Chapter 131: Title: Migration

Tomorrow quickly regrouped with its companions.

It gradually slowed down, lowered the lift platform, and recovered Convoy One, Convoy Two, and the Storm Infantry Vehicle.

On the upper deck, the Black Hawk Helicopter and the Vanguard Armed Gunship landed one after another.

The residents who had taken refuge came to the deck one after another and began clearing the zombie remains from the deck and conducting routine city maintenance and obstacle removal.

Li Ye let out a long breath.

This battle had truly been nerve-wracking; Tomorrow had nearly failed to hold out several times.

In fact, only a city of its level of firepower could barely withstand the Zombie Swarm.

During a break for water and rest, Li Ye's heart gradually settled down.

Now, the Tomorrow Alliance was safe.

But this safety was only temporary. The Zombie Swarm would eventually sweep through the entire eastern part of the Cretaceous Zone.

The Tomorrow Alliance needed to enter the Plateau Zone as soon as possible.

At present, these four Mobile Cities traveled together, advancing across the vast plain.

After sounding a whistle, Engineer slowly moved toward Tomorrow.

The mechanical arms, cranes, and Universal Work Claws on the deck of this engineer-type Mobile City activated in sequence, beginning to assist Tomorrow with repairs.

"Not bad at all." Li Ye couldn’t help but nod.

While taking the opportunity to rest, Li Ye also asked Engineer to help remove the long-unused Level 1 Steam Bed Crossbow from the deck.

Just then, a long screech suddenly echoed from afar.

Li Ye followed the sound with his gaze and saw a massive Dinosaur Herd moving along the distant horizon.

Towering Brachiosauruses marched at the front with heavy steps, their long necks like a moving forest.

Closely behind them were clustered Triceratopses, their heavy head shields glowing with a bronze hue under the sunset.

Pterosaurs circled at low altitude, letting out sharp cries.

Several young Ankylosauruses stumbled along behind their mother.

Majestic and massive Tyrannosauruses flanked the convoy on both sides for protection.

Across the plain, Velociraptors occasionally dashed by — evidently the scouts of this Dinosaur Herd.

Upon seeing the approaching Mobile Cities of humans, the Dinosaur Herd showed little reaction and simply continued advancing.

Clearly, the Pterosaurs had already delivered the news.

To resist the Zombie Swarm, the two sides had temporarily cooperated — besides, everyone needed to migrate to survive.

Li Ye gently nodded.

"This will do."

Across the plain, the human Mobile Cities and the Dinosaur Herd advanced slowly in parallel, without disturbing one another.

At full speed, within two or three days, the convoy reached the eastern edge of the Cretaceous Zone.

The majestic Letun Mountains came into view.

At the snow-covered foot of the peaks, a vibrant scene unfolded.

Verdant alpine meadows spread like soft carpets, dotted with wildflowers.

In the deep canyons, swift torrents roared down, spraying snowy white waves between jagged rocks. Quiet mountain lakes were nestled like gems among the mountains.

The dinosaurs gradually relaxed and began to rest on the spot.

Li Ye looked at the dinosaurs with astonishment.

These dinosaurs had remarkable endurance, moving almost non-stop day and night during this journey.

Only when passing through jungles and lakes did they occasionally stop to rest, drink water, and feed.

Some elderly dinosaurs, unable to continue, chose to stop migrating and voluntarily became food for the carnivorous Tyrannosauruses and Velociraptors.

Although the scenery before him was beautiful, Li Ye could not relax.

The Zombie Swarm was still behind them and would soon catch up.

The Tomorrow Alliance needed to be refitted into a climbing-type city and begin migrating in the Plateau Zone.

Currently, the City Auction House in the Western Wasteland Continent was still open, where the corresponding Climbing Treads could be purchased.

While thinking, Li Ye looked again at the dinosaurs.

This Dinosaur Herd was quite large, numbering in the tens of thousands.

For survival, they too needed to migrate toward the Plateau Zone.

As he looked on, a question emerged in Li Ye’s mind.

Could dinosaurs survive in the Plateau Zone?

Back in university, out of curiosity, he had searched this topic online.

It was said that fossils of sauropod dinosaurs from the Jurassic period had been unearthed on the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau, proving that dinosaurs could adapt to high-altitude environments.

Some large dinosaurs could maintain their body temperature through gigantothermy, while smaller dinosaurs could rely on feathers for insulation.

"That’s right, these dinosaurs evolve rapidly. Within just a few days, the Mist Raptor evolved smoke that counteracts zombies," he thought, "They’ll definitely evolve their bodies to survive in the highlands."

In the following period, Li Ye dispatched a Black Hawk Helicopter to bring Zhou Xing and the other two aboard Tomorrow for a meeting.

"The Zombie Swarm is right behind us — we must migrate to the Plateau Zone," he began. "Does anyone know what city components are needed for climbing the mountains?"

Zhou Xing immediately responded.

"I do."

In the Wasteland, Mobile Cities had various modes of survival.

The most widespread and common was land migration.

Next came airborne migration, and migration via lakes or even oceans.

Mountain migration, however, was a unique path.

There were several advantages to making a living in the mountains.

First, due to the complex terrain of the mountains, there were few monsters and Mobile Cities present, making it relatively safe.

Second, the mountains contained inexhaustible resources such as Iron Ore, Coal, and Timber.

With fewer competitors and abundant resources, many Mobile Cities chose to settle there.

However, mountain migration also had its drawbacks.

That was, there were very few human forces in the mountains—Survivor Towns, Bounty Hunters, Survivor Caravans, or even Mobile Cities and Fortresses—

were all rarely encountered.

This made it very difficult for Mobile Cities to engage in external communication, territory trade, or obtain Intelligence.

Moreover, migrating through the mountains required assembling a specific set of City Accessories.

First was the Universal Tread Cluster, composed of hundreds of small, independently powered tread modules. Each module was equipped with a hydraulic adjustment mechanism, allowing it to adapt to moderately sloped rock surfaces. The treads were densely embedded with tungsten steel grip teeth that could pierce into the rock to stabilize the Mobile City when deployed.

Next was the Rock Nail Anchor, a type of massive hydraulic rivet distributed across the city’s undercarriage. It could instantly launch tens of meters into the mountain, securing the main body of the city with high-tension steel cables. The anchoring process often triggered localized landslides.

Following that was the Gyro Stabilization Pod, a liquid mercury-balanced sphere installed inside the city. It was used to counteract various forces encountered during mountain climbing.

Lastly, if climbing on ice-covered highlands, the Mobile City also required the Iceblade Clearing Array. This consisted of rows of rotating titanium-alloy ice-breaking wheels mounted on the front edge of the city to crush glacier obstacles.

Incidentally, the safest method of migration was Underground Migration. This required the Mobile City to be equipped with a series of underground excavation components.

In the underground, enemies were rarely encountered, making it extremely safe. However, it was also extremely dull. The entire Underground-digging Mobile City had to burrow through subterranean rock layers 24/7—no sunlight, no scenery, and a rather oppressive atmosphere.

Compared to cities of the same tier, Underground-digging Mobile Cities were only about half their size, or even smaller. This was primarily to reduce energy consumption and pressure while traveling underground.

"In short, we need to acquire all four types of City Accessories I mentioned," Zhou Xing concluded.

He added a specific note: the Universal Tread Cluster, Rock Nail Anchor, and Iceblade Clearing Array could be Tier 1 or even regular-grade, but the Gyro Stabilization Pod must be Tier 2.

The reason was simple—Tier 2 Mobile Cities were massive. The forces they endured while moving and climbing far exceeded those of Tier 1 cities, thus requiring a superior Gyro Stabilization Pod to maintain balance.

After calculating, the four of them discovered an awkward reality.

All four Lords combined had less than 10,000 Crystal Coins.

This was mainly because, during the opening of the City Auction House, everyone had been frantically spending to upgrade.

"How about selling some petroleum?" Zhou Xing suggested.

While selling petroleum, the Tomorrow Alliance had also stockpiled a large quantity for personal use.

Among them, Li Ye had stored the most.

Not only that, he had also filled all of his various vehicles with fuel.

"Now that we’ve stopped oil field extraction, we need to refine petroleum into usable Fuel. Our four Tier 2 Mobile Cities consume a lot of fuel each day. If we can’t find fuel later, we might need to buy it back," Li Ye turned around, "Didn’t we also store a batch of Natural Gas? Let’s just sell that instead?"

Zhou Xing and the others nodded in agreement.

After selling a portion of the Natural Gas, the Tomorrow Alliance finally had some financial breathing room.

Li Ye then purchased the blueprints for the four City Accessories, gathered the required materials, and produced them using Iron Ore.

Engineer sprang into action once more, helping his companions remove the old treads and install a series of Climbing Treads.

As an engineer-type Mobile City, its refitting speed was much faster than ordinary cities.

A few hours later, all four Mobile Cities had completed their upgrades.

Li Ye nodded, then waved his hand.

"Move out."

With Tomorrow leading, the four Mobile Cities slowly entered the Plateau Zone.

They quickly passed through the tranquil and pleasant foothills.

Before them now were towering snow-covered peaks, intertwined and layered.

On this eternally frozen land thousands of meters above sea level, four steam-powered behemoths began their migration.

The Universal Tread Cluster beneath their chassis roared to life. Each tread plate, over a meter wide, embedded with spiral tungsten steel teeth, dug deep into the rock as the hydraulic systems pulsed. Steam vents between the treads spewed scalding exhaust, which condensed into fog in the sub-zero air.

Several sets of Rock Nail Anchors extended from beneath the cities. These thick steel columns drove into the ice layer with thousands of tons of force every few seconds, creating spiderweb-like cracks upon anchoring.

When the cities moved again, the rock nails and steel columns were pulled out from the ice, bringing with them chunks of faintly blue-glowing ice.

At the core of the city, the Gyro Stabilization Pod was operating steadily. This giant liquid-mercury-filled sphere continuously fine-tuned the center of gravity through a complex gear set, counteracting the forces experienced during climbing.

Most impressive was the front-end Iceblade Clearing Array, composed of multiple ten-meter-diameter serrated ice-breaking wheels. These massive devices were spinning at high speed, crushing protruding glacial ridges into diamond-like ice crystals. ɪꜰ ʏᴏᴜ ᴡᴀɴᴛ ᴛᴏ ʀᴇᴀᴅ ᴍᴏʀᴇ ᴄʜᴀᴘᴛᴇʀs, ᴘʟᴇᴀsᴇ ᴠɪsɪᴛ

At this moment, Li Ye had already put on his Down Jacket.

After entering the Plateau Zone, the temperature had plunged sharply.

Except for patrolling Combat Personnel, the residents aboard Tomorrow had all returned to their rooms.

Some residents were lucky enough to have rooms through which Steam Pipelines passed, the heat emitted from the edges of the pipes providing free heating.

Li Ye walked up to the Observation Deck, overlooking Tomorrow and its companions.

At this pace, covering over a hundred kilometers in a day would already be a decent outcome.

Watching the receding Cretaceous Zone, he gradually felt at ease.

At least in the short term, Zombies would not enter the Plateau Zone.

At the same time, Li Ye couldn’t help but shake his head and sigh.

Now, the entire southern part of the Western Wasteland Continent had completely fallen.

After conquering the Cretaceous Zone, the Zombie Civilization would advance southward to attack the Archipelago Zone.

That Tier 2 region would likely be hard to defend as well.

The Valley Zone, where the Tomorrow Alliance was heading, was probably one of the last few pure lands in the southern Western Wasteland Continent.

Just then, the Peacemaker, Engineer, and Iron Whale simultaneously let out a whistle.

"What’s going on?" Li Ye immediately tensed up.

Looking closely, all three Mobile Cities were still climbing steadily.

Letting out a sigh of relief, he quickly realized the reason.

"Is there something you want to discuss with me?"

Li Ye dispatched the Black Hawk Helicopter to bring the three Lords over.

He quickly learned the cause.

Due to the rush to the Plateau Zone, the three cities had not prepared Cold-resistant Clothing.

"No need to buy from the Auction House. I’ll make them for you," Li Ye waved his hand. "Just tally the amount of Cold-resistant Clothing you need and send over the Fabric. Once I’ve crafted them, I’ll have the Black Hawk Helicopter deliver them."

After finishing their discussion, the three returned to their respective Mobile Cities via Black Hawk Helicopter.

Li Ye, meanwhile, stared thoughtfully at the Black Hawk Helicopter parked on the deck.

The plateau was actually not very friendly to Flying Vehicles.

For every 1,000 meters of altitude, engine performance dropped by 10–15%, rotor efficiency plummeted, and metal fatigue accelerated.

Moreover, sudden air currents could form, causing dynamic stalls in helicopters.

The magnetic field of the plateau could interfere with navigation systems, and low temperatures could shrink fuel, making fuel gauges inaccurate.

Then there was altitude sickness.

While climbing the mountains, Mobile City convoys could not spread out. When encountering enemies, they had to rely on Cannons and Flying Vehicles for firefights.

In climbing mode, Mobile Cities moved very slowly—practically sitting ducks.

"Then again, we probably won’t run into any enemies in the Plateau Zone," Li Ye thought.

After all, the high altitude and harsh climate kept even monsters away.

The Tomorrow Alliance might well be the only active force here.

Meanwhile, at the eastern edge of the Cretaceous Zone, at the foot of the Letun Mountains—

With a roar from the lead dinosaur, the resting, feeding, and drinking dinosaurs rose in unison and began marching in groups toward the Plateau Zone.

To survive, they had begun migrating just like the humans.

Upon encountering the cold of the highlands, many dinosaurs let out pained roars.

Then, subtle and gradual changes began to appear on their bodies.