After receiving the invitation code shared by Li Ye, the Iron Whale joined the K1 City Communication Channel.
Seeing his two companions in the channel, Li Ye couldn’t help but nod.
With a defensive-type city and an engineer-type city now secured, his Tomorrow Alliance had begun to take shape.
He planned to recruit a fire-support-type city, and then a few assault-type cities.
The three Mobile Cities thus set off.
Over a dozen hours later, Li Ye laid eyes on the so-called Safe Harbor that Fang Yong had mentioned.
It turned out to be a Level 2 Fortress standing tall on the plains.
Its scale was several times larger than Roland Fortress.
The city walls of this Level 2 Fortress were not made of brick or stone, but welded from multiple layers of composite armor plating, each piece up to 2 meters thick, covered in rivets and cooling pipes.
Gear hinges were also installed at the joints of the city walls, allowing it to slowly adjust its posture when necessary.Atop the city walls were over 30 Level 1 Cannons, 8 Level 2 Cannons, along with Heavy Machine Guns and Automatic Crossbows.
During this time, Li Ye also noticed that the city walls of this Level 2 Fortress were riddled with scars, bloodstains, bullet holes, and traces of explosions.
“This Level 2 Fortress seems to be frequently under attack by Zombies?” he pondered.
After a series of steam whistle exchanges, the fortress gates slowly opened, and the three Mobile Cities drove in one after another.
As a Level 2 Fortress, its interior was far more spacious than Roland Fortress—almost the size of a small town.
Industrial District, Farmland District, Town District, Marketplace District, Parking and Rest Area......
The fortress was clearly divided into these zones, bustling with people.
Convoys, Mobile Cities, Bounty Hunters, Fortress Residents...... countless individuals moved about the streets.
Li Ye roughly estimated the population of this fortress to be over ten thousand.
On the wasteland, that was already an astonishing number.
Surrounding the fortress was a mining area and a freshwater lake—typical features for a fortress of this scale.
A fortress administrator drove over to guide the three Mobile Cities.
Li Ye and his group were directed to the southwest Parking and Rest Area of the fortress.
It was a vast open space, with white paint outlining various parking zones in different sizes.
From Bounty Hunters’ Motorcycles, to Survivors’ Off-road Vehicles, to Level 1 Mobile Cities, Level 2 Mobile Cities.......
At this moment, there were over a hundred vehicles and more than a dozen Mobile Cities parked in the designated area.
Beside the parking zones was the Industrial District, convenient for people to purchase Vehicle Parts, hire labor to repair vehicles and Mobile Cities.
The fortress administrator informed Li Ye that this Level 2 Fortress charged an accommodation fee for visitors.
Level 1 Motorcycle: 20 Crystal Coins/day.
Level 1 Off-road Vehicle: 50 Crystal Coins/day.
Level 1 Mobile City: 300 Crystal Coins/day.
Level 2 Mobile City: 500 Crystal Coins/day.
As for lone wanderers, they were free of charge.
Li Ye had no objections to this.
After all, the Level 2 Fortress provided a Safe Harbor. Its walls, Cannons, and Heavy Machine Guns needed maintenance, and Combat Personnel had to be paid. It was only fair that visiting convoys and Mobile Cities paid a bit of accommodation fees.
He also specifically inquired about the cost of opening a store in the marketplace.
According to the administrator, renting a storefront in the fortress cost 4000 Crystal Coins per month. If calculated by day, it was 300 Crystal Coins/day.
Additionally, the fortress charged a 10% transaction tax.
“Understood, thank you.” Li Ye nodded.
His attention was then drawn to the nearby Mobile Cities.
There were a total of 15 Level 1 Mobile Cities, and 7 Level 2 Mobile Cities.
"I didn’t expect there to be so many Level 1 Mobile Cities here." He couldn’t help but murmur to himself.
But thinking about it carefully, this was actually a common phenomenon.
After all, the number of Mobile City Promotion Blueprints, City Structure Blueprints, and City Crystals produced in Level 1 Zones was truly limited.
For a Level 1 Mobile City to gather them all was extremely difficult.
Only resource-rich forces like the City Alliance could possibly gather everything.
The vast majority of Level 1 Cities would typically try to head to Level 2 Zones to seek opportunities once they reached full Level 1 configuration.
Overall, most cities, like the Engineer, ended up as traders.
But this was, after all, a Level 2 Zone—the longer one stayed, the more dangerous it became.
What surprised him the most was that three Level 2 Mobile Cities had identical paint and banners.
Holy white coatings, a broken bronze cross on the banner, an eye opened at the center, and twelve asymmetric light blades floating on the sides.......
"So these three Level 2 Cities all belong to the Apocalypse Sect?" Li Ye couldn’t help but frown slightly.
He had heard before that this faith-based faction worshipping Wasteland Gods was powerful—and now he had witnessed it firsthand.
According to Li Ye’s plan, he intended to rest in the fortress for three days, then make further plans once the next round of Intelligence Refresh arrived.
In the meantime, he could engage in Territory Trade, purchase supplies, and recruit personnel here.
The Tomorrow thus began its rest period.
This time, the maintenance and repair tasks no longer needed Lin Wu to lead.
The Engineer could handle them with ease.
Li Ye quickly headed to the Marketplace to get a general idea of Level 2 resource prices.
Iron Ore: 38 Crystal Coins/unit, Coal: 42 Crystal Coins/unit, Fuel: 50 Crystal Coins/unit.
Rare Vein Ores ranged from 60 to 100 Crystal Coins/unit, while Rare Vein Crystals cost between 7000 and 12000 Crystal Coins/piece.
"Too expensive!" He couldn’t help but furrow his brow tightly. "These prices seem a bit inflated."
That said, these Level 2 resources were essential for Level 2 City development.
Since the City Auction House event, the 40,000-plus Crystal Coins Li Ye had on hand were already spent.
What he had saved over these recent days was hardly anything—barely enough to cover three days’ accommodation and store rental fees.
At that moment, Lords Zhou Xing and Fang Yong stepped forward.
Li Ye instantly realized something, slapping his forehead.
He was no longer a lone wolf—he had a whole alliance now.
He needed to think from the perspective of the entire alliance.
The three parties thus briefly exchanged their respective needs.
To maintain combat capability in the wild, the Tomorrow needed at least 1500 units of Level 2 Iron Ore and 400 units of Level 2 Lava Ore, in order to craft the Bloodtear Ripper Machine Gun, Black Hawk Helicopter, and Level 2 Lava Cannon.
The Iron Whale needed 1000 units of Level 2 Coal. As a Level 2 defensive-type city, while its power was strong, its consumption of City Energy was also quite high.
Level 1 Coal and Level 1 Fuel were no longer sufficient.
The Engineer currently had few needs. As a fully configured Level 1 City, it was exactly stuck at the bottleneck of advancing to Level 2.
Zhou Xing told the others that the Engineer had already obtained the Mobile City Promotion Blueprint.
What it lacked were 1000 units of Level 1 City Alloy, a City Structure Blueprint, and a City Crystal.
Li Ye nodded in response.
"Alright. We’ll figure out a way to help you gather the resources needed for Level 2 promotion."