The fifth month of winter arrived, and the weather seemed to grow colder by the day.

Zhou Yi spent most of this month idle, flipping through the web pages of Recursive City and Chuneng City every day. The Mechanical Master Tournament had officially kicked off, featuring at least one 1v1 duel and one 3v3 team battle each day.

He relied on these for his daily entertainment.

Electronic cockfighting—humans had always had a taste for this.

On the duel platform, two electromechanical lives showed off their skills. Within the designated time, whoever's Life Value decreased more—or was damaged to the point of losing combat ability—was declared the loser.

The Master Tournament was divided from E to B grade, ensuring that competitors faced off against opponents of the same level. The varying skills and tactics of the individuals involved filled each battle with uncertainty, with miraculous turnarounds happening frequently.

What Zhou Yi found more interesting were the team battles.

Team battles typically included a long-range firepower role, melee combatants, and support, though there were also teams with no support, two shooters and one melee fighter, and even the extreme all-shooter teams for pure offense, planning to annihilate from a distance or else swiftly be defeated in close combat.

This type of multi-person combat was more about coordination and teamwork.

To better watch these events, Zhou Yi had reviewed plenty of materials to understand the rules and mechanisms. He had looked through a vast number of electronic guides, which had given him plenty of new insights into enhancers' combat styles.

...

Aside from his leisure time, Zhou Yi also found time to get some work done.

He first revamped the role of the samurai crabs.

Their previous role was no longer suitable for the Wasteland Development Company.

Zhou Yi invested hundreds of Light Seeds to help them quickly enter the Black Samurai phase. Those who had already turned to black shells completed their metamorphosis, producing 4 Weapon Masters, 9 Double Swordsmen, and 28 Hammerhead Soldiers.

The Double Swordsmen became the company's guards, tasked with executing various combat missions.

The Hammerhead Soldiers, on the other hand, worked as engineers, engaging in digging, demolition, transportation, and reconstruction.

Thus, the samurai crab community moved into a phase of pursuing quality.

Considering the lengthy process of nurturing new samurai crabs from infancy, Zhou Yi gave Xie Xun's Scavenger Team a new command to recruit some samurai crabs of excellent strength from the wild populations on the sea floor.

Being a guard or engineer in Jade City surely beat the precarious life on the sea floor.

Zhou Yi was relieved to see that the Scavenger Team, although newly formed, already demonstrated significant initiative.

The Weapon Masters teamed up to scour the Dead Sea, collecting many books and magazines, unopened beverages, packaged food, intact tools, numerous new garments, and a multitude of canned goods.

Because of their high collection efficiency, the storage containers on the roof of Jade City were quickly filled to capacity.

So Zhou Yi came up with an idea to have the samurai crabs dig out an underground storage near the shore of the Dead Sea, where all the gathered materials could be placed initially.

This method allowed for better preservation in the Dead Sea, and since the Guangna Species had no interest in those goods, it also saved a considerable amount of land space. It was a sort of transfer storage depot in the Dead Sea.

Meanwhile, Maria Hospital also had good news.

Da Vinci reported, "The successful case of treating Zheng Tao has been uploaded and confirmed, and my corresponding entry has been added to the medical encyclopedia. Now several similar flesh and blood patients have contacted me through Holy Mountain, hoping for my treatment."

"I am thinking of operating on them at Maria Hospital. What do you think, Chairman?"

Zhou Yi responded, "That's great news. Of course, I support it."

The Mechanical Doctor continued, "Thank you for your approval. I'm planning to set up the operation with the first patient after the first month following the end of winter. What do you think?"

"You make your own decisions about the professional aspects; you don't need my opinion."

Zhou Yi waved his hand dismissively, "But who is this first patient?"

"A human enhancer,"

Da Vinci explained, "According to the information certified by Holy Mountain, his name is Ding Ye, a Knight, a member of the 'Beiyang Knight' organization."

Zhou Yi asked Red Kestrel to bring up related information about this group.

Knight was one of the occupations for enhancers, but there were far fewer of them than the Knights.

Knight was a traditional military group with a strict organizational structure and order. Knights, on the other hand, were an extreme opposite; they were mostly lone wolves who roamed around, valiant and impulsive.

A proverb described them:

—Knights fear not death, but a mission unaccomplished.

Knights would draw their swords to assist when witnessing injustice but were just as quick to unsheathe them over disagreements. It was an occupation with a high mortality rate.

Every matter has its pros and cons.

Because the path of the adventurer is a crazy one, their growth rate far exceeded other enhancer professions, creating a minority of brave warriors daring enough to punch above their level.

Zhou Yi had only heard the name but never met the person.

Red Kestrel introduced, "The 'Beiyang Knights' are a group of heroes in the Beiyang Region, backed and sponsored by the earth officials, allowing them to travel without worry and grow rapidly."

The earth official is another enhancer profession.

They were originally independent lords or rulers outside of cities, with their own territories, building manors, fortresses, and even city-states, with vastly differing inclinations among them.

But as things have developed, the role of the earth official has become a specialized bureaucratic one. Earth officials can be hired, appointed, and invited to serve as town or city mayors, often being at the core of the decision-making and advisory groups within the townships.

This group also serves as a key bonding agent in connecting cities, handling foreign and domestic affairs, and establishing cooperative relationships among various powers.

Zhou Yi asked, "So, the earth officials of these local powers sponsor adventurers to cultivate their 'guests?'"

"Guests? You mean their followers? No, it's not like that."

Red Kestrel corrected, "Earth officials cultivate and sponsor adventurers because a sizable portion of earth officials were once adventurers themselves. After a golden period of growth through battle, as long as they don't die, adventurers eventually undergo a transformation. Investing in adventurers now ensures returns if new earth officials emerge from them in the future."

"Besides, the relationship between earth officials and adventurers is often under the guise of mentorship. Thus, their relationship is much closer than it appears to outsiders."

"Because of these connections, adventurers also form various groups, each with its disagreements and conflicts, underpinned by earth officials' open rivalries and covert struggles to boost the influence of different regions."

"But adventurers remain a relatively pure profession, proving and enhancing themselves through successive battles."

Zhou Yi nodded as he listened.

Being an adventurer was the choice of spirited young people, pursuing personal limits alone with arms befitting their name. It was understandable that injured, older adventurers would retire to become earth officials, returning to a normal life.

Zhou Yi was quite interested in this Beiyang Knight, Ding Ye.

He wondered if Ding Ye was missing an arm or a leg, or if he was the type to draw his sword and start slicing the moment someone disagreed... They were about to perform surgery, so he probably wouldn't be too explosive, right?

...

Apart from periodically checking the operation of various departments within the company, Zhou Yi had another important task recently.

Buying a means of transportation.

He planned to buy a ship; preferably a plane, but a large vehicle would suffice in a pinch.

However, Recursive City didn't offer this service, being a small city already short on transportation labor.

Zhou Yi could only refresh the page of Chuneng City daily.

There, they did sell various models of ordinary vehicles and ships.

Just as he was frowning in worry, Red Kestrel suggested, "Why not try an open recruitment?"

"If you're willing to offer a high price, you'll find electromechanical lives willing to sell their services and complete the tasks you assign."

Zhou Yi's eyes lit up.

Right.

It was time to stop just scavenging and to start seriously recruiting talent!

"How much do you think is an appropriate annual salary?"

"Depends on what level of service you need."

"Is it possible to get an A-level?"

"Impossible."

"What about B-level?"

"That's also very difficult."

Red Kestrel said, "Try offering 5000 Light Seeds."

Zhou Yi steeled his heart.

If he was going to spend, he'd go for the best.

He'd offer 10,000. Time to pick carefully this round!