Cangyuan is currently like a beast devouring production capacity, forever hungry, forever unsatisfied.
Is it really too difficult to take on Red Iron Town, with over 3,600 people, with a force of only 26...?
Lu Yuan faced a difficult problem.
Looking at the more than five thousand tons of scrap steel obtained during the war, his heart was filled with anxiety because the lack of production capacity prevented it from being immediately converted into rows of brand-new weapons and power armor!
"Let's first provide rewards for the instances," he looked up and said to the Butler.
"This way, for every Mechanical Hive taken down in the future, all participating players will be rewarded with 'Pioneer Medals' based on their combat performance. These medals can be exchanged for power armor accessories and other weapons and equipment.
"After accumulating a certain number of Pioneer Medals, players can increase their character's 'Pioneer Level'. Different tiers of equipment purchase rights will gradually unlock as the Pioneer Level increases.
"Practical and inexpensive equipment will be placed on lower-level shelves, while costly equipment or equipment that requires more sophisticated user operation skills will be placed on higher-level shelves."
I need to assign Jubian a few more tasks and have him develop more powerful weapons that can stimulate players' desire to purchase.
Lu Yuan thought to himself.
"Oh, right, this Pioneer Level should be displayed behind the player's name in real-time, just like the character level, as a display of strength," he added finally.
"Excellent management skills!" The Butler passionately flattered, "This can both stimulate the enthusiasm of the employees and optimize resource allocation. It is truly a brilliant plan! What about the production plan?"
"The production plan remains unchanged," Lu Yuan stated resolutely.
"Unchanged...? Red Iron Town will face a famine in a month."
"Not necessarily," Lu Yuan smiled and shook his head, "I have another plan. I can't say it will solve the problem completely, but it is definitely worth a try."
That industrial ship in synchronous orbit should significantly increase production capacity!
"Huh? Really?"
The Butler scanned its memory but found no useful data.
"Are you by any chance planning to use those advanced 3D printers to directly fix carbon dioxide from the air and then synthesize starch?" It asked in a speculative tone.
Artificial starch synthesis is not some black technology; humans had already mastered it in the early 21st century. However, it requires a complete set of complex production processes and equipment.
Moreover, the entire process is quite power-intensive, and using 3D printing for atomic-scale operations is even more so. The energy utilization efficiency is not as good as the genetically engineered rice currently grown in Cangyuan.
"No, that's not essentially different from your first plan. I've roughly calculated that it would require consuming 120,000 kilowatt-hours of electricity per day to print enough carbohydrates to feed the entire town, which would still distort the production plan I set earlier."
"Indeed... Could it be to eat the corpses of the Raiders? Most of the retrieved corpses have already been decomposed into amino acid raw materials. There are only over 100 frozen in the warehouse, which won't last long either."
You...
Are you playing Stellaris?
Lu Yuan glanced at the Butler helplessly.
As expected of a silicon-based life form, a potential Driven Assimilator, capable of uttering such shocking words in such a calm tone. Fortunately, it didn't directly include human corpses in the food reserves.
"The path to salvation lies in the brilliant starry sky above!"
He patted the Butler's hard titanium alloy shoulder.
"Go prepare the methane and liquid oxygen needed for the space mission. I'll head to Red Iron Town first. Oh, right, have you finished the economic system I asked you to do before?"
Butler: "It's finished. It can be implemented with just a word from you."
Lu Yuan: "Excellent!"
…………
That evening, Lu Yuan arrived at Red Iron Town.
Standing on a platform halfway up the mine mountain, the entire town was visible.
The act of gifting mining robots had an immediate effect. The mining capacity of one robot is equivalent to 7 miners, plus their old mechanized mining tools. Currently, 150 miners have no ore to mine.
The Old Town Chief was well aware that idle young and middle-aged men could create security risks, so he arranged for all these people to work for Cangyuan.
At this moment, some of them were helping build houses, while more were swinging shovels and hoes, digging sewers.
The combat suits provided by Cangyuan allowed them to work during the day without fear of the scorching heat or dangerous ultraviolet radiation from the sun.
With the sewers and sewage treatment plant coming into use, flushing toilets with water, something unimaginable in the past, is about to become a reality soon.
The happiest people these past few days were the town's children. They hid in the shade, fascinated, watching the Cangyuan Engineers in their Worker Ant exoskeletons perform civil engineering work. They could watch for an entire day.
Excellent civil engineering brothers should have their interest cultivated from a young age.
"Executive Officer! Good afternoon!"
Led by Black Smoke, a group of Engineer players climbed the hillside and found Lu Yuan.
They had received mass messages and knew there were new professional tasks waiting for them, and each one was full of energy.
"Good afternoon, how is the cooperation with the locals going?" Lu Yuan asked.
"Very well! This is an industrial town, and the townspeople previously had experience operating heavy machinery. Most of them are descendants of Eastern races, very smart, and they learn things quickly!"
Black Smoke replied.
"One pool in the sewage treatment plant is now operational, and we plan to finish building the remaining 7 pools within 10 days, which can meet the needs of the entire town! Improved housing is slower; only 6 units have been built so far, with over 40 families waiting behind, so..."
"We have a special request, Executive Officer!" Coffee Cat stepped forward.
"The honor points of a few of us combined add up to over 5500. Could we... exchange them for a production line?"
"Of course you can," Lu Yuan answered without hesitation, "You can produce anything you like, including production lines and 3D printers. This is something I promised before.
"However, I still need to ask, what do you plan to use this production line for?"
Cangyuan is a company and also a state.
As long as the individual production and operation activities of the players can be converted into the company's hard power in some form in the future, not only should they not be restricted, but they should also be encouraged.
However, if they want to use Cangyuan's technology and resources to nourish Cangyuan's opponents, that is not allowed.
Lu Yuan could instantly kick players offline through the system, temporarily prohibit login, or permanently delete accounts, so there was no need to worry about lacking strong punitive measures.
"To produce prefabricated house components and earn more experience," Coffee Cat said with a hint of grievance in her tone, "Our speed of building houses is still too slow. Except for Uncle Black Smoke, the operations of others are not as good as the Soldier players. If this continues, the experience gap will only grow wider, and we will become a burden in the future..."