The three parties each reviewed the money they had on hand.
The Tomorrow currently had no money at all.
The Iron Whale wasn’t much better off—its Crystal Coins had mostly been spent on purchasing defensive City Accessories, fuel, and repairs.
Unexpectedly, the Engineer had money—it had managed to save over 25,000 Crystal Coins.
The reason was simple: the City Accessories and Blueprints required by a Combat Engineer-type city faced little competition, and the prices were at least half that of others.
Moreover, it didn’t need to spend resources to build a large number of Cannons, Heavy Machine Guns, convoys, or cultivate a large number of Combat Personnel. This saved another chunk of money.
Li Ye did a quick inventory of the projects he could sell by opening a shop.
After reaching the Eternal Night Zone, a Level 2 region, items like the Peregrine Falcon Assault Rifle, Gale Rocket Launcher, and Level 1 Off-road Vehicle no longer had much of a market.
The only likely profitable avenue was contract manufacturing of Level 2 items.
Currently, the Tomorrow possessed 9 Level 2 item production projects, 7 of which came from the Lone Sail.The most likely to be a hot seller was the Bloodtear Ripper.
This Level 2 Heavy Machine Gun proved astonishingly lethal against Zombies.
To expand their shop's product range and boost competitiveness, the three decided to open the store together.
The Tomorrow offered a total of 22 items for contract manufacturing and sale, whereas the Iron Whale and Engineer combined had fewer than 10.
The reason was straightforward: as an Assault-type Mobile City, the Tomorrow had high efficiency in collecting resources in the wild, whereas the Iron Whale and Engineer—one being Defense-type and the other Functional-type—lacked strong combat power and therefore were slower at resource gathering.
After arranging the shop's sale items and assigning personnel, Zhou Xing returned to the Engineer to continue routine order-taking for income.
As a Combat Engineer-type city, the Engineer was fully equipped with various repair-type City Accessories and had trained a batch of Mechanics and Mechanical Apprentices.
Compared to the repair shops in the fortress, this city dedicated to construction and repair offered higher efficiency and better craftsmanship.
And its main clientele were Mobile Cities.
Out of curiosity, Li Ye asked Zhou Xing about the going rates.
The Engineer’s fees depended on the extent of damage.
Level 1 cities were charged between 500–1000 Crystal Coins.
Level 2 cities were charged between 2000–5000 Crystal Coins.
In just a few minutes, the Engineer received orders from one Level 2 city and three Level 1 cities.
After completing repair and troubleshooting for the Tomorrow, it had to get back to business.
Li Ye couldn’t help but sigh with emotion.
City Accessories faced little competition, were especially popular among City Alliances, and could even generate income through job orders… the advantages of a Combat Engineer-type city were truly many.
Its only shortcoming was its extremely poor survival ability in the wild.
While running a stall in the fortress, Zhou Xing also began recruiting personnel.
Generally speaking, very few people were willing to join a Combat Engineer-type Mobile City.
Thus, as the Lord, Zhou Xing took the initiative to recruit wherever he went—recruiting a few here, a few there—gradually building up the city's population bit by bit.
Li Ye and Fang Yong then began managing the shop.
He priced the Bloodtear Ripper at 6,000 Crystal Coins per unit, or 200 units of Level 2 Iron Ore for contract manufacturing.
However, to his disappointment, there were already two models of Level 2 Heavy Machine Guns available in the marketplace, and the pricing was highly competitive.
The best-selling item in the shop remained Cola.
Second to that was the Level 2 melee weapon – Bloodletter Military Dagger.
This weapon’s appearance was overly striking—just a single glance made people fall in love with it.
Lone wolves in the wild, Bounty Hunters, survivors in convoys, Lords of Mobile Cities, and even upper management in the fortress...
Everyone wanted to own one—even if not for battle, just wearing it or playing with it casually felt excellent.
During this time, Li Ye made another arrangement.
That was to have his deputy Lin Wu lead a few people to begin recruiting new residents for the Tomorrow.
A Level 2 Mobile City could accommodate 5,000 to 10,000 people, yet the Tomorrow currently had only around 200 residents, leaving the entire city feeling empty.
In the future, it would build the Black Hawk Helicopter, new convoys, and even a new fleet for aquatic navigation—all of which required a large workforce.
Moreover, the middle deck of the Tomorrow had begun large-scale planting of Level 1 Crops, and tending to the fields also demanded many hands.
On top of that, extracting resources in the wild, routine cleaning and maintenance of the city, and staffing the Public Canteen and Storage Compartment... all of these required people.
In truth, it wasn’t just the Tomorrow—more than a dozen Mobile Cities docked for rest at the Fortress were also recruiting.
However, overall, the Tomorrow still held competitive advantages. It had a full Level 1 setup as its foundation, and between Level 2 finished items and production projects, it had more than a dozen in total.
In addition, the living conditions it offered weren’t bad either.
New arrivals to the Tomorrow did not become slaves, but directly joined as Ordinary Residents.
Its daily food supply included Blueheart Potatoes, pasta made from Morning Wheat, Instant Noodle Cups, Emerald Lettuce, and great-tasting freshwater provided by the Jieyuan City Purification System, as well as snacks like Whole Wheat Biscuits and Sachima.
Once the fields and the new batch of Level 1 Crops on the Upper Deck matured, the dining table of the Tomorrow would become even more diverse.
A few hours later, Li Ye did a quick tally of the earnings.
8,270 Crystal Coins, 520 units of Level 2 Iron Ore, and 813 units of Level 1 Iron Ore.
Cola and the Bloodletter Military Dagger contributed to more than half of the sales revenue.
Li Ye couldn’t help but shake his head in disappointment.
These returns might be decent for a Level 1 City, but for a Level 2 City, they weren’t even enough to fill the gap between the teeth.
He hadn’t been idle while the shop was open—he had strolled around the marketplace.
There were two items that caught his eye.
Blueprint for Level 2 Flamethrower “City Burner”, with an added effect of +20% range and +10% damage, requiring 50 units of Level 2 Iron Ore to craft, priced at 4,000 Crystal Coins.
Blueprint for Level 2 Vehicle “Bedrock” Off-road Vehicle, with an added effect of +15% defense and +10% speed, requiring 200 units of Level 2 Iron Ore to craft, priced at 3,000 Crystal Coins.
Aside from that, Li Ye specifically searched for Level 2 Rare Ores.
To his regret, there were no Level 2 Molten Ore for sale at the marketplace, only Level 2 Frost Ore.
This batch of ore contained as many as 482 units, priced at 65 Crystal Coins.
Eyeing these resources greedily, Li Ye couldn’t help but feel financially strapped.
The Tomorrow had no money to begin with, and even the store’s startup and docking costs had been fronted by the Engineer.
Blueprints for the Level 2 Flamethrower, Level 2 Vehicle, Level 2 Frost Ore, plus over a thousand units of Level 2 Iron Ore he wanted to purchase... all of this together would cost a full fifty to sixty thousand Crystal Coins!
In addition, Fang Yong’s Iron Whale had its own needs.
1,000 units of Level 2 Coal.
Blueprint for Level 2 Defensive City Treads “Trailblazer”, with added effects of +20% stability and +15% defense, requiring 600 units of Level 2 Iron Ore to craft, priced at 5,000 Crystal Coins.
The only one without much need and with cash to spare was the Engineer.
In just a few hours, it had already completed several jobs and had earned 6,000 Crystal Coins in one go.
Zhou Xing simply handed over all the Crystal Coins he had to Li Ye for allocation.
Li Ye then took stock of the money on hand.
Adding up the profits from the shop, what Zhou Xing gave, and the small amount remaining from the Tomorrow and the Iron Whale, he had a total of just over 40,000 Crystal Coins.
Seeing this, Fang Yong made a concession. He politely declined the 20,000 Crystal Coins Li Ye offered and only accepted 5,000 to purchase the Level 2 Coal.