Chapter 274 Arms Race
Time slowly passed.
The snow and wind raging among the mountains became increasingly violent.
In extreme low temperatures.
The large number of flowers of the underworld, which were only in their budding stage, were covered under the thick snow.
They have passed their most dangerous stage.
And the special nutrients extracted by them, using the sounds that fill the air as a bridge, gather little by little into the depths of the underground lava canyon.
At some point.
The magma lake flowing on the surface of the magma canyon.
A purple crystal surface.
Suddenly, dense cracks appeared.
Then it gradually stretches and lengthens to form a body shape like an earthworm.
Then a few minutes later.
It squirmed its body slightly and slowly came to the junction of the lava lake and the shore.
It drilled into the hard rock little by little.
Day 2.
After eating the breakfast prepared by Chenxin.
Su Wu came to the control center.
I plan to check on Amethyst before dealing with the daily affairs of the shelter.
And soon.
His original casual attitude was replaced by solemnity.
According to detectors deployed in Magma Canyon.
Those purple crystals that were supposed to move passively following earthquakes or magma actually gained the ability to move actively a few hours ago.
It can even travel through rock formations.
By now, preliminary estimates show that there are already thousands of purple crystals.
Spreading around the bottom of the lava canyon.
And this is only the case within 50 meters underground.
At deeper levels, beyond the scanning range of mass-produced crystal detectors.
Exactly how much amethyst is quietly spreading is completely unknown.
This moment.
Su Wu felt extremely troubled.
If it was on the surface, it would be fine, but it is spreading from underground.
How should he defend himself?
But amid the bad news, there is some good news.
The total number of these evolved amethysts obviously has a certain upper limit.
In the magma channel that leads directly to deep underground, there are still a large number of purple crystals that have not shown any changes.
At the same time, the evolved purple crystal has an extremely limited speed of active movement.
The average speed is only between 30 and 45 meters per hour.
It is much slower than the speed of a tunnel boring machine.
"Lock on all underground purple crystals and drop armor-piercing shells."
"Change the patrol route of the Pioneer-class land destroyer and head to Qinling Mountain in advance."
His expression was solemn.
Su Wu first issued two emergency orders in succession.
No matter what the real situation is, it is definitely right to cut off the visible part of the spread trend first.
Received authorization from Su Wu.
Firepower platforms on the rock walls on both sides of the lava canyon.
Dozens of specially made armor-piercing rockets were fired at the canyon floor.
After a few seconds.
Accompanied by a continuous dull roar.
An area on the canyon floor adjacent to a lava lake.
There was a violent vibration in an instant.
It even caused the nearby lava lake to boil.
Thousands have undergone initial evolution.
Amethyst worked hard to navigate the rock formations for half the night.
Before they could even react, they were completely destroyed in the explosion.
It is more than ten kilometers away from the lava canyon.
The huge Pioneer-class land destroyer slowly turned in the white snow.
Crushing over an irregular layer of ice.
Rumbling towards the lava canyon.
The obstacles of extremely cold weather and snow.
Nothing can stop this steel behemoth created with mankind's most advanced technology.
And as it approaches.
Information from deeper underground began to appear before Su Wu's eyes.
"Not here, not here either."
Su Wu compared the holographic map.
Looking at the data transmitted back by the Pioneer-class land destroyer, the pressure in my heart was relieved little by little.
Thanks to his timely discovery.
The situation underground has not yet reached the point where it is out of control.
The activity range of amethyst.
It is still confined to the lava canyon area.
However, the subsequent situation is not optimistic.
Deeper underground, 50 meters below, there are more than 12,000 purple crystals spreading irregularly in all directions.
At the same time, the total number of these evolved amethysts.
As time goes by, it continues to grow.
On average, dozens of purple crystals appear every minute, starting from the lava lake in the lava canyon and drilling into the rock formations on the shore.
"We need to find a way to stop these things."
If you have to say it.
It's not that Su Wu didn't have weapons that could reach hundreds of meters underground.
Even if he gritted his teeth and launched a space-based attack from the Eden satellite.
It wouldn't be too difficult to level the entire lava canyon.
But this is basically meaningless.
The origin of amethyst is most likely the same as the origin of magma.
They all come from the mantle asthenosphere 80 to 400 kilometers deep from the surface.
Such a deep distance.
Not to mention wiping them out, just reaching that area with the attack is countless times harder than climbing to the sky.
"It is basically impossible to completely eliminate the purple crystals from the source."
"It's the only thing I can do."
"It's in the shallow area close to the ground."
"Try to snipe them and don't give them room to develop."
Su Wu sorted out his thoughts carefully.
Want to find a solution.
And when his eyes inadvertently swept across the statistical list, it showed the average movement speed of those evolved purple crystals.
A flash of inspiration suddenly appeared in his mind.
It reminded him of some kind of construction tool.
Tunnel boring machine.
The shield machine equipped with an oscillating crusher can dig an underground material transportation channel of up to 15 kilometers every day.
In terms of movement speed, it is almost ten times faster than those evolved purple crystals.
Nature is the best hunter to hunt them.
"If we destroy the purple crystal underground."
"The shield machine only needs to retain the drill bit at the front and basic mobility."
"It can move even faster."
"The cost is not too high."
"And with the hardness of purple crystals, we just need to find them."
"Let the drill of the shield machine run a few more times, and then transfer it to the incinerator to burn for a while."
"We can easily kill their activity completely, and at the same time obtain the largest amount of debris material."
The more I think about it, the more it seems appropriate.
Su Wu immediately started pulling out the mapping software.
The design drawings of the new shield machine were drawn on site.
Ten minutes later.
The design drawings of the new modified shield machine, named Crystal Hunter Type 1 by Su Wu, have just been released.
Then it is delivered to the Gigafactory.
Jump in line to produce.
noon.
The first Crystal Hunter Type 1 rolled off the Gigafactory's production line.
After being transported to the Lava Canyon by the snow transport truck that had been waiting outside.
The tension and pressure that had been lingering in Su Wu's heart for the whole morning were completely relieved.
With this professional tool for underground.
Even if all the purple crystals evolved the ability to move actively, they would not be able to escape his blockade.
"But it's not enough to just have the interception tools."
"Early warning also needs to be strengthened."
"We have to continue using our survival points to strengthen the third crystal detector."
"This one can be loaded onto a multi-wing drone."
"Let it conduct a wider patrol outside the patrol range of the Pioneer-class land destroyer."
"In this way."
"It should be enough to ensure absolute safety within a 100-kilometer radius."
"As for places further away——"
"We'll see when the time comes."
The new threat posed by Amethyst has been dealt with.
Su Wu opened the underground map of the entire Jianghe City.
After this accident.
He vaguely realized that the security level of those affiliated shelters was probably much lower than he thought.
If Amethyst evolves again in the future and gains some new abilities that he could not predict,
Maybe, before he has time to make a new response.
All of Jianghe City's subsidiary shelters may have been captured by Amethyst.
"It doesn't matter where you farm."
"And even if it is destroyed for a moment."
"We can also use the food in the warehouse as an emergency measure for a while until the new plantation is built."
"There are also activity areas, which are used to relieve the mental stress of residents."
"It would be best if we have it, but if we don't, it won't be a big problem in a short period of time."
"At worst, we can just squeeze in with others and go to the previously built activity areas to rest."
"That's how it works out."
"In the future, there will be new space for underground shelters in farmyards."
"For the time being, other functions can be abandoned and all can be used to build standard dormitories."
"At today's construction speed of 2.2 million square meters per day."
"Enough to accommodate 1.8 million new people every day."
"It's just barely enough to allow all the outsiders who migrate here later to live directly in the farmyards."
Su Wu abandoned the previous balanced plan of simultaneously expanding residential areas and grain production areas.
Once again, the strategy of prioritizing the sheltering of the population was chosen.
Try to gather as many people as possible in the safest farmyard shelter.
As for the series of hidden dangers and pressures brought about by this.
Find another way to solve it.
Anyway, no matter how bad the situation is, it won't be worse than if everyone died.
"We cannot stop building plantations that correspond to the size of the population."
"But they can all be moved to the subsidiary shelter. The remaining space there is enough to accommodate these additional plantations. At most, the risk of being destroyed will be a little higher."
"And the current eight-hour workday."
"It's a bit insufficient."
"Mining, factory production, guarding, fighting, building shelters, etc. all require a large amount of labor."
"After all, if the development speed is not fast enough."
"Let those purple crystals break through the blockade and flood the entire farmyard."
"The consequences are simply too serious."
"In such a life-and-death situation, human rights and labor laws have to take a back seat."
"From now on, everyone's daily labor hours will be forced to increase by two hours. In addition, they will need to work an additional four hours in the game to ensure sufficient spiritual output."
Under serious consideration.
Su Wu formulated a new labor law.
This unprecedentedly strict new regulation will be implemented in the small farmyard shelters that will soon house half a billion people.
The impact it brings is bound to be enormous.
It means that at least tens of millions of people will have basically no time left for themselves except for eating and sleeping every day.
A series of things derived from this, such as love, marriage, childbirth, the Internet and cultural development, will come to a standstill.
"Anyway, even if we leave enough time, there's no place for the shelter residents to give birth to children."
"Just make do with it and focus on development."
"We can consider these future matters after we have built enough studios and family apartments."
Looking at the rules that I modified with my own hands.
Su Wu finally felt that it was a bit too harsh, and after thinking about it, he added an additional regulation.
During the two additional hours of mandatory work, you will receive double the contribution value as compensation.
And these contributions are worth.
Will have higher permissions.
It can be as short as a few months or as late as a year later.
Exchange for higher-level food, education, medical services, and other luxuries from the shelter officials.
"Everything for survival—"
The next few days.
Because of the new labor law and the first large-scale population transfer, a large number of new people continued to pour into the farmyards from the Kuanjiang River Basin and the surrounding areas of Yu'an City.
The development speed of the entire Jianghe City has once again been raised to a higher level.
The excavation of the 8th underground floor of the farmhouse, which had been stopped, started again.
at the same time.
The construction of the sixth underground floor of the farmyard was officially completed.
In order to save time, the increasingly large engineering team simultaneously started excavation work from the 5th underground level to the 1st underground level.
These measures combined have increased the expansion rate of farmyards from 2.2 million square meters per day to more than 3 million square meters.
While the size of the farmyard itself continues to increase.
Su Wu's military power also gained a terrifying boost.
The number of heavy-duty main combat spider robots exceeded 10,000, and the number of multi-wing drones and express-level drones reached 200,000.
The number of ordinary spider robots has exceeded one million.
However, it is different from the previous two in that it is almost purely used in the military field.
Among ordinary spider robots, only 300,000 belong to the off-line category. They are responsible for ensuring the safety of the surface transfer fleet and blocking the Qinling Mountains.
The remaining 700,000 units.
Still participating in various types of labor.
In addition, there are robot dogs whose number exceeds that of ordinary spider robots by several times, serving as auxiliary combat tools and auxiliary labor tools.
Widely used in every corner of Jianghe City.
Many ordinary people who do not enter the remote control center or are assigned exoskeleton armor and need to personally participate in physical labor will be assigned a robot dog.
Used to increase their labor efficiency.
At the same time, a Crystal Hunter Type 1 shield machine is used to clear out the Evolved Purple Crystals that can actively move underground.
Hundreds of units were produced one after another.
They are like miniature underground trains, shuttling back and forth under the lava canyon all day long.
A strict underground protection network has been built.
Make sure that all purple crystals cannot appear in the underground world within 5 kilometers from the surface.
And as the price of such rapid expansion.
More than half of the resources that Su Wu had painstakingly plundered from the Kuanjiang River Basin and Yu'an City area were consumed.
Even ordinary steel, which was once the most abundant, has become scarce.