Wasteland: My items are infinitely upgraded.

Chapter 270 Power Furnace, Artificial Agent
The metal sphere is four meters wide and two meters in radius. The temperature inside is extremely high, requiring constant cooling with clay, fine sand, and cool water.

However, more than a dozen pipes, each as thick as a thigh, are continuously supplying it with energy.

This scene was far beyond Lin Feng's comprehension.

He couldn't understand why such an illogical and dangerous thing would exist inside the warship.

Dozens of workers nearby have been cooling it down with mud, sand and fresh water. Ordinary sand grains were heated to a temperature of 2,000 degrees Celsius in just a few minutes.

The main component of sand is silicon dioxide, also known as quartz sand.

When quartz sand is heated to 1,700 degrees Celsius, it melts and forms a liquid, glassy substance, which then cools and softens into glass.

This is also the main shaping stage of the glass industry.

There were once some professional glassblowers, but for the Oasis electric vehicle industry, the glass shells needed for photovoltaic panels only require one property: light transmittance. They can be purified and processed using molds.

At that moment, another group of workers used tools to dig out the molten liquid glass from under the scalding hot sphere and set it aside for purification.

The main issue is that sand grains contain various metallic elements, such as iron, zinc, and copper. These impurities can cause the glass to discolor when cooled.

The windows of many Oasis vehicles use liquid glass, which contains a large number of impurities at the bottom.

The resulting brown or dark green car windows can effectively reflect sunlight and lower the interior temperature.

After removing the surface foam and impurity layer, as well as the metal layer deposited at the bottom, the remaining liquid glass in the middle section is of acceptable quality.

They were taken to another production workshop to be molded and forged into photovoltaic cover plates of uniform size.

After forging, the grades will be determined based on the translucency, just like the different packages Lin Feng saw the shopkeeper offer at the Dawn Shop of the Hunting Wilderness Guild.

The lower the quality, the more impurities such as bubbles there are, and the lower the power generation efficiency. Conversely, the higher the quality, the better. For example, the Oasis warship uses the highest quality materials.

The glass panel, the most crucial link in the electric vehicle industry chain of Oasis Town, was revealed right before Lin Feng's eyes.

But what puzzled Lin Feng was the source of energy for this scorching hot metal sphere in front of him.

After all, the photovoltaic circuit boards on both sides of the Oasis battleship generate electricity for the three giant electric engines at the rear.

Just as Lin Feng was about to ask a question, Father Su An, who was standing to the side, had already brought the materials he had with him to a workbench connected to the metal sphere.

This is where liquid metal is handled.

The sand and clay used to cool the metal ball contains not only more than half quartz sand, but also a large amount of metal elements.

Iron is the most abundant element, after all, the surface environment of the entire desert is a dark red color of rust.

The molten iron, being heavier, slowly pooled together and flowed into a clay container next to the workbench, where it slowly dissipated heat and cooled down.

It changes from orange-red to dark red, gradually revealing a silvery iron color.

This is only the initial smelting of molten iron; after cooling, only pig iron, which is relatively soft, can be obtained.

To forge it into steel, it needs to be repeatedly smelted and some carbon elements are added to enhance its strength and hardness.

However, this crude pig iron is already a very good industrial raw material. It is usually sent directly to the locomotive village, where it is remelted and shaped to become the chassis and shell of the vehicles in the locomotive village.

Father Suan has come again to take advantage of the convenient conditions here to forge the armor-piercing wolf spear.

After placing the giant steel wolf fang in his hand on the workbench, he noticed the confusion in Lin Feng's eyes, then stared at the blazing metal sphere beside him and explained:

"Take a guess what it is?"

Lin Feng frowned slightly:

"Could it be that it is the true power source of this town-class warship, that is, its power furnace?"

Father Suan was somewhat surprised:

"I didn't expect you to know so much; you already know about the power furnace..."

"By the way, you've already been to the command and control room, so you must have used the Oasis Key to gain the highest level of access. It wouldn't hurt to know something about it."

At this point, Father Suan pointed to the sphere, his tone tinged with emotion:
"That's right, it is the true power source of the Oasis warship, a device called the Power Furnace, which can release dozens of times the power intensity of a giant electric engine in such a small size."

"A giant engine, capable of producing up to 140,000 horsepower, propelled the Oasis warship forward slowly at a speed of 10 kilometers per hour."

"But this unassuming metal sphere is ten times more powerful! It can unleash over a million horsepower, allowing the Oasis warship to crush everything in its path across the wasteland at speeds exceeding 100 kilometers per hour!"

Listening to Father Su An's exclamation, Lin Feng was excited, but he also realized a problem: even if the metal sphere in front of him had a temperature of several thousand degrees, the energy intensity it released was not enough to power the Oasis warship and propel this tens of thousands of tons of steel behemoth across the wasteland desert.

So Lin Feng continued:

"So, is it currently broken, or is it unable to function properly?"

After scanning the Oasis warship, the system displayed attribute data and reminded users that a matching power furnace was needed to unleash its full potential.

In other words, the metal sphere in front of us is not compatible with the warship and may have a problem with itself.

Father Suan nodded:
"Well, actually it stopped working thousands of years ago and could no longer release enough energy to power the external mechanical body."

"Although it is shut down, it still has an unparalleled energy storage structure that can absorb a large amount of energy without limit, and it is energy in any form."

"As for its complex structure and specific composition, no one knows about it now that we live in the wasteland."

"Even if all the technical researchers in the Vatican spent thousands of years, they would still find it difficult to crack its core technology."

At this point, Father Su An continued speaking to Lin Feng while slowly grinding the steel wolf teeth on the table into fine filaments and shavings using a chainsaw:
"It's not hard to see from this that the technology of this power furnace actually originated from the technology left behind by alien spaceships at the end of the Earth's catastrophe in the old era."

"Although humanity was struck by a catastrophe at the time, it also experienced a revival, like a withered tree blossoming in spring. Through evolution, a hundred flowers bloomed, and the emergence of a large number of brain-evolving individuals led to rapid advancements in technology, enabling them to disassemble and replicate alien technology."

"This is a relic from that era."

"Even now, after the power supply is lost, it can still be used to store excess energy, so it naturally became the thermal energy processor of the Oasis Battleship."

"The entire warship's heat port, including the energy from the three giant engines, the friction from the three wheels at the bottom of the warship, and the air exchange in the upper part of the warship, all the excess heat is gathered here."

"After absorbing a large amount of energy, the power furnace can automatically enter an energy compression state, continuously increasing the internal energy density, which appears as a temperature rise from the outside." "According to calculations, its core temperature can even reach tens of millions of degrees, comparable to the center of a nuclear explosion."

"However, the power furnace in front of us is obviously not at that level yet, because the heat that the Oasis warship can gather is actually not much. At most, it can make this power furnace reach a temperature of tens of thousands of degrees."

"Therefore, we also use it as a heat boiler for industrial smelting to produce glass and metals."

"In addition to these, the clay basin bottom that enables heat conversion also has a dense network of cooling water pipes. The heated water will enter the steam turbine at the stern of the warship to generate electricity and charge the warship's battery packs."

"This part of the power is very stable, so in addition to supplying the upper deck of the warship, it is also used to charge the warship's battery packs and store it as a reserve energy for emergencies."

"Although the Oasis warship moves so slowly, with a speed of only one kilometer per hour, once the battery's stored energy is activated and the three giant engines are running at full power, the speed can reach thirty kilometers per hour."

"In just one day, we can create a month's worth of distance gap with the Sun-Scorching Forbidden Zone."

"So even if the Wasteland Wolves attack, the Oasis warships are confident of escaping unscathed."

Lin Feng nodded, then suddenly realized that their discussion might involve leaking secrets, especially since there were many workers nearby.

Even in a noisy environment, it cannot escape the keen hearing of others.

Moreover, Lin Feng also noticed that many of the workers here were early to mid-stage first-tier evolvers. If they wanted to hear Father Su An's powerful and resonant words, they only needed to tilt their ears slightly.

When Lin Feng raised this question, Father Su An patted him on the shoulder:

"Those who are assigned here are basically our own people."

“They were all orphans from Oasis Town. The mortality rate among the wastelanders and hunters was very high. If children who were not even ten years old were left behind, they would only become slaves.”

"Holy Spring Village was originally founded by the bishop. I only made some changes after taking over. As for the children adopted by the village over the years, those with little evolutionary talent have mostly come to the Oasis Warship."

“Especially in important areas, the positions and daily management are basically held by members trained by Shengquan Village.”

"With the help of the church, they have basically all become level nine enhanced humans. After working for twenty years, they will have the opportunity to evolve and transform into evolved humans."

"They can stay here and take on management roles, or move to other areas, or retire in Shengquan Village."

Lin Feng suddenly realized that he had previously wondered where the children of Shengquan Village had gone after they grew up.

Most of them are orphans, and only one in ten have the talent for evolution. Most are ordinary people, and it's normal for them to be stuck in the enhancement stage for their entire lives.

It turns out that all the people trained over the years have been placed on the Oasis warship by His Excellency the Bishop.

The church thus gained firm control over the second most important area on the warship after the command and control room: the engine room at the bottom.

With the nearby workers no longer bothering him, Lin Feng openly and honestly asked about his suspicions:
"So this power furnace must be a component of a planetary engine that was created during the Old Earth era, right?"

"It was also a development project when the Evolution Alliance carried out the Agent Program. This so-called Power Furnace was actually an incubation chamber for the agents."

Upon hearing Lin Feng's astonishing words, Father Su An nearly dropped the grinding tool in his hand and hit his foot, but he quickly recovered and muttered to himself:
"His Excellency the Bishop seems to have mentioned that you've already read the first edition of the Holy Spring Book, no wonder you know these secrets..."

As he spoke, he nodded, his tone becoming more emphasized:

"That's right, the Power Furnace is actually the birthplace of the Agents and the place where these androids are incubated."

"In other words, the agent itself is a mobile planetary engine, and also a planetary life form that was truly realized in the evolutionary theory of that time!"

"Their physical structure is partly derived from alien high technology and partly from the origin of a third-tier king."

"The combination of the two perfectly solves the shortcomings and deficiencies of third-order life forms, such as their huge energy requirements."

“From the very beginning, agents have possessed strength comparable to a third-tier king, or even greater. They do not need to build large royal cities to meet their own energy needs.”

"On the contrary, early planetary engines, as well as large human-built bases or underground shelters, all required their power."

At this point, Father Su An seemed to remember something and suddenly stopped speaking.

Lin Feng narrowed his eyes. Based on the progress he made in reading, there were three general guesses about the bankruptcy of the Wandering Earth project, but they were all basically related to the agents.

While humans are in hibernation, the agents are responsible for managing the flow of Earth, ensuring it reaches its destination along a predetermined route.

However, an unexpected incident occurred along the way, resulting in the deaths of many agents and the collapse of the wandering plan.

Now, the agents, like third-tier kings, have vanished from the wasteland.

However, the Holy Spring Book records that in the struggle for the planetary engines, the Papacy ultimately obtained eight small engines and one large engine.

There are a total of nine power furnaces.

If all of them functioned normally, then there were at least nine agents who were once controlled by the Holy Spring Cult.

According to the Holy Spring Book and Father Suan's description...

In a sense, an agent is a third-tier king without energy state limitations, and can be used as a strategic nuclear weapon to create a deterrent.

But now it's nowhere to be found.

Are they all being used as energy and power sources to propel the super-large mobile city and the holy city of the church forward?
Thinking of this, Lin Feng then asked:
"Then the planetary engines that the church once acquired, which are also known as power furnaces, must still have living agents, right?"

Upon hearing Lin Feng's question, Father Su An sighed softly and slowly began to speak:
"According to my previous understanding, which is also the record in the church's records, the agent, adhering to the principle of serving humanity, did not actually want to participate in the battles between human forces."

"But the proxy program is indeed a tool used by the Evolutionary Alliance's higher-ups to maintain their ruling power after they go into slumber..."

"Therefore, their underlying logic is to unite with the giant corporations that are enemies of the Church and who are subservient to the high-ranking members of the original Advanced Alliance."

"Therefore, the agents in the hands of the church have always been in a closed and dormant state. No one has awakened and activated them. They are just used as the source of energy absorption, transformation and output in the power furnace."

Father Su An paused, poured the accumulated steel wolf tooth fragments from the workbench into the molten metal, stirred and fused them, and continued in a low voice:

"But after the birthday of God, in order to ensure that the Holy See could maintain its rule and order while he was in hibernation, the Lord of the Holy Spring released an extremely powerful agent."

"And regard him as his successor."

"And its codename is Death..."

(End of this chapter)