A Guide to Farming in a Mobile City-Chapter 174 : Iron Ore Freedom!

Chapter 174: Iron Ore Freedom!
This time, it wasn’t just Li Ye who was alarmed—Zhou Xing and the other two were also startled.
The four of them descended to the ground via the Small Lifting Platforms of their respective Mobile Cities and walked toward the Underground-digging Mobile City.
During the walk, Li Ye noticed that the three didn’t look as excited as he had imagined.
"What’s wrong? Don’t you want to upgrade to a Level 3 Mobile City?"
Zhou Xing and the others exchanged glances, their faces displaying signs of disinterest.
After all, their Mobile Cities weren’t Assault-type and didn’t have the same massive demand for population and Vehicle capacity like the Tomorrow.
Through the Production Workshop on the Tomorrow, they could still obtain the necessary Level 3 City Accessories and Level 3 Vehicles, and could even eventually achieve a full Level 3 configuration.
Later, when the Tomorrow promoted to Level 4, it would be the same.
After hearing their explanation, Li Ye couldn’t help but nod repeatedly.
That did make sense.
Still, no matter what, they couldn’t just give up a Tier 2 City Crystal.
However, what puzzled him was that this Underground-digging Mobile City didn’t bring a Tier 2 City Crystal.
"So, what did you bring instead?" he asked curiously.
The Lord gave a slight smile.
"Something more valuable than a City Crystal."
Under Li Ye’s curious gaze, he pulled a box out of his pocket.
Inside the box was clearly a Blueprint.
[Item Name: City Steel Mill]
[Level: Level 3]
[Additional Effects: 1. Can forge any input metal into steel. 2. Forged steel can be used as Iron Ore. 3. The Steel Mill can forge steel up to its own level. The amount of steel produced depends on the quality of input metals and the level of Iron Ore used.]
[Requirements for Forging: 500 units of Level 3 Iron Ore]
After carefully reading the Blueprint’s description, Li Ye came back to his senses, his eyes gleaming with an unprecedented fanaticism.
This Level 3 City building was absolutely amazing!
In fact, the furnace on the Tomorrow could also smelt Iron Ore, but overall, it wasn’t as efficient as the Steel Mill, and the latter could also forge steel equivalent to Level 2 or higher Iron Ore.
With this, the Tomorrow would be able to continuously manufacture Level 1 to Level 3 Iron Ore.
This way, he wouldn’t have to constantly struggle to gather Iron Ore out in the wild.
The items forged from steel had even higher quality than those made from Iron Ore.
In a sense, the value of this Blueprint was indeed higher than that of a Tier 2 City Crystal.
Although its selling price might not surpass the latter, for the newly promoted Level 3 Tomorrow, obtaining this was like bypassing countless obstacles.
"This was specially arranged for you by Bishop Heath after he learned the Tomorrow had been promoted to a Level 3 City," the Lord emphasized.
"I see. He’s truly thoughtful," Li Ye said with emotion.
So the submitted by Heath mentioned in that earlier piece of Intelligence referred to this.
Not only that, the Lord also brought three more gifts.
A full-system professional manual on forging steel.
A full-system professional manual on aircraft for the Air Force.
A full-system professional manual on tanks for the Army.
Just like the Navy ship manual previously gifted by Bishop Heath, these were all specially published by the Apocalypse Sect.
Li Ye was so overwhelmed with excitement that he didn’t know what to say.
If he had to collect all this by himself, who knows how much time, money, and energy it would take—perhaps he might not even be able to gather them all.
This time, the gifts from Bishop Heath were truly incredible.
"I have to admit, I owe your Bishop a huge favor," he said with heartfelt gratitude.
The other party simply smiled.
"He’s already an Archbishop now."
"Given Archbishop Heath’s personality, he’ll definitely make sure you repay this favor. Be ready."
This Lord seemed quite busy. After a few brief words with Li Ye and the others, he piloted his City away.
Watching the Underground-digging Mobile City burrow back underground, Zhou Xing couldn’t help but sigh.
"Traveling underground is really safe—it’s like moving freely across the entire Continent without obstacles. You can go wherever you want... I really wish I had an Underground-digging Mobile City."
Li Ye, on the other hand, carefully read through the Blueprint.
The Level 3 Steel Mill was equipped with an array of industrial equipment, including a scrap steel crusher, electric arc furnace, continuous casting machine, heavy forging press, and hot rolling mill.
Unlike the fully automated Production Workshop, this facility required manual operation.
Smelting and forging.
Rolling and forging.
Support roles.
Management and logistics.
Technical maintenance.
All these functions added up to a workforce of at least 50 to 100 people.
If he wanted to speed up production, he’d need to establish multiple shifts, requiring even more workers.
Moreover, building the Steel Mill didn’t mean a continuous supply of steel would magically appear.
The Tomorrow Alliance still needed to collect large quantities of metal and feed them into the Steel Mill to process them into steel.
Ordinary metals could be used to forge Level 1 to Level 3 steel in the Steel Mill, effectively converting them into Level 1 to Level 3 Iron Ore.
However, the higher the level of steel to be forged, the more metal was required.
Level 1 and Level 2 Iron Ore could also be upgraded into Level 3 steel through the Steel Mill, essentially promoting the Iron Ore to Level 3.
But just like with ordinary metals, the lower the input level, the higher the consumption.
Not only that, there was also a 15–30% loss during the forging process.
This meant that even if one input 1 unit of Level 3 Iron Ore, only 0.7 to 0.85 units of steel could be forged.
Although Iron Ore freedom had been achieved for now, a new issue stood before Li Ye.
That was how to collect metals.
Cities were the places with the most metal.
The rebar in every building, abandoned vehicles, industrial machines in the Industrial District, pots and pans in the buildings, and steel beams in large structures...
Plus the subway rails and trains.
The planes at the airport.
In the wilderness, if one managed to destroy a Mobile City, they could dismantle it to obtain large quantities of metal and the wreckage of various destroyed Vehicles.
"In short, I need a lot of metal."
Li Ye muttered to himself.
He quickly returned to the Production Workshop on the Tomorrow and input the Blueprint.
According to his plan, the Steel Mill should be constructed in the Lower Deck’s C1–C4 floors.
At first, the Lower Deck wasn’t even part of his city planning.
But industrial buildings like the Steel Mill naturally belonged in the Lower Deck.
After upgrading to Level 3, the Lower Deck area had become significantly wider—both C1 and C2 were vacant.
Li Ye redirected the Iron Ore that was originally meant for crafting Jetpacks and Level 3 Firearms and immediately began construction of the Steel Mill.
In addition, the Steel Mill consumed a large amount of City Energy during operation. This aspect required Li Ye’s coordination.
At the same time, he summoned the City Committee and instructed them to select 100 workers within one day.
As for the Steel Mill management, the overall director would be a member of the City Committee, with subordinate managers appointed by that director.
The treatment for workers and management would be slightly better than that of Ordinary Residents. Next, he uploaded all three sets of books into the City Simulation Training Pod.
Steel forging was no joke. Workers needed proper training before they could start and must possess a strong awareness of safety regulations.
Li Ye definitely didn’t want any industrial accidents on the first day the Steel Mill went into operation.
The selected workers would train in the Training Pod for a full week.
According to the Time Flow Ratio, that equaled 144 days. However, after subtracting time for meals, rest, and sleep, the actual training time would be much shorter.
Ordinarily, the Steel Mill should have been built on the Engineer.
After all, it was an Engineer-type City, adept at cultivating engineering talent.
But the Engineer had two shortcomings.
First, as a Level 2 City, its space was limited.
Second, its total population was quite small.
With the arrival of a batch of Level 3 Iron Ore transported by the Seventh Division of Embers, the Peacemaker upgraded 12 Black Iron Cannons to Level 3.
The power of this Fire-support Mobile City instantly rose to a new level.
The Tomorrow Alliance and the Seventh Division of Embers began their second round of Giant extermination operations.
This time, Li Ye deployed a new tactic.
To lure in the Giants and facilitate shooting, the Seventh Division of Embers used many Level 1 speakers—these were previously Outsourced Processed using Mobile Cities.
Li Ye installed these Level 1 speakers in six Black Hawk Helicopters, which flew through the City, broadcasting sounds to attract the Giants and gather them in one area.
The tactic worked. In no time, forty to fifty Giants were attracted and gathered together.
With silly smiles on their faces, they reached up toward the circling Black Hawk Helicopters overhead.
Some even tried jumping to catch them, shaking the ground upon landing.
The sight of these Giants crowding together, with their grotesque, overlapping faces, was deeply unsettling.
The Gunship circled in the sky. Once the Giants were densely gathered, Li Ye nodded inside the cabin and picked up the Walkie-talkie.
"Open fire, Yang Zheng."
After the Black Hawk Helicopters and the Gunship collectively ascended to high altitude, all the Cannons on the Peacemaker opened fire.
In an instant, multiple massive fireballs rose in the City area where the Giants had gathered.
Roaring flames surged upward, sweeping in all directions.
The entire City area trembled with shrill howls.
Buildings and skyscrapers collapsed like toy blocks, and flames turned nearby streets into rivers of flowing heat.
Asphalt roads on the streets bubbled and exploded.
"What terrifying firepower!"
Li Ye couldn’t help but marvel.
This was a barrage from twelve Level 3 Cannons—it could practically flatten a small island.
Through the Gunship’s Observation Scope, he began to inspect the Giants.
The vast majority were undeniably dead, their bodies reduced to burning remains.
Only a handful of Giants survived by sheer luck, though they were so heavily injured they no longer looked human.
However, their regenerative abilities began to take effect, slowly repairing their bodies.
Seeing this, Li Ye had no choice but to order the Gunship to deliver the finishing blow.
After the Gunship finished off the remaining Giants, Xie Jie, sitting in a Helicopter, picked up the Walkie-talkie.
"Gathering the Giants and executing a coordinated barrage—that tactic is indeed feasible and highly effective."
"Alliance Leader, why not try concentrating a hundred Giants next time?" Yang Zheng suggested.
Soon, Li Ye arranged for the second round of concentrated barrage operations.
It proceeded smoothly once again—the Giants were blown to pieces.
"Excellent," Li Ye nodded in satisfaction.
With this, one-fourth of the Giants in the City ruins had been dealt with.
The northeastern outskirts had now been cleared.
After the fire was extinguished and it was confirmed that all Giants were dead, Li Ye sent people to start collecting the Giants' corpses.
The loot distribution plan remained the same as before.
The Iron Ore obtained by both sides would be prioritized for crafting Level 3 Firearms and Jetpacks. As for the Level 3 Items and Level 3 Blueprints, all would go to the Tomorrow Alliance.
As Level 3 monsters, the Giants were troublesome, but they did indeed drop plenty of valuable goods.
Although no Level 3 finished items dropped this time, there were two Level 3 Blueprints.
A Level 3 Energy-saving Blueprint.
And a Level 3 Individual Combat Camouflage Uniform “Spirit Fox” Blueprint.
Li Ye’s eyes first landed on the Level 3 Energy-saving Blueprint.
So-called energy-saving blueprints could be applied to any City building or City Accessory to reduce its energy consumption.
A Level 3 Energy-saving Blueprint was applicable to Level 3 and below targets.
Currently, the major energy-consuming items on the Tomorrow included:
Level 2 Energy Shield Device.
Level 2 City Radio.
Level 3 Steel Mill.
Level 3 City Camouflage.
The City Radio and Steel Mill could be set aside for now.
The Energy Shield Device consumed energy based on incoming damage, so the energy-saving blueprint had little effect there.
As for the City Camouflage Device, after applying the energy-saving blueprint, it would consume 2% energy each time it was activated and 3% energy per hour to maintain the camouflage—this would effectively save quite a bit.
Li Ye thus decided to use it on the City Camouflage Device first.
After all, the Level 3 City Camouflage was incredibly practical. Moreover, now that the Tomorrow was a Level 3 City, it was far too easy to be exposed in the wild. The City Camouflage Device would definitely see frequent use in the future.
Next, Li Ye looked at the second Blueprint.
[Item Name: “Spirit Fox” Individual Combat Camouflage Uniform]
[Level: Level 3]
[Additional Effect: Dynamic Camouflage Concealment]
[Crafting Requirements: 50 units of Fabric (Level 3), 20 units of Precision Clothing Components (Level 3)]
Precision Clothing Components required 1 unit of Iron Ore, 1 unit of Copper Ore, and 1 unit of Silver Ore to craft.
After carefully reading the Blueprint, he learned the following:
First, when fully charged with energy, the Spirit Fox Camouflage Uniform could maintain camouflage for up to 4 hours. It needed City Energy to recharge.
Second, after inputting the Blueprint, the camouflage uniform’s battery was also unlocked. By consuming 5 units of any Level 3 Rare Ore, a power battery providing 2 hours of endurance could be crafted. The battery could also be recharged with City Energy.
"This is truly a great item!"
Li Ye marveled.
Soon, he realized something and scratched his head.
At this rate, compared to the land, sea, and air combat forces, the Special Forces construction was actually progressing faster.
However, in City Battles, the Special Forces didn’t play as critical a role as the former.
Moreover, although this Level 3 Camouflage Uniform was powerful, the resources required to craft it were considerable.
Just then, one of the Black Hawk Helicopters he had dispatched to scout the City center returned with news.
The Giants roaming the City ruins were all converging in one direction.
Upon hearing this, Li Ye felt uneasy and immediately picked up the Walkie-talkie.
"Do you know what’s going on, Xie Jie?"
After a moment of thought, beads of sweat appeared on Xie Jie’s face.
"If I’m not mistaken... a Commander Giant should have appeared in the City."