108: Chapter 108 Regional Patterns

Two hours later, inside the holographic conference room on the second floor of [Cloud Top Fortress].

The heavy doors slid open slowly to both sides.

Luo Ning had finally woken up. She was barefoot, wearing only a man's white shirt that was clearly a size too big—it was obviously Zhou An's.

She walked into the conference room, lazily yawning while rubbing her slightly messy short hair with her hand.

The oversized shirt barely covered her thighs, and her fair, slender legs were visible beneath the hem, exuding an unmasked laziness.

This scene caused Li Muzi, who was sitting at the conference table, to immediately widen her eyes. She then covered her mouth and giggled frantically to the side, her shoulders shaking, until Luo Ning walked over, pinched the tender flesh at her waist in annoyance, and glared at her, only then did she barely manage to restrain her laughter.

Everyone sat around the holographic sandbox emitting a faint blue light. As Zhou An took his seat, the atmosphere in the conference room transitioned from the relaxed feeling of a reunion to a cold, serious tone.

"Alright, let's talk business."

Zhou An sat in the main seat, hands crossed under his chin, fingers tapping lightly on the cold metal tabletop: "The system's broadcast regarding the second phase was extremely brief, providing only a framework. I need to know exactly what major events that weren't recorded have occurred during the few months I was absent from 'Cangyun Airspace'. What kind of hellish landscape is the current situation of this world?"

"I'm familiar with this, Boss. I've been collecting intelligence during this period."

She raised her hand and tapped a few commands rapidly on her microcomputer.

"Hum—"

The holographic sandbox started instantly. Countless blue points of light intertwined and converged in mid-air, and in the blink of an eye, a huge and intricate 3D color map of 'Cangyun Airspace' lit up.

Muzi swiped her fingers, zooming in sharply on an area in the center of the map protected by a golden light shield. There, a magnificent city model, which could even be called a miracle, was suspended.

"First, is the [Sky City] we are most familiar with. Or rather, in the second phase, it should now be called—the Human Faction Headquarters."

"City Lord Zhao Tianyu... He really did it."

"He used a few months to integrate all the resources in the entire region to build this true [Sky City]! Right now, the Tianqing Guild's strength is terrifying. City Lord Zhao Tianyu is currently the supreme leader of all humanity in 'Cangyun Airspace'. Seventy percent of the surviving humans are eking out a living under his protection, or rather... submitted to him."

Zhou An looked at the giant city in the sky and nodded, signaling Muzi to continue.

"Next is the landscape of the ten thousand races in this airspace."

"After the merger of one hundred large regions, the total number of surviving creatures in this airspace is around three million. And for our human race, at most, we don't even have five hundred thousand. The true overlords are the Orc Race."

On the holographic sandbox, data panels and power distribution maps of several alien races immediately appeared:

"The number of Orcs is as high as over 1.5 million, occupying nearly half of the airspace! The physical fitness of these half-orcs is extremely abnormal, and their combat capability is strong. Although they are severely divided internally, split into dozens of large and small clans and tribes—fighting over a meteorite today, fighting over a well tomorrow—they have infighting every day. But as long as they encounter an invasion by an outside race, they will instantly put aside their hatred and swarm up like mad dogs, and both their individual combat power and fleet combat power are top-tier."

"Besides them, there is the Elf Race. Their numbers are not large, estimated to be only about two hundred thousand, but their individual combat power is extremely strong! These long-eared guys are not only proficient in ancient nature magic, but the most terrifying thing is that their tech tree hasn't been skewed. They can perfectly integrate magic circles with modern technology—for example, electromagnetic railguns engraved with wind-element penetration magic circles. These guys are extremely arrogant and xenophobic."

"Finally, there is a warlike minority race—the Winged Race. This race seems to only have muscles and fighting in their brains, or rather, they only know how to fight and don't know how to engage in production and development at all. Because of the endless fighting all year round, their numbers have been plummeting, only a few tens of thousands. But the Winged Race is born with air superiority, and adults are perfect warriors. They are extremely fast and are the most dangerous assassins in this sky."

"There are also races like Gnomes and Dwarves. These races are more chaotic, but they reproduce very quickly, especially the Goblin. However, their tech tree has more or less some problems, and the technology they use is relatively backward. But once this group of guys launches an attack, they are like dog-skin plasters; they won't stop until they are completely wiped out."

"What about the ceiling of top combat power for each race, and their overall comprehensive strength?"

Zhou An leaned back on the large captain's chair, his fingers crossed.

Luo Ning picked up a cup of warm water on the table and took a sip to moisten her somewhat dry throat, then took over the conversation very naturally: "Based on my encounters during this time, the current comprehensive combat power can be roughly divided into four tiers."

"In terms of overall combat power, the Elf Race and the Orc Race are tied for the first tier. The Orc Race relies on that terrifying base number and the fearless berserker gene, while the Elf Race relies on almost innate high-level magic and deep heritage. Next is our human race; thanks to City Lord Zhao Tianyu pulling our strength together, otherwise we would have been torn to pieces long ago. Further down is the Winged Race, and at the very bottom are the mixed alliances composed of Gnomes, Goblins, Dwarves, and others."

"If we talk about individual average combat power, the Winged Race and the Elf Race are absolutely crushing. You can go into the forest and pick out an ordinary adult Elf, or pull down an adult Winged Race from the sky, and they can basically contend with our human LV3 or even LV4 enhancers."

"Understood."

Zhou An nodded thoughtfully.

He then turned to look at Li Muzi: "Muzi, among the known large regions, to what level have the main battleships and fortresses of each race been upgraded?"

"Currently, the backbone of the vast majority of factions is LV4, and the elite main force is LV5. However..."

"According to the information coming out of the chat channel, LV6-level super starships have already appeared on this battlefield! The guild leaders of the major guilds should be at the LV6 level."

"LV6, huh..."

Zhou An muttered in a low voice, his fingers unconsciously rubbing his chin.

It was a full major rank higher than him.

In this cruel game, after LV5, every level crossover is a qualitative change; firepower and defense are simply not comparable. However, there was no panic in his deep eyes.

As long as the resources are in place, upgrading is just a matter of time.

"It's just one level higher. No rush to clash head-on with them. Let's keep quiet and make a fortune first; saving up materials is the priority."

Zhou An raised his head and looked around at everyone.

"Since I've returned alive, I naturally have to pick up our old trade as 'profiteers'. But reselling also requires capital."

He looked at Li Muzi and asked: "How do we usually get materials in the large region now? What are the conventional sources?"

Li Muzi pointed at the floor: "The safest way now is to scavenge ownerless Floating Islands. For example, this island under our feet that you, Boss, just cleared. The Goblins and Gnomes haven't been here long, so there should still be plenty of oil to scrape from the underground mineral veins and wreckage."

"Good, then let's scrape three feet of earth."

Zhou An nodded, then thought of the spoils from the battle just now.

With a thought, he pulled out hundreds of treasure chests dropped by the [War Treasure] on the interface.

Zhou An did not synthesize them. He knew very well that although synthesis can increase rarity, the randomness of the materials opened is too strong, not necessarily what he needs right now, and it's too troublesome to go and exchange materials.

"What we need now is efficiency. Synthesis is too time-consuming. I need to save up a sum of initial capital before I can start the 'profiteer' mode."

He decisively chose to open all.

[System Prompt: You have opened 342 Silver Treasure Chests, Gold Treasure Chests, and Platinum Treasure Chests in total.]

[Obtained: Level 3 Basic Materials: 4.02 million units!]

[Obtained: Level 4 Rare Materials: 510,000 units!]

Looking at the numbers in the warehouse that soared instantly, Zhou An directly allocated half of the Level 4 materials and 2 million Level 3 materials to Luo Ning.

"Luo Ning, these are for you. I need you to produce enough collection robots in the shortest possible time. Scrape this island clean."

"Got it! As long as there are enough materials, I can max out the production line for you!"

More than ten minutes later, accompanied by a huge roar, [Cloud Top Fortress] slowly descended and landed steadily in the center of this Floating Island that had turned into scorched earth. Since it had just been subjected to dimensional reduction strikes by Zhou An, all alien threats had been cleared, making it the perfect base for them to regroup.