"I might have pushed too hard," Su Wu thought to himself, somewhat surprised by the outcome.
Despite his best efforts to maximize production capacity, he hadn't anticipated that it would escalate to this extent in such a short time. As a result, most of the newly added armed forces were left with no immediate use. They were either temporarily stored in the armory of the farmhouse or repurposed as production tools, contributing to various construction tasks within the shelter.
However, Su Wu couldn't afford to slow down this burst of productivity. The greatest threat posed by the Amethyst Crystal Entities was their indestructible origin and their unknown numbers. Considering that they resided in the asthenosphere of the mantle, which is between 100 to 350 kilometers thick, and comparing that to the average ocean depth of about 4 kilometers, the sheer volume of space that could potentially harbor these entities was staggering.
Just the thought of how many Amethyst Crystal Entities could exist in such a vast world was enough to make one's scalp tingle. In the worst-case scenario, it wouldn't be surprising if their numbers surpassed the total population of all organisms larger than one millimeter on Earth's surface before the apocalypse.
Faced with such daunting numbers, Su Wu knew he had to go all out; otherwise, he wouldn't stand a chance of lasting until the end.
"If production can't stop, then I'll have to find ways to increase revenue," Su Wu mused as he opened a holographic map of the entire Eastern Continent.
Currently, the communication signal towers covered the Kuangjiang River basin and the area around Yu'an City. Among the subsidiary shelters under his direct control, apart from the approximately 30 million people still waiting to be relocated, there were only basic necessities like food, essential equipment, and low-value materials such as fuel needed for their survival.
Once the population was fully relocated, perhaps by recycling equipment and building materials, he could squeeze out one last wave of resources. But until then, there wasn't much significant value to be had.
"In the Kuangjiang River basin, the official shelters can't be touched for now. After all, they still have an account within the federal satellite network and haven't completely severed ties with the upper echelons of the federation. However, the civilian shelters below are fair game for annexation."
Don't be fooled by Su Wu's internet network, which covers the entire Eastern Continent and boasts hundreds of millions of active users. As the master of this network, he can ensure that no information leaks out if he so desires. Even those who post messages might not realize that their posts are being manipulated; they can still see their own posts and interact with others, but those interactions are either with artificial intelligence or replies that have been altered by AI, completely distorting the original intent.
Under the dual strategy of strict online censorship and real-world communication interference, making a few shelters in the same city disappear without a trace is not difficult. Moreover, these disappearing civilian shelters have essentially already been abandoned by the federation, with their direct channels for federal aid cut off. Even if the local official shelters wanted to protect them, it's unlikely to draw the federation's attention.
"Even if I'm completely wrong about the federation's stance, with the current scale of the farmhouse, it's more than capable of withstanding the federation's wrath and securing a chance for negotiation. The cost of trial and error isn't prohibitively high."
The civilian shelters in the Kuangjiang River basin might have only one-third or even one-fifth of the resources accumulated by the local official shelters, but their sheer numbers make up for it. If he could annex them all, Su Wu would gain resources equivalent to one or two provinces. The potential gains are significant, and the risk of failure is bearable.
The more Su Wu contemplated, the more he realized this was the right path to take.
"Then, in other regions of the Eastern Continent, those shelters labeled as anti-human factions can also start being cleared out one by one."
Currently, Su Wu's 90 merchant fleets have been fully expanded, each capable of transporting tens of thousands of tons of goods or 8,000 passengers at once. Such formidable transport capacity, when used solely for relocations in the Kuangjiang River basin and around Yu'an City, was somewhat excessive and wasteful.
"Using just those ordinary modified vehicles, a large-scale relocation could move three to four million people to the farmhouse. To accommodate this influx, the farmhouse had to abandon most of its functional areas and focus on building standard dormitories. In this situation, there's no need for the merchant fleets to be involved; they might as well be used elsewhere to generate revenue."
"While eliminating the anti-human factions in other regions, we can also expand the trading network across the entire Eastern Continent."
If everything goes smoothly, the profits from this endeavor could surpass those from annexing the civilian shelters in the Kuangjiang River basin. However, the time and risks involved would also be significantly greater. Su Wu must be prepared for the possibility of merchant fleet losses.
"Additionally, scavenging resources from other shelters can only serve as a short-term emergency measure. The bulk of resource acquisition will still rely on mining and recycling building ruins."
With the advent of the High-Frequency Oscillator, Su Wu's ore mining speed at various sites has significantly increased. But this isn't enough. He needs faster extraction rates and more mines to meet the seemingly bottomless resource demands of rapid military expansion.
"It seems I need to have the sentinels stationed near the communication signal towers accelerate the geological exploration of the surrounding areas to identify as many mineral resources as possible."
Su Wu isn't picky about the size of the mineral resources. Even a small deposit of iron ore, just a few dozen tons hidden deep in the mountains, isn't too little. With the massive air transport fleet, spider robots that can traverse most terrains, and the High-Frequency Oscillator that can quickly pulverize the ground, a functional mine can be established anywhere within a few hours.
The only difference is that larger mines will have one or more underground transport tunnels built to send the ore to the nearest subsidiary shelter for processing, while smaller ones will simply have spider robots or Azure Sky-Class Transport Drones manually transport the ore out.
Besides natural mineral resources, the cities built before the apocalypse, now mostly reduced to ruins by earthquakes and extreme cold and snow, are also massive man-made mines worthy of significant investment for extraction.
As Su Wu marked the locations of resources to be collected or plundered on the holographic map, he suddenly realized that his seemingly excessive spider robot army was now insufficient to meet these vast demands.
"Once all these marked resource points are exploited, perhaps even if the number of Amethyst Crystal Entities reaches trillions, I can still firmly protect this small area of the farmhouse," Su Wu thought with a glimmer of hope in his eyes.
After a long while, he finally averted his gaze from the holographic map and returned to the control console to begin today's research work.
Compared to simply increasing the quantity of basic resources, advancing technology often leads to a much greater enhancement of overall strength. Just like the difference between a piece of metal used to make a sword and one used to make an Electromagnetic Rifle, the damage caused by thousands of swords wielded by humans might not even match that of a single Electromagnetic Rifle.
In terms of technological development, what Su Wu once cared about most was controlled nuclear fusion. Successfully developing controlled nuclear fusion would free him from dependence on rare metals like uranium for conventional nuclear power plants and eliminate the need for traditional fossil fuels like coal and natural gas, providing an almost limitless supply of electricity at this stage.
However, after expending thousands of points of Spirituality in a series of preliminary experiments and research, Su Wu had to face the reality that controlled nuclear fusion is a massive project that could exhaust all his current resources without guaranteeing a breakthrough.
"There were rumors before the apocalypse that humans had successfully achieved controlled nuclear fusion. But when I actually started researching it, the difficulty was incredibly high. Could those rumors have been false?" Su Wu wondered, somewhat frustrated and helpless, and decided to shelve the research for now.
After sitting at the control console and pondering for a while, Su Wu turned his attention to the collected remains of the Amethyst Crystal Entities.
"It's now confirmed that the remains of the Amethyst Crystal Entities, after completely losing their activity, transform into a safe special material. We can use this as a foundation to research more powerful lasers, electromagnetic acceleration tracks, and engines."
Material is one of the biggest constraints on technological development. Conversely, the discovery of a new material often leads to the development of new technologies. Unlike other new materials, the potential of Amethyst Crystal Entity remains is immense, with research directions directly pointing to the military fields Su Wu currently needs most.
Adding these three research projects to his work log, Su Wu first chose to research the electromagnetic acceleration track.
At first glance, this project might seem unremarkable, but it's actually a crucial technology. Once successfully developed, it would enable Su Wu to manufacture super-large electromagnetic cannons, completing the final piece of the farmhouse's high-end strategic weaponry.
"The Eden Satellite's space-based weapons are the ultimate trump card. The Miniature Mechs' tactical nuclear weapons, the ballistic missiles based on space rockets with 20-ton metallic hydrogen warheads, are strategic weapons. The 120mm electromagnetic cannons, Electromagnetic Rifles, and various rockets, grenades, and aerial bombs made of metallic hydrogen are conventional weapons."
"Currently, the conventional weapons are not lacking in firepower. As for strategic weapons, their limited numbers make them not easily deployable, and their vast strike range doesn't necessarily increase their killing power per unit area compared to conventional weapons."
"The emergence of super-large electromagnetic cannons will address these two shortcomings of strategic weapons and provide a main weapon for boss battles—if such things exist among the Amethyst Crystal Entities."
After burning 300 Spirituality and researching until evening, a short warning sound snapped Su Wu out of his research state. He turned to see a faint red glow on the holographic map around the Qinling Mountains.
He stood up, approached the holographic map, zoomed in on the Qinling Mountains section, and retrieved some camera footage from the firepower platforms located there.
Small and large Amethyst Crystal Entities were seen jumping out of the magma lakes in the Magma Canyon like fish, only to quickly fall back into the magma. Each time they leaped, they triggered Su Wu's warning system and were attacked by the firepower platforms on either side of the canyon. Some were destroyed in the process, while others managed to dodge or even withstand a hit and return to the magma.
"Has it only been a short time since they evolved again?" Su Wu felt another headache coming on.
He carefully observed the Amethyst Crystal Entities leaping out of the magma and used the canyon's observation equipment to analyze them further. In the end, he dispatched several Express Delivery Drones, risking being splashed by the rolling magma, to capture one of the Amethyst Crystal Entities.
In a simple temporary laboratory above the Magma Canyon, they dissected and experimented on the captured entity. The results showed that these Amethyst Crystal Entities had developed a compressed air sac inside their structure, allowing them to jump briefly by expelling gas, with a maximum instantaneous speed of 20 meters per second.
"One can burrow underground, and the other can fly. They're getting more and more creative," Su Wu muttered with a slight hesitation.
He decided to add 200 more firepower platforms and 1,000 Combat Drones to the canyon walls. Since the Amethyst Crystal Entities had gained the ability to jump briefly, the firepower network targeting them also needed to be expanded accordingly. After all, hitting a moving target is much harder than hitting a stationary one.
After continuing to shore up the defenses around the Qinling Mountains, Su Wu turned his attention back. He was no longer in the mood to continue his research, so he began to review the recent construction reports from Jianghe City.
"All urban subsidiary shelters have an average space utilization rate of 37%. Food production has reached the standard to feed 45 million people, but meat production is still insufficient. Even the cheapest chicken breast can only meet the daily needs of less than one-thousandth of the population. Fertilizer consumption is also enormous; another trip will need to be organized to transport a batch of potash fertilizer from neighboring Tumen City."
A space utilization rate of 37% is no small figure. After all, a shelter's internal structures and the basic equipment needed to keep it running occupy a significant amount of space.
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