A Guide to Farming in a Mobile City-Chapter 179 : Digging “Knowledge” and Educated Individuals

Chapter 179: Digging “Knowledge” and Educated Individuals
Northern Western Wasteland Continent, Maze Zone.
To seize the central region of the north, both the Human Forces and the Monster Forces engaged in fierce firefights.
As the Supreme Commander of the Northern Warzone for the Human Forces, Preston of the Titan Throne had assembled hundreds of Mobile Cities in the Maze Zone.
Among them were 100 Level 1 and Level 2 Mobile Cities from the Titan Throne.
Most of these Mobile Cities were occupied by Monster Combat Personnel.
Furthermore, Preston had also deployed eight Wild BOSSes into the battle.
The terrain of the Maze Zone was extremely complex, not only filled with numerous mobile giant walls, but also periodically generating terrains like lakes, forests, and plains.
This posed a significant demand on the combat quality and situational response of both sides’ personnel.
The Monster Forces clearly intended to claim the Maze Zone at all costs, pouring in massive troops in one fell swoop, aiming to choke the Human Forces to death in the Maze Zone.
The Natural Selection organization had committed four top-tier evolved Level 2 Monstrous Civilizations.
The War Alliance had dispatched over a hundred Mobile Cities under its command, as well as an Orc Commander whose combat strength was on par with General Rog.
The United Sect was the most extreme—they directly spread the newly developed Flesh Plague via Airborne Mobile Cities, attempting to transform the entire Maze Zone into a Flesh Technology region.
Preston faced immense pressure on the front lines.
"Hold the line! You must hold the line!" he roared hoarsely.
As a commander, his flagship was not a Level 2 Mobile City, but a Level 2 Wild BOSS, the "Sky-Snatching Giant Eagle."
At that moment, the Sky-Snatching Giant Eagle soared and circled in the sky, flailing its arms to strike down numerous enemy Flying Vehicles.
The Command Post was mounted on its neck.
On the ground, multiple Wild BOSSes launched unrestrained assaults, destroying Mobile Cities in their path.
However, the situation was gradually turning worse.
Under the influence of the Flesh Plague from the United Sect, the entire Maze Zone began converting into Flesh Technology.
The land gradually turned into writhing flesh.
Southern Continent, Old Civilization District.
On the deck of the Tomorrow, Li Ye was examining the loot.
By this point, it was already the third day.
In these three days, while collecting metals, the Tomorrow Alliance also attacked several towns in the Tourism State, killing Giants to obtain loot drops.
Among the loot, a few Level 3 Items caught Li Ye’s attention.
Level 3 Crop Seeds: "Mist-shrouded Pine Tree."
Level 3 City Building Blueprint: "Publishing House."
Level 3 General Book Blueprint.
Li Ye first looked at the pack of Level 3 Pine Tree Seeds.
[Item Name: Mist-shrouded Pine Tree]
[Level: Level 3]
[Bonus Effects: 1. Rapid Growth – matures within 30 days 2. +25% Processing Efficiency 3. Wood produced is considered same-level wood]
"Not bad, not bad," Li Ye nodded repeatedly.
He hadn’t expected the Tomorrow to instantly possess Level 3 Wood.
All in all, this counted as a functional Crop Seed.
He then looked at the blueprint for the Publishing House.
[Item Name: City Publishing House]
[Level: Level 3]
[Bonus Effects: 1. Can connect to the City Simulation Training Pod and input blank books, allowing knowledge from the brain to be directly printed into books via the Publishing House. 2. Books produced by the City Publishing House that meet standards can be directly used in the City Simulation Training Pod.]
[Crafting Requirements: 400 Units of Level 3 Iron Ore]
"…Good stuff!" Li Ye was surprised.
He never imagined the City Publishing House could even link with the Simulation Training Pod, and even feed back into it.
For example, take a mathematics teacher—once connected to the Simulation Training Pod and the City Publishing House and given blank books, they could compile their knowledge into a series of math textbooks.
That was equivalent to “digging knowledge.”
By then uploading the series of math books into the Simulation Training Pod, a comprehensive math knowledge system would be formed. Later, residents could simply log into the Simulation Training Pod to learn mathematics.
"This Level 3 City Building is way too convenient, huh?" Li Ye remarked. "But then again, where would one even find a mathematics teacher?"
People in the Wasteland focused on survival, with no time to study. Only World-class Organizations could cultivate systematic talent.
Among the people currently on the Tomorrow, they were mostly rough folks.
Educating residents, getting them literate and cultured—
Li Ye felt it was still a bit early for that. Better to wait until the Tomorrow’s population and City Level increased, then consider it gradually.
He then looked at the Level 3 Book Blueprint.
[Item Name: High-Intelligence General Book]
[Level: Level 3]
[Bonus Effects: While reading the content printed on the book medium, reader gains +10% Reading Comprehension and +5% Memory Retention]
[Crafting Consumption: Level 3 Wood. Exact amount depends on book size.]
"This Level 3 book’s bonus effect is also quite remarkable," Li Ye muttered. "Seems using Level 3 Wood isn’t a loss after all."
Upon closer thought, all these Level 3 Items were interconnected.
The Tomorrow now essentially possessed a complete book publishing system.
The only missing part—were educated talents.
Li Ye immediately instructed the City Committee to begin planting the trees. The Level 3 Pine Tree Seeds would be grown on the same floor as the previous fruit trees.
As for the City Publishing House, it was to be built on the mid-level.
Once the Publishing House was constructed and connected with the Simulation Training Pod, Li Ye suddenly had a new idea.
Back on Blue Star, he had read many novels and still remembered them quite vividly.
Using the Simulation Training Pod, he could publish the stories from his memory, and sell them aboard the Tomorrow.
Since the Level 3 Pine Trees had just been planted and hadn’t matured, they couldn’t be harvested and processed into Level 3 Wood to produce High-Intelligence General Books.
But the Tomorrow had a project for regular General Books and plenty of Level 1 Wood, which could serve as raw material. The ordinary book project came from a prior round of external procurement by the City Committee.
Li Ye crafted a batch of blank General Books in the Production Workshop, and took them to the Simulation Training Pod.
After putting on the helmet, he closed his eyes and began recalling classic novels he had once read.
"Terrified Limit," "Veiled Earth," "Shattering the Firmament."
Before long, one book had been printed.
And the first chapter’s title boldly read—
"Fallen Genius."
Judging by the scale of "Shattering the Firmament," a single book couldn’t possibly cover the entire story—at most, this counted as Volume One.
While reading through it, Li Ye noticed many gaps in the text—as expected, he was just an ordinary person, and could only recall iconic scenes, not all the detailed content.
So he settled for roughly reconstructing the main plot. If he could piece together a full book, that was good enough.
With this trial mindset, Li Ye also called over a group of residents to try "publishing" books.
As expected, the "knowledge" dug from their minds was still quite limited.
Establishing a full-fledged education system aboard a Mobile City, and collectively improving the cultural literacy of the residents—that clearly remained a long-term goal.
Additionally, Li Ye had a new idea.
That was to hand the power of creation over to the public.
Let the residents of the Tomorrow write stories and novels. Those with scholarly knowledge could compile professional books.
After all, the cost wasn’t high, and it would enrich the spiritual life aboard the Mobile City during downtime.
At that time, the City Committee would purchase these books from them at reasonable prices.
Upon learning Li Ye’s idea, Lin Wu proposed a suggestion.
That was to build novel scenarios in the City Simulation Training Pod based on the content of the novels, allowing residents to immerse themselves as the main characters.
This was essentially a novel form of entertainment.
Li Ye instantly became excited upon hearing this.
“You really are a genius.”
He immediately constructed a scenario from a volume of a classic novel and personally experienced it himself.
“Do you want to understand the meaning of life? Do you truly want to... live?”
Cold, trembling.
When Li Ye opened his eyes, he found himself lying inside a cold compartment, surrounded by a group of strangers.
Among them stood a black-haired young man, completely average in appearance, with several scars running across his face.
“This is way too realistic!” he exclaimed excitedly.
In the time that followed, he briefly experienced a segment of the novel’s storyline.
Overall, it was quite good.
After finishing the experience, Li Ye slowly nodded.
Using novel content as a selling point for the City Simulation Training Pod to attract residents to spend Contribution Points—this was indeed a viable approach.
“For such a good project, the pricing needs to be set high,” he thought to himself.
At this moment, ideas began flowing endlessly in his mind.
Since novel scenarios could already be constructed, why not use the City Simulation Training Pod to create a game instead?
From another perspective, wasn’t this training pod essentially a holographic game cabin?
Following this train of thought, Li Ye tentatively created a shooting game and designed a range of Firearms and Zombies.
The result proved completely feasible.
It was even more enjoyable than the games he played back on Blue Star.
After ending the simulation, Li Ye rubbed his chin thoughtfully.
“Should I establish a department on the Tomorrow specifically responsible for developing games and novel experience scenarios using the Simulation Training Pod?” he wondered. “But then again, this is the apocalypse—wouldn’t this count as indulging in distractions?”
When Li Ye initially chose to open the Simulation Training Pod to residents for paid use, it was mainly to enrich everyone’s spiritual life and prevent the days aboard the Mobile City from becoming too dull and boring. On the other hand, it was to increase the value of Contribution Points.
But spiritual life also shouldn’t be over-enriched; it needed to be moderate.
He decided to temporarily shelve the game project and revisit it later.
The construction of the Tomorrow thus came to an end, and Li Ye began contemplating the next steps.
“It’s about time to leave.”
The metal collection operation by the Tomorrow Alliance in the City Ruins had reached its conclusion.
Countless abandoned vehicles, obsolete household appliances, discarded factory machinery, various metal goods, and steel reinforcements had been gathered into the warehouse of the Tomorrow.
Under Li Ye’s direct supervision, the City Steel Mill began multiple trial operations.
Considering the deterioration in quality due to years of corrosion and the loss during forging:
Producing one unit of quality Level 1 Steel required roughly eight units of scrap metal.
Level 2 Steel required sixteen units of scrap metal.
Level 3 Steel required thirty-two units of scrap metal.
In these three days, the Tomorrow Alliance had harvested four to five hundred thousand units of scrap metal.
And that was with intentionally preserving some buildings for the Seventh Division of Embers.
In the coming days, this batch of scrap metal would be gradually forged into Level 2 Steel and Level 3 Steel at the City Steel Mill.
Level 3 Steel was naturally used to forge Level 3 Items, while Level 2 Steel would replenish resources for the Vanguard Gunship, Electromagnetic Railgun, and Level 3 Firearms.
At present, the first batch of Level 2 Steel had already been freshly produced.
The steel plates that had gone through rolling showed mirror-like flatness, with a metallic sheen that lay between lead gray and indigo.
While observing the steel, Li Ye couldn’t help but rub his chin.
“So in a certain sense, does a higher City Level mean more ways to acquire resources?”
Standing beside him, Lin Wu pondered and then spoke.
“When the Tomorrow was still a Level 2 Mobile City, we couldn’t even imagine that metal could be forged into high-grade steel through a City Steel Mill. We couldn’t imagine free electricity either.”
“But now, all of this seems entirely within reach.”
“Who knows, maybe high-level Mobile Cities can even enter space and monopolize the resources of an entire planet for extraction.”
Li Ye was stunned for a moment upon hearing that, then gently nodded.
With the City Steel Mill and the City Ruins channel, high-level Mobile Cities could easily achieve Iron Ore independence and be capable of mass-producing Land, Sea, and Air Combat Forces.
However, high-level Land, Sea, and Air Combat was essentially tank battalions, fleets, and aerial forces clashing—extremely intense battlefields.
After a City Battle, who knew how many vehicles would be destroyed.
It was essentially “high acquisition, high consumption.”
What Li Ye didn’t know was that Southern Liuzhou often had Level 3 Mobile Cities venture into the Old Civilization District to hunt Giants and collect metal resources from the City Ruins.
Across the thirty-five states, many City Ruins had already been stripped bare by the Mobile Cities of humans and monsters alike.
At this moment, the four Mobile Cities of the Tomorrow Alliance had completed waterborne operation retrofitting.
The Tomorrow had rebuilt its Destroyer and deployed it to sea, along with the dispatch of Convoy One and Convoy Two.
“Then we shall depart.”
Li Ye and the other three shook hands with Xie Jie.
“I’ve given you all the reminders you need. Be extra cautious.”
Xie Jie gripped his hand firmly.
“Mm. Until we meet again!”
And with that, both sides parted.
The four Mobile Cities set out in full force, heading southward along the coastline.
Before leaving, Li Ye looked back toward the Old Civilization District.
It wouldn’t be long before all the Giants in this Level 3 Zone would gain intelligence.
By then, who knew what would become of this Level 3 Zone—or even the entire Continent.
There was a sound beside him. Li Ye turned his head and saw Lin Wu approaching, piloting a Level 3 Wheelchair.
These days, he had already mastered operating this Level 3 Item skillfully—even capable of drifting.
“It’s unbelievable that all the Giants will gain intelligence,” he said with emotion.
Staring toward the Old Civilization District, Li Ye slowly spoke.
“Lin Wu, what do you think the Giants will do once they gain intelligence?”