Lord of the Sky City

For no apparent reason, a thousand people had been snatched away, and Matu would definitely not let this go. How he held a grudge against Rocky was one thing, but Baron Wolin was certainly someone he couldn't spare!

So on the very night that the war ended, Baron Wolin was promptly captured. In Matu's view, he had to repay whatever he lost to Rocky, and if he couldn't pay it back, he would pay with his life!

And facing an angry Matu, Baron Wolin's big backers were useless, because no matter how incapable Matu was, he was still a City Lord!

On the other hand, Rocky, who had returned to Thunderhawk City, was naturally in high spirits. He had won the war and snatched away a full thousand people—how could he not be happy?

But as City Lord, even if he was overjoyed, he couldn't afford to be idle, especially now.

After returning to Thunderhawk City, he immediately called Old Jack, who had stayed behind in the city, and asked him to take care of the new residents he brought back. Seeing the many people Rocky had brought with him, Old Jack was shocked and immediately got busy.

At the same time, Rocky once again activated Thunderhawk City's flight mode, moving far away from the airspace where the great battle had just taken place.

Although Rocky had won the great battle against Baron Wolin, it also meant that he and Thunderhawk City had completely fallen out with the Mairente Family. So, Rocky had to prepare for the worst, preventing the family from retaliating against him.

The recent aerial battle had almost completely wiped out Baron Wolin's fleet, with only a few reconnaissance ships escaping back to Matu City. It was an utter defeat; however, the victorious Rocky had also suffered severe losses.

At the beginning of the battle, Rocky's fleet consisted of twenty-seven warships, three of which were destroyed by Orton. That left twenty-four, but when he returned to Thunderhawk City after winning the battle, he brought back only nine warships. Aside from the flagship and the escort ships, only seven reconnaissance ships remained!

In other words, Rocky won the battle, but his fleet lost more than two-thirds of its ships! Furthermore, from the flagship to the escort ships and down to the reconnaissance ships, each returned warship was badly damaged!

The only consolation was that both the flagship and the escort ships were relatively intact. Although these two large warships were also severely damaged, with some repairs, they would be good as new.

Another point was the comparatively fewer casualties on the Thunderhawk City side—note that it was not fewer casualties overall but fewer for Thunderhawk City's crew.

Right from the start of the battle, Rocky played it smart. He assigned the Thunderhawk City crew to the flagship and the escort ships, while the crew hired from Eternal City were placed on the reconnaissance ships. Therefore, when the battle ended, as the two large warships were still standing, Thunderhawk City's crew had minimal losses, but the hired crew faced substantial losses.

But that was unavoidable. Rocky didn't want anyone to die, but if someone had to, he would rather sacrifice pawns to save the game, letting others take the fall.

In summary, the battle resulted in heavy losses for Rocky, so facing possible retaliation from the Mairente Family, he could only choose to dodge their sharp edge, take a breather, and make long-term plans after recuperating.

Three days passed quickly, and Thunderhawk City had long since left the previous airspace thanks to full-speed flight. Also, after three days, Old Jack had properly settled all the people Rocky had brought back.

"My lord, this is the detailed information about the new residents. Please take a look,"

In the City Lord's Hall, Old Jack handed a thick stack of documents to Rocky, which were the data he had compiled after taking inventory of the new residents.

Taking the document, Rocky flipped through it for a moment and couldn't help but smile. He hadn't expected the quality of the thousand people Matu had given him to be quite high, with a considerable number of young adults among them.

To his surprise, he had anticipated that Matu would send him a thousand of the old, weak, sick, and disabled, but the reality was quite the opposite. Matu had provided a fair share of each demographic: the elderly, adults, and children.

The truth wasn't that Matu was being generous but rather that he had no choice.

Of course, Matu had considered offloading the city's old, weak, sick, and disabled to Rocky, but let's not forget that the children of these people were strong and young. If Matu had taken away these individuals' parents to give to Rocky, chaos would have inevitably broken out in Sky City. Therefore, Matu had no choice but to hand over the most useless and incompetent group of people to Rocky.

However, this approach didn't really concern Rocky. Thunderhawk City was at the beginning stages of development; whether people had skills didn't matter as long as they were willing to work and learn, which made them valuable to Thunderhawk City.

Nonetheless, every coin has two sides. While Rocky had acquired a considerable population this time, strengthening Thunderhawk City significantly, it also led to numerous problems.

For example, Thunderhawk City had once again plunged into a financial crisis.

"My Lord, we need to find ways to increase our fiscal revenue…"

When Old Jack had finished reporting the administrative matters and the finance officer Aileen opened her mouth to speak, her expression had turned to one of worry. With the population continuously growing, the financial pressure on Thunderhawk City had become the primary concern.

They had no choice, as Thunderhawk City's population increase was simply too rapid. Just two or three months earlier, they had absorbed a thousand people from Backhill Village. To help these new residents settle down, Rocky not only started the second phase of training but also built factories.

However, before these were even completed, another thousand people were added, which threw Thunderhawk City's finances into severe crisis.

Keep in mind that although Thunderhawk City's population had grown, its income had not increased accordingly.

The new leather factory was completed, but only a dozen people who had undergone the first phase of training could work there. It wasn't until after the second phase of training that a large number of people could start working and the factory could begin full operations.

Before that, Thunderhawk City's main source of income was still the textile industry, but the people capable of weaving were still the city's original residents, leading to a severe imbalance between income and expenditure.

The revenue from the work of a little over a thousand people had to sustain a population of three thousand, which was completely unsustainable.

"How long can the money in the treasury last?"

Rocky was well aware of the financial pressure Thunderhawk City was facing and was also trying to find solutions.

"Including the remaining funds in the treasury and the cloth exports for the next quarter, we can hold out for at most three months."n/ô/vel/b//jn dot c//om

"Only three months...?"

Upon learning that, even with the remaining treasury funds and the income from the cloth sales for the next quarter, Thunderhawk City could only hold out for three months, Rocky involuntarily furrowed his brow because it meant that within three months, he must find a way to generate revenue, or Thunderhawk City would not be able to keep going...