jin feel some heartache was the loss of a Gunner on Azure, an old member who had been around for a long time. Now they would have to train a new one. After the loot was divided, Lei Jian made a request. Due to taking on the Molten Broodmother solo during the battle, the Conqueror was now entangled in spider silk and completely immobilized, requiring cleanup. In the wilderness, an immobile Mobile City was extremely dangerous, so Lei Jian asked Azure and Tomorrow to escort the Conqueror during this period. Li Ye and Li Jin agreed without hesitation. After this battle, the three parties had developed some level of camaraderie. Out of gratitude, Lei Jian glanced at the Peregrine Falcon Assault Rifle in Li Ye’s hand. “Your Level 1 firearm is quite good—why not help me process a few more of them too?” His Conqueror also had Level 1 firearms, but only submachine guns, which were not as lethal as assault rifles. Li Ye nodded, and out of goodwill, did not charge any processing fee this time. In the time that followed, he brought the City Camouflage back to the Tomorrow and had Lin Wu install it, while also conducting a brief tally of their own consumption. During the battle, many Molten Spiders had crawled onto the deck, including one Spider Guard. Multiple parts of the Tomorrow's deck were damaged, but fortunately, there were no casualties—though several combat personnel were injured. As for the consumed shells, machine gun bullets, handgun bullets, and Peregrine Falcon Assault Rifle bullets... from the start of the battle, ammunition had been poured out as if it were free. Rough calculations showed that over 400 units of Iron Ore were effectively spent in that battle. Li Ye couldn’t help but click his tongue—war truly was expensive. The saying “One cannon blast costs ten thousand taels of gold” was no exaggeration. During this time, he glanced at the corpse of the Molten Broodmother and was lost in thought. The drops from this Wild BOSS were incredibly rich and could feed three Mobile Cities. If the Tomorrow had taken it down alone, it would’ve been a massive haul. But recalling the course of the battle, he gently shook his head and gave up the idea. “Sigh, better not get too greedy.” Over an hour later, the Conqueror finished clearing the spider silk and regained mobility. The three parties exchanged hostages, bid farewell to each other, and set off. The three Mobile Cities headed in different directions. In the wilderness, Mobile Cities rarely traveled together. The reason was simple—resources found in the wild were limited; two cities together were already hard to divide, let alone three. Li Ye opened the System Panel, and at this time, the epic intelligence had been refreshed. Its content was... 【As of now, the Wasteland Zone’s human survivor data is as follows:】 【Number of Level 1 Mobile Cities: 119】 【Number of Level 2 Mobile Cities: 3】 【Number of Level 1 Fortresses: 16】 【Number of Survivor Towns: 152】 【Number of Survival Caravans: 63】 【Number of Survival Squads: 421】 【Total Population: 173,531】 “This time’s epic intelligence is... this kind of content?” Stunned, a glimmer of joy appeared in Li Ye’s eyes. “What great intel!” Now, he had a clear and intuitive understanding of the entire Wasteland Zone. He hadn’t expected there to be as many as 119 Level 1 Mobile Cities in the Wasteland Zone. And there were actually three Level 2 cities as well. What surprised him the most was that the survivor population in the Wasteland Zone still exceeded 170,000, far more than he had anticipated. After the surprise, he sighed. In three months, the entire Wasteland Zone would be destroyed—how many people would still survive by then? After assigning personnel for the night watch, Li Ye went back to his room to sleep. When he woke up again, it was already evening. The sky had completely darkened, and the Tomorrow’s searchlights were already on. As he stepped out of the room, Li Ye suddenly thought of something and opened the System Panel. At this point, the system cooldown had reset. 【Time until next Intelligence Refresh: 15 hours 32 minutes 52 seconds】 【Number of Intelligence Items: 5】 Li Ye couldn’t help but shake his head lightly. This refresh time was less than a day—the intel was likely low-value, just crumbs. Since it was night, most of the crew on the Tomorrow had gone to rest, leaving only a few combat personnel on night duty. The lookout had also stepped down. Feeling refreshed after waking up, Li Ye decided to wander casually around the Tomorrow. Just then, he suddenly heard a faint rumbling sound from the distance. “That sound... seems like it’s coming from a Mobile City?” he muttered in confusion. The next second, a searchlight shone onto the Tomorrow. Li Ye paused, then looked toward the direction the searchlight had come from. From the silhouette, it was clearly a Mobile City. “Tang Fang, turn on the searchlight! Shine it toward that Mobile City!” Shouting this, he immediately rushed toward the Watchtower. Once inside, Li Ye quickly picked up the binoculars and looked toward the Mobile City. On the flag of that Mobile City was an unmistakable image of a crimson-fanged hound. He realized it in an instant. “That’s... the Crimson Hound?” At the same time, the other party let out a horn signal. Two short blasts, two long blasts. That meant... “You have become prey.”