The bright yellow waterproofed paint, combined with various paint markings, gave this steel destroyer an extremely rugged look and feel.
It had a three-story tower-style structure. The first story was where the core of the entire warship was, which was responsible for the ship’s navigation as well as the regulation of the entire ship’s operating system.
Currently, all of the mechanical structures on the first floor had been completed. Once Su Mo moved the computer over and installed it as the ship’s core, the ship could then run its programmed operations.
Up on the second floor was the ship’s command room, divided into two sections inside.
The inner section was the conference hall to be used by the leaders for meetings. The outer section was an open-air war room that had a clear view of the surroundings for when battles occurred.
The third floor was Su Mo’s captain’s room. When there were no battles happening, staying here allowed him to oversee the operations of the whole ship, ensuring that there would be no issues while sailing the seas.
When battles happened, it could also instantly transform into a tower observation command room, providing an excellent vantage point for the weapon stations below.
Aside from this third floor, going even higher, there was a large platform where the fire-control radar system was located as well as various monitoring devices that had been currently installed.
Through the monitoring devices, the image could be transmitted over to the bridge in real-time, which would allow the operating system to evaluate the threat and make the corresponding adjustments in real-time.
Compared with the configuration of modern warships, although the Hope One had a disadvantage in terms of radar technology, and also lacked adequate firepower, in terms of artificial intelligence, it was not very far behind.
Of course, having gone through the robot workers’ hands, the warship had successfully derived two special abilities.
Once Su Mo installed the operating system and turned on the engine, allowing the electricity to connect through the whole ship, he would be able to examine the entire ship’s properties panel.
When that time came, as long as there was an outstanding ability, it could instantly make up for the disadvantages it had!
As the owner, during the construction of this ship, Su Mo had already adjusted the design countless times. Now, he naturally felt like he had come home and did not feel even the slightest sense of unfamiliarity with his surroundings.
As for the leaders who were responsible for furnishing the ship’s interior, they had come up several times as well during these past two days and had a certain understanding of the ship’s structure above the main deck.
At that moment, before the villagers below came up, Pei Shao jumped up deftly to the bow and pulled out the large flag he had prepared much earlier from his storage space.
Like the specifications in ancient times, this flagpole was not long. It was only 1.5 meters in length. Placed on the railing, it would be around 3.5 meters high once installed.
However, the surface of the flag was not small compared to the flagpole. It was a flag that met the standard size of 288 centimeters long and 192 centimeters high.
Moreover, the flag’s material was very luxurious too, a special waterproofed cloth emblazoned with navy blue.
On the front of the flag, the word ‘hope’ was written, and on the back was printed the word ‘Su’. When the wind blew, it looked extremely domineering!
“Hey, this isn’t bad. This money was worth spending!”
Seeing this flag, Su Mo—who had walked to the open-air war room with the other leaders—also nodded in satisfaction.
For the ship’s furnishings, money could be saved in other places, but he definitely could not scrimp on the flag.
It followed the same principle of the battlefield; even if the people died, the flag could not fall.
On the sea, this big flag represented Su Mo and represented Hope One.
As Hope One became more famed and acclaimed, this flag would also carry the soul of the entire ship, making anyone who dared attack it shiver at a glance!
Moreover, the flag still had the most important function of…
Uniting people!
Seeing this flag, the villagers who had not boarded the ship yet paused in their steps.
When they first joined the Candlelight Shelter, though everybody had been moved, they did not have the feeling that they were returning home. It was like they had gone to a hotel for a few nights’ stay and, upon finding a new place, they went off elsewhere.
Later on, when Chen Shen and the others joined, the old villagers had reluctantly taken on the leadership of the shelter, and they did not have a strong attachment to the shelter.
Their sense of belonging was so weak that, if they had tasted defeat in battle, everyone would have taken their belongings out, divided their stuff, and gone their separate ways to each corner of the earth.
These kinds of things, as the leaders of the shelter, Wu Feiguang and the others were aware about as well, but they were helpless and had no way to improve the situation.
This was because none of them were natives of the land. All of them had been transported over from Earth and had been regular people who had their own thoughts and principles.
Unless they used force, the shelter had no way to ask to keep these people from leaving and had no authority to make them cooperate.
Fortunately, not long after, Su Mo arrived!
As the village’s spiritual figure, once the first day’s gathering was finished, Wu Feiguang and the rest realized in shock…
That all of the villagers’ mental states had changed!
Compared to their state of being ready to flee the moment they were attacked, after Su Mo finished his speech that night, even though everyone was hungry, in their eyes, Wu Feiguang could clearly see…
Hope!
Not hope for the village’s future!
Instead, it was a hope to obtain the chance to follow Su Mo!
It was this change that allowed Wu Feiguang to fully understand the importance of having a spiritual figure.
That night, the village leader position was changed and officially given to Chen Shen.
After that, they experienced the harvest and then moved, establishing Hope Village.
Now, once they saw the flag, no words were needed any longer.
A strange sense of belonging and pride took root and sprouted very quickly in every villager’s heart, like a seed that went through the welfare disaster, blossoming and bearing fruit.
“This is our village!”
“This is our ship!”
When the first person yelled those two sentences, everyone instantly felt the shift in atmosphere and shouted together at the top of their lungs.
“Yes, this is our ship!”
“This is the ship that we are going to head to the new world in!”
Other shelters had small wooden boats. The better ones at most had a medieval-style sailboat that were more than ten meters long; which was considered an achievement.
However, their own shelter…
Had a motherf*cking modern warship!
The difference was so huge that there was no need for any comparison. Hearing the villagers’ sky-shaking cheers and roars below, Chen Shen guaranteed on the spot:
If someone dared to stand before the villagers at this moment and said anything bad about Hope Village, the villagers would definitely go up and fight them to the death without a second word.
This pride and sense of belonging definitely did not allow the existence of someone insulting it!
After a four-to-five-minute period of roaring, where close to two months’ worth of suffering and struggling had been vented, the boarding ceremony resumed.
This time, everyone’s steps were a lot faster.
After about 10 minutes, when the last villager had stepped onto the deck and stood in line…
The ship tour officially started!
Standing in the open-air command room on the second floor, all of the leaders lined up there while Su Mo stood in front of the rails.
Standing here, he could see all the villagers below, and the villagers could see him standing there above too.
After Su Mo nodded and observed them for a few seconds, the village chief Chen Shen walked out from the line.
“Reporting to the captain.”
“Hope Village’s chief Chen Shen, representing all the villagers here, is requesting a tour of Hope One. Please allow it!”
“Allowed!”
With this short ceremony, as permission was given, Qi Qin—who was sitting on the first floor—pulled the lever.
Wham!
On the main deck, as the lever was pulled down, an opening “appeared” on the steel deck, revealing the path down below the deck.
Following this path, they could reach the core of the ship straightaway.
“Everyone together—two people in a row, ten people in a line—enter the cabin!”
The cabin door opened, and with Wu Feiguang’s shouts leading the lines, the villagers who had lined up started entering the cabin in an orderly fashion.
Down the passageway from the main deck, on the first floor, was where the most important part of the ship was—the living area.
Unlike the stable and comfortable experience on a large luxury oil tanker, on a warship, the living area below the main deck was the most important place.
As it sailed the seas, the ship would constantly be rocking.
Additionally, because the warship was originally meant for battle, everywhere that the eye could see was covered in metal.
In a place like this, if one fell, the lightest they would get off with was some blood, perhaps even a fracture in severe cases.
Hence, Su Mo had arranged for the robot workers to cover most of the sharp corners in the living area with cotton to ensure that nobody would get hurt from falling down.
Everyone’s enthusiasm was naturally high as they toured the interior of the ship.
Just as they walked into the cabin and the lines dispersed, everyone was pleasantly surprised to see that the first floor was where they would be living in the future.
“Huh, my name is marked here! This is where I’ll stay.”
“This is mine. Chen Yi, the two of us are in one room, come and see!”
“Which female room doesn’t have enough people? I don’t mind sleeping on your floor.”
“F*ck me, you guys, go in and see, this room is so big!”
In the first floor’s living area, there were four people assigned to a room.
The space was about 20 square meters in size. Although it was not considered spacious in modern times, it was a top-class luxury in a doomsday setting like this!
From the first room, there were a total of 35 dormitories that had been fully furnished and could fit 140 people, and then there were 15 other rooms on standby in case new people joined.
After these 50 rooms, rooms 51-60 were public areas.
They were: male and female shower rooms*2, male and female bathrooms*2, laundry room*1, medical room*1, kitchen*1, freshwater tank*1, small gym*1, and small living room*1—a total of ten rooms to cater to the crew’s daily living.
From 61-64, four rooms were opened up to use as meeting rooms for the crew to gather together and hold impromptu meetings.
Of course, with so many rooms, the price for that was that all the sports venues a modern ship had, such as a basketball court, badminton court, and entertainment venues, had all been left out.
In the wasteland, activities like this used up too much physical strength, and with the possibility of danger occurring at any time, there was no need for them.
It was enough to have the gym to let the crew have simple exercise activities.
Beneath the living room, which was also the main deck’s second lower floor, was the place where supplies were stored on the ship.
The four large compartments were empty. From left to right, they were the stowage compartment, damage control deck, ammunition space, and oil stowage compartment.
Although no supplies had been moved in yet, it could be deduced from the full five-meter height of the bays how spectacular they would be when they were packed full in the future.
As for the third floor, it was the captain’s cabin as well as the ship’s core.
The enter ship’s power system and pipeline network was located here, which would supply the rest of the ship.
In one morning, after touring the ship, the time had reached 11 o’clock in the morning.
The cook was also on the deck, using the temporary stove to make fragrant mutton soup!
The mutton here was naturally also a gift from the Zeus Shelter. On this festive day, it had been taken out and stewed into a rich soup.
Every villager could get a bowl and, after finishing it, they could get off the ship with a warm body and full stomach!
“Not bad. The whole schedule was arranged very well.”
“Starting tomorrow, we can start loading the supplies. Oh, yeah, I need to leave some weapons behind before I leave the village.”
Sitting in the open-air command room on the second floor, after watching all the villagers leave the ship, Su Mo straightened his body and stood up.
Guns were always a sensitive topic.
Before order in the village had stabilized, Su Mo had been extremely strict on gun control.
However, now that all the villagers had settled down, in addition to the fact that he was about to go on a long voyage, he had to leave weapons behind for the villagers to protect themselves.
After he said this, Chen Shen beside him stood up at once as well and nodded fervently.
“Alright then, Brother Su, I’ll go with them to deal with some things. I won’t linger now.”
“Go ahead!”
As the disaster was just about to arrive, it was not just Su Mo who was busy. There were still two stages of construction work that had yet to be completed here at Hope Village.
After watching Chen Shen walk down the wooden stairs and get off the boat, Su Mo watched as the crowd started to return to Iron Rock Mountain, but he did not get offboard. Instead, he focused his consciousness and opened his friends list to send a message.
Not long after, Pei Shao and Zhong Qingshu, who were in charge of intelligence, quietly sneaked back on board the ship.
They were still on the second floor, but this time, they did not choose the open-air command room.
After making sure nobody would eavesdrop, the two of them went into the conference room.
The moment they entered, seeing the two of them deep in thought, Su Mo was startled and started to feel a little like something was wrong.
“You couldn’t find them? They’re around 20 thousand foreign race creatures. There’s no way they could vanish without a trace, right?”
