136: Chapter 136 Setting Sail

Early morning, sunlight filtered through the clouds, refracting magnificent rays on the smooth shell of the Cloud Top Fortress.

When Zhou An woke up from the soft bed, the spot beside him was already empty, leaving only a faint fragrance. He threw on a black casual jacket and walked out of the bedroom, running into Li Muzi carrying a cup of hot milk at the corridor corner.

"Morning, Boss."

Muzi rubbed her eyes.

"Ningning went to the laboratory early this morning. Before she left, she told me to have you go down there once you woke up."

"Got it."

Zhou An nodded and took the elevator directly to the laboratory on the first floor.

As soon as he entered, Zhou An saw two people standing in the middle of the laboratory.

In the anti-gravity field in the center of the laboratory, Hila's core, which emitted a cyan flow of light, was floating quietly in mid-air.

Around the core, hundreds of mechanical parts were densely arranged; it was the prototype of the mecha that Luo Ning was building.

"Boss, you're awake!"

Luo Ning, wearing goggles, was controlling several mechanical arms to perform welding. She shouted without turning her head when she heard the movement.

Beside her, Hila stood stiffly and nervously: "Mas... Master, good morning."

"Just call me Boss."

Zhou An waved his hand and walked to Luo Ning's side. "Calling me down so early, what materials are you missing?"

"The materials are enough, but I'm missing the 'legal procedures'."

Luo Ning stopped what she was doing, turned her head, and spread her hands helplessly.

She pointed to the core in mid-air and explained: "The system rules of the Cangyun Airspace are very rigid. Hila's vehicle was blown up, and the core retained the LV3 foundation, but now that the body is gone, it's equivalent to a bare engine. This is equivalent to rebuilding a vehicle from scratch."

Zhou An immediately understood what she meant: "So, this set of individual mecha must start from the LV0 initial state and go through the system upgrade process level by level?"

"Exactly!"

Luo Ning snapped her fingers.

"Because this is a brand-new category of [individual mecha], we can't just apply ready-made warship blueprints. She has to open treasure chests herself and blast out the upgrade blueprints that belong to her specific branch. To return to her peak and adapt to high-level battlefields, she needs to upgrade at least four times to reach the LV4 level to be decent."

Hearing this, Zhou An did not hesitate at all and opened his system space directly.

"Clatter—"

With a wave of his wrist, Zhou An directly transferred ten silver treasure chests and five gold treasure chests to Hila, and also threw in a few basic black iron treasure chests and bronze treasure chests to serve as fodder.

"This... this is too valuable!"

Hila looked at the pile of treasure chests emitting dazzling light that had suddenly appeared in her system panel.

"If I tell you to open them, then open them. Don't talk nonsense."

Zhou An pulled over a chair and sat down.

"Open the black iron ones first to grind out the LV1 basic upgrade blueprint."

Hila didn't dare to disobey, quickly took a deep breath, and tremblingly clicked on a black iron treasure chest.

The first black iron treasure chest burst out a pile of the most basic resources. Hila gritted her teeth and clicked on the second one.

[Ding! Congratulations on obtaining: LV1 Upgrade Blueprint]

"It's out!"

Luo Ning leaned over to check the requirements on the blueprint and directly pulled a batch of corresponding materials from the fortress warehouse and piled them in front of Hila.

"The materials are ready. Hila, use the blueprint immediately to perform the LV1 system reshaping! Choose the mecha direction for the evolution."

Luo Ning patted Hila on the shoulder: "You don't have to do anything for these two days, just focus on upgrading for me! Upgrading takes time; once the time is up, you continue to open treasure chests to grind for the next level's blueprint!"

"If you run out of the treasure chests the Boss gave you and still haven't gotten the blueprint, go ask him for more! If the materials aren't enough, you can get them from him or me. In short, before this island occupation event ends, you must use resources to smash your way up to LV4 for me!"

Hila nodded blankly.

After leaving the heavy laboratory on the bottom floor, Zhou An took the elevator directly to the temporary medical area on the ground.

After a night of rest and nourishment from high-level medicinal liquids, those injured Winged Race girls looked much better.

Although their broken wings and missing limbs could not regenerate, and those few girls who suffered mental trauma were still curled up in the corner with dull eyes, most of them had regained some color in their faces, and the desire for survival had rekindled in their eyes.

Seeing the human youth in a black jacket walking over, the Winged Race girls, who were whispering to each other, stood up straight nervously as if they had seen an inviolable god, retreated to the side extremely respectfully, and didn't even dare to breathe loudly.

"Alright, everyone sit down and rest; don't pull your wounds."

Zhou An waved his hand casually.

Ivy was holding a basin of warm water to help an injured person wipe her body. Seeing Zhou An arrive, she immediately put down the towel and walked up quickly to meet him.

"Sir."

Ivy lowered her head and bowed respectfully.

Zhou An didn't engage in any pleasantries and asked straight to the point: "How is it? Have you contacted your headquarters?"

Hearing this question, a flash of uncontrollable excitement appeared in Ivy's eyes: "We have contacted them! After a night of breaking through the encirclement, the Great Elder and the others shook off the pursuers from the Blood Moon Guild and have now found a hidden temporary foothold. As long as we wait for this island occupation event to end, we can go find them!"

"Where is the location? How far is it from here?" Zhou An asked.

Ivy quickly pulled up the system panel and sent an encrypted coordinate to Zhou An: "It's at this location, about four thousand kilometers away from our current island."

"Four thousand kilometers?"

Zhou An looked at the coordinates and nodded slightly.

For the cruising speed of the Cloud Top Fortress, four thousand kilometers was not a long journey at all.

"We can arrive in less than a day."

Zhou An made the arrangements decisively.

"Let your clansmen rest well on the ground for these two days. Once the event settlement is over in two days, board the ship immediately, and I will take you there."

"Yes! Thank you for your generosity!"

Ivy bowed deeply again.

After finalizing the departure time, Zhou An did not stay on the ground for long and turned to take the elevator back to the central hall on the top floor of the fortress.

He walked to the center of the hall and summoned the fortress control panel.

"EVA."

"I am here, please give your instructions."

EVA's cold, synthesized mechanical voice sounded in the hall.

"In the corner of the living area on the second floor of the fortress, partition off a separate enclosed space. It doesn't need to be too complicated; just make a few rooms that can accommodate about twenty people to rest," Zhou An instructed.

Although he was only giving these Winged Race people a ride, he couldn't let them stay on the open deck and blow in the cold wind during the voyage. Just making a temporary guest room was the least he could do.

"Instruction received. Module is reorganizing..."

On an open space at the edge of the living area on the second floor, several silver-white alloy partition walls rose rapidly. Several engineering robots pushed in several sets of bunk beds and laid out the most basic mattresses with fluid movements.

In less than ten minutes, a simple but clean and tidy collective dormitory was set up. Anyway, since they would only be staying for less than a day, this configuration was already heaven-level treatment for those Winged Race people who had just crawled out of a pile of dead bodies.

After finishing all this, Zhou An walked to the large leather sofa and sat down, leaning comfortably against the backrest.

Having nothing else to do, he raised his wrist and opened the system's regional channel panel to check the overall distribution of forces in the current event.

As the event progressed, the system had thoughtfully provided a pie chart of the occupation ratio of each race in the upper right corner of the regional map.

Zhou An looked at the data on the screen and raised his eyebrows slightly:

Orc Race: 50%

Human Race: 15%

Elf Race: 10%

Winged Race: 3%

Others: 22%

"No wonder the Blood Moon Guild dares to be so arrogant, suppressing others directly..."

Zhou An looked at the glaring red area that occupied a position of absolute dominance, and understood in his heart.

In this merged region, the Orc Race, whether in terms of population base or overall combat power, presented a crushing momentum, directly swallowing a full half of the floating island resources!

In contrast, although the Human Race had managed to secure a 15% share under the leadership of City Lord Zhao Tianyu and a few other top powerhouses, barely stabilizing their position, they remained on the defensive overall.

As for races like the Elf Race and the Goblins, they could only struggle for survival in the cracks.

And the Winged Race, to which Ivy and her companions belonged, held a pitiful 3%, not even half of the Human Race's share.

Furthermore, the chat channel was currently almost completely flooded with dense, scarlet text.

"Hahahaha! Just led a team to wipe out an island of the Elf Race; those women cried so beautifully! Long live the [Blood Moon Guild]!"

"[Dragonman Guild] has occupied three large mining islands in the core airspace today. You human brats, get out of the southern shipping lanes while you still can!"

"The entire 433 District will eventually belong to us, the Orc Race!!"

The three major Orc Race guilds—Blood Moon, Dragonman, and Deep Sea—seemed to have coordinated, crazily flaunting their battle results in the channel.

Those Orc Race commanders posted screenshots stained with blood, mocking the weakness of other races.

Some even boasted wildly: "Within a year, we will take over the entire region! Aside from the Orc Race, other races only deserve to exist as livestock and playthings!"

Although people from other races in the channel were angrily hitting back, due to the absolute gap in territory percentage and combat power, those voices of dissent were quickly drowned out by the tidal wave of insults from the Orc Race.

Zhou An looked at the glaring "50%" territory percentage, his brows furrowed tightly.

"The Orc Race is indeed a bit too strong right now."

He murmured in a low voice.

Recalling his time in District 997, although the competition was fierce, everyone was of the Human Race, and there were six major guilds checking and balancing each other.

Even someone as strong as City Lord Zhao Tianyu couldn't achieve the near-monopolistic suppression that the Orc Race had formed at the very beginning of the fusion.

This complete destruction of the ecological balance was a catastrophe hanging over the heads of any non-Orc Race.

"I hope the leaders of those races have some way to check and balance them, otherwise this district will sooner or later turn into a giant gladiatorial arena."

Zhou An closed the channel, no longer looking at the noisy verbal war, and turned to look at the silent purple forest outside the window.

He could manage his own small plot of land, but faced with the rise of an entire race, he also felt a certain immense crisis lurking in the shadows.

The next day, with a crisp, long chime from the system, the two-day "Island Occupation and Gathering Event" finally came to an end.

The entire [Gengzi-7792 Island] erupted with a faint tremor; it was the final large-scale eruption of the core formation eye.

Zhou An looked at the final summary of resources.

Level 4 basic materials: approximately 40 million!

Level 5 basic materials: approximately 10 million!

There were numerous blueprints, covering everything from rare to legendary grade ship-borne anti-aircraft guns, decoy shells, and fortress reinforcement modules, totaling over sixty.

There were also small mountains of silver and gold treasure chests; a rough count revealed over three hundred, plus one diamond treasure chest.

"Boss! Boss, come look!"

Li Muzi ran over, covered in sweat, followed by several fully loaded transport robots.

The robots were hung with strings of strange, never-before-seen crops, as well as a few mutant livestock that were making grunting sounds.

"The greenhouse core area in the south of the island erupted with quite a few epic grade seeds, and there's also this 'Scaled Fragrant Pig', the meat quality grade is extremely high! I'll take some people to settle them into the fortress's ecological park right away!"

Muzi said excitedly.

In addition to these, the end of the list also enumerated some special strategic materials:

[Void Crystal Powder], [Constant Temperature Alloy Blanks], and a few heavy [Star Core Fragments].

These were essential items for upgrading to LV6 or crafting legendary grade components, and they couldn't be found on the market at all.

Zhou An looked at these materials and let out a long sigh of relief.

After counting the massive amount of basic materials, Zhou An cast his gaze toward the mountain of treasure chests in his system space.

Same as before, he had to synthesize the treasure chests.

Accompanied by a dazzling light, the synthesis panel began its frantic calculations and smelting:

153 silver treasure chests turned into 51 gold treasure chests.

Including the original ones, a total of 157 gold treasure chests were smelted into 52 platinum treasure chests.

...

After multiple rounds of fusion, fourteen Moon-Glitter Grade treasure chests were finally produced.

Finally, the 14 Moon-Glitter Grade treasure chests underwent another qualitative change, ultimately condensing into 4 Solar Corona Grade treasure chests! At the same time, two Moon-Glitter Grade ones remained.

"Four Solar Corona, two Moon-Glitter, plus some extras."

Zhou An looked at the top-tier treasure chests floating in front of him, radiating divine brilliance, and rubbed his chin with satisfaction.

He originally wanted to continue synthesizing upwards, but the system popped up a cold notification sound:

[Warning: Host vehicle level limit insufficient! Cannot synthesize treasure chests above 'Solar Corona'! Please upgrade the vehicle level first!]

"It seems that for a LV5 fortress, holding Solar Corona Grade treasure chests is the limit."

Zhou An wasn't disappointed; with a wave of his hand, he put these high-tier treasure chests, which were enough to drive the entire district crazy, back into his system space.

They were still at a critical juncture of evacuation, so he would wait until the route was stable to slowly open these top-quality blind boxes.

...

At this moment, [Gengzi-7792 Island] had lost its former vitality.

As the core formation eye was completely drained, the purple crystal trees on the island began to rapidly dim and wither; dull rumbling sounds came from deep within the earth, and huge cracks were spreading across the surface.

This island was about to collapse and sink.

In front of the fortress's massive lift hangar doors.

Hundreds of engineering robots formed several efficient assembly lines, transporting the last batch of mined ore and culture dishes into the fortress's bottom hold.

"Quick, quick, quick! Drive those 'Scaled Fragrant Pigs' into Ecological Cabin No. 3!"

Li Muzi stood at the cabin entrance, holding an electronic megaphone, her ponytail tied back, efficiently directing the loading work on site.

Seeing the distant horizon already beginning to collapse, she raised her volume: "Attention everyone, speed it up! This island won't last through tonight; all cabin doors will close in thirty minutes, prepare for liftoff!"

Meanwhile, on the edge of the second-floor living area of the fortress, inside that temporarily designated quarantine dormitory.

Ivy and Shira were leading a dozen or so Winged Race compatriots, who were supporting each other, carefully walking into this temporary shelter that belonged to them.

Although the room was temporarily partitioned, the interior configuration was not sloppy at all.

Soft bunk beds, an independent sterile bathroom, and even a few plates of fragrant spirit fruits and energy-replenishing nutrient solutions were set on the table.

When they saw this clean, tidy, and temperature-appropriate environment, those Winged Race girls, who had originally thought they would be squeezed together with cargo in the dark bottom hold, were all stunned.

"Is… is this the place we're going to live?" The girl with the broken wing named Mia touched the soft mattress, her eyes instantly turning red.

"Captain, this place is even better than the elite dormitories we had back at the White Feather Guild..."

An older Winged Race woman's voice choked with emotion; she clasped her hands together and bowed piously toward the ceiling, "Praise the Wind God… that Human Race master is truly a good person."

Ivy helped a seriously injured girl lie down on the lower bunk, then turned to look at her grateful clanswomen, her heart filled with mixed emotions.

"Alright, everyone don't just stand there, hurry up and lie down to rest. Dr. Shen said that what your bodies need most right now is sleep."

Ivy clapped her hands gently, soothing everyone's emotions, her tone revealing a hint of relief at having survived a disaster: "This island is about to collapse, and the fortress will set sail tonight. You don't need to fear anything, just rest and recover. Mr. Zhou An has already promised us that as soon as tomorrow dawns, he will send us to the headquarters."

"Boom—"

Half an hour later, accompanied by a low and massive roar of engines, the enormous [Cloud Top Fortress] completely broke free from gravity and flew toward the central airspace four thousand kilometers away.