Chapter 266 - The Difficulty Of Building A Ship Is Harder Than Trying To Reach The Sky
Chapter 266: The Difficulty Of Building A Ship Is Harder Than Trying To Reach The Sky
A human traitor was revealing information about human beings’ activities to the foreign races.
After the foreign races received this information, they would disseminate it to others on the chat channel, forming a hunting network.
Currently, on the wasteland, there were no foreseeable threats for the time being because the area was far too vast.
However, once the oceans were accessible, it would truly be like what had been mentioned on the World Channel—most of the humans would band together and head to the new world.
During this voyage, if the human traitor leaked information about the route, the foreign races could gang up and ambush the humans beforehand. That would really spell the end for mankind.
“F*ck, things are getting increasingly complicated.
“What worries me the most now is if the foreign races on both land and sea join hands to conspire against us. We need to contact other official shelters as soon as possible to think of ways to solve this.”
Based on his experience, the officials might have more information available and more ideas on how to deal with things.
For example, given a situation like this, perhaps the humans could entice some “traitors” from the foreign races.
Relying on these traitors, humans could also convey false information through the chat channel.
In this way, they could lure out other foreign races and send them to their deaths, using misdirection to the humans’ advantage.
“The lioness…
“Might be quite a good way into the enemy’s camp!”
Su Mo drummed the fingers of one hand on the table and looked at objectives he had designated for the ocean disaster in his plan. After some thought, he added another one…
Inciting defection on the enemy’s side!
If going against this world was the grand, ultimate goal, then the foreign races would be a smaller target in this ultimate goal.
Treasure chests could be obtained by killing foreign races. These treasure chests contained modular technology that humans desperately needed, or there might be any number of unusual supplies.
As long as the foreign races were not as thick in the head as a metal brick, given the history of human wars, it was completely possible to find a “partner” if sufficiently generous incentives were given.
“At present, there are two things that must be ascertained.
“The first is whether or not these foreign races are genuinely dumb as bricks, and if the newly emerged marine foreign races are in the same camp as the land-based ones.
“The second thing is whether or not there truly is a traitor among the humans who has already been in contact with the foreign races.”
After jotting down these two points in his diary, Su Mo looked at the clock and saw that the hour hand was already close to one in the morning. Even though his current energy levels could not be compared to anyone else’s, he was already feeling a little sleepy.
The more he found out, the more he kept thinking.
Chen Shen was still consciously pondering on how to loosen the lioness’ tongue so they could lure other foreign races to their door.
However, Su Mo’s thoughts were occupied with the “imminently dangerous” situation that mankind might be facing in twenty days when the ocean disaster hit.
If there was truly communication between the foreign races, they would probably join forces since human beings were as enticing to them as a particularly fine cheese.
It was like closing around prey during a hunt, herding all the relocated humans to a specific location, and eliminating them all in one fell swoop.
If this was not handled properly, not only would mankind suffer heavy losses in this war, but they would also be in an extremely difficult situation when they went to the new world, where the foreign races were more than several times more powerful.
“The new world is such enticing bait!
“For the time being, there’s no need to think too much first. I can only hope Chen Shen will be able to get more information from his interrogations.”
Su Mo got himself ready to go to bed, returned to his bunk, and stared at the dark ceiling. It did not take him long to fall sound asleep.
Even though the human beings in the wasteland had reached this point in their survival situation, at least Hope Village would still be able to develop steadily.
Time was very pressing; nonetheless, there was no need to be in such a hurry!
Everything could be planned in the long run!
…
The night passed quietly by…
When the sun came up, the village’s temporary, yet simple and fulfilling agricultural life resumed once more without disturbance from anyone.
The countdown was 19 days before the ocean disaster. Due to the relocation of Candlelight Village and the establishment of Hope Village, Su Mo managed to collect a few more survival points—a grand total of 1980 points, which covered what he had spent for the reversion of the mermaid’s blessing.
Waking up in the morning and taking advantage of the first glimmers of dawn, Su Mo took all the necessary materials and situated the first big factory affiliated with the Underground Shelter. He set it down on the ground 500 meters away…
A miniature shipyard!
This shipyard—large enough to build a spaceship—did not require a massive construction site, given it had only four accessory modules.
Except for a rumbling sound like thunder, there was basically no more noise after the framework had been built.
Before the dust had even settled, a large shipyard had appeared impressively on what had previously been empty land.
When put together with the base materials that were piled up around, it closely resembled the materials prepared before building a big city.
Moore, who had eaten his fill last night, was still sleeping when early morning came. Su Mo immediately went inside the shipyard and began researching how to build the destroyer.
Time slowly ticked on, from six o’clock to seven o’clock, then seven-thirty…
When a handful of villagers who were light sleepers woke up, they abruptly realized that what had been empty land yesterday…
Now sported scaffolding eighty meters long.
“What the f*ck. Come over here quickly and take a look—what’s that!”
“This can’t be where that warship is going to be built, right. F*ck, how can eighty meters only be that long!”
“You’re talking nonsense, 80 meters is as tall as a 25-story building. Think of which floor you live on!”
“Was this here when we came yesterday???”
The early morning hours were still and quiet.
The voices of these few loud individuals were particularly shrill.
Some of the villagers who could not sleep were about to mumble something and try and sleep some more. However, the sounds from outside were increasing in volume.
“We just went to bed around two o’clock last night. Do you want to die suddenly, waking up so early!”
The villagers climbed out of their beds, rubbing their bleary eyes grumpily and cursing. Just as they were getting ready to storm out and vent their annoyance, they were shocked at what they saw from a distance. All traces of drowsiness vanished completely.
In front of the Underground Shelter was a shipyard with sunlight reflecting off it, looking like a crouching dragon on the ground.
The black glossy scaffolding firmly secured the dragon’s skeleton, which stretched for miles. It possessed both the intimidating quality of steel and the majesty of a massive living creature.
On the exterior of the scaffolding were dense networks like blood vessels that connected various areas just like a spider web. It looked very intricate.
At the very front was a small workshop that occupied two hundred ping of space. Steel plates were automatically delivered out through the conveyor belt, laying the base.
An area of around twenty meters was already stacked with steel plates, forming a flat surface. Under the sun, it reflected a different kind of light.
Wow!
The spectacular scene of building a destroyer could hardly be witnessed by ordinary people on Earth, much less on the wasteland.
At first, there were only a handful of people discussing the matter. This slowly became a dozen, until at last, everyone was talking about it and coming up with different strange ideas, much like a boiling pot.
A few teenagers had begun to imagine that Su Mo was some sort of magical cultivator with powers that could move mountains and reclaim the sea through just a gesture.
The management team of Chen Shen and the others, who had been in a meeting, were startled into coming out. They had received Su Mo’s message earlier, so they were at least mentally prepared.
When Chen Shen saw that the crowd was getting out of control, he waved in the air, took out his speaker, and began energetically giving instructions.
“Stop looking, stop looking already. When the time comes, everyone will be able to board it and head to the new world. Now hurry up, get washed, have your breakfast, and get to work.
“Today is the first day of our village being established. Rules are rules, if you can’t get your mission done, you will only get half a portion of dinner.
“Yesterday, every one of you said that you’d be working through the night. Don’t complain about not having enough to eat for dinner tonight, then blaming the new rules for being too strict!”
Qi Qin brought out a gong from nowhere and began sounding it.
Under these urgings, the refugees began to scatter, returning to their places so they could start freshening up.
The schedule for building the destroyer was extremely tight.
It was not easy to build a new village either.
They had to derive a warehouse, an event space, supplies space, training space, and a big hall, all from the initial large mountain cave.
Su Mo certainly did not have the time to keep checking on these details. He could only rely on the remaining people to come up with ideas for construction.
Chen Shen, who had been given his marching orders, would naturally not dare to slack off. After the meeting ended in the morning, they had approved the first foreign trade after the establishment of Hope Village.
They had traded 300 catties of grain in exchange for a full set of blueprints personally created by a famous team of architects on the World Channel.
The grain had been collected using 10% of Hope Village’s taxes. Su Mo even took 5% out to contribute to the village’s operating fund so he could help the village develop.
By eight-thirty in the morning, after everyone had taken their places, the first breakfast of Hope Village was served.
Hele noodles!
It was one of the Shaanxi people’s favorite noodles!
With an ordinary noodle press, a handful of thin chewy dough strands became chili-oil seasoned noodles.
These noodles were very filling and were also the “plain meal” that the Shaanxi people would reward everyone with after a relocation.
Su Mo, who was busy at the foot of the mountain, had now done away with the hassle of preparing meals every day, relying on “takeaway food” instead.
A big pot of soup, two bowls of noodles—it was extremely tasty.
Paired with the garlic that several villagers had secretly planted but eventually divided among everyone, breakfast was utterly satisfying.
“Alright, you can go back now. These are all single-operator machines, there’s nothing you can help with!”
After Su Mo had sent the meal delivery person away and observed Moore still bringing people to transport supplies, he sat in the shipyard and set to work anxiously.
The shipyard was modular technology that had was supposed to be fully automated. However, when it came to actual positioning and operation, it was actually not as easy as he had imagined.
The shipyard’s initial application parameters were to create a spaceship that could navigate through space.
Therefore, after inserting the destroyer’s blueprint, there was no response from the shipyard’s built-in system. It only showed a schematic diagram of where things were to be positioned.
Fortunately, even though modular technology had made rapid advances, it did not leave out the earliest mechanical devices.
By controlling the rather old-fashioned lever, one could also choose to grasp a steel plate and place it in the proper position diagrammed in the blueprint.
If the shipyard’s display flashed red when the steel plate had been positioned, it meant that it had not been laid properly. If not, it was positioned in the correct spot.
In the eyes of everyone else, Su Mo had been working at a fast pace the entire morning. Using all the steel plates that had been manufactured yesterday, he had laid out about twenty meters or so.
However, by the time lunch rolled around, Su Mo, who had a backache from all his hard work, had only corrected half of his mistakes. He had barely completed the positioning and angles of fifteen steel plates.
By controlling the shipyard’s specialized welding arm and connecting those fifteen plates together, he finally finished one-fifth of the ship’s bow.
On Earth, the process was largely similar for constructing a destroyer that was up to standard.
The first step was cutting. The technical term was “plate cutting”—cutting out steel plates that made the grade to complete the first step.
The second step was plate bending by using industrial presses and rollers to mold the steel plates into the desired shapes. Even the angles could not have the slightest disparity.
This step was what set manufacturing standards apart. Whoever had the better plate-bending skills and the higher degree of accuracy would be the one with the strongest ship.
The third step was what Su Mo was doing now—assembly. This was putting together all the prepared materials and shaping them into a hull.
“Building a ship is even harder than trying to reach the sky!”
People built ships in teams of more than ten individuals, each with specific responsibilities and duties.
Here, other than being the sole mechanical arm operator, Su Mo would have to learn all other knowledge from scratch.
Even with the aid of memory transmission after he went to sleep every night and the Mind Ring to help him concentrate, when it came to putting things into actual practice, controlling the machines took a lot out of him.
Su Mo had been working nonstop until around four o’clock in the afternoon; he felt dizzy, and his body began to show signs of low blood sugar. He stopped what he was doing, took out a bottle of psychic energy water, and drank it in one gulp.
“Upgrade—I’ve got to upgrade. If I keep hoarding survival points, I might be dead before this ship is finished!
“I still have 20,000 points left! It’s enough for a small upgrade. I’d love to see the next development in modular technology after that!”
Su Mo focused his thoughts with the mindset of spending whatever survival points needed when it became necessary. There was a flash of light, and the upgrade plan for the shipyard slowly appeared before his eyes!