Post-Apocalyptic Survival Modpack

Chapter 32: Production Tools

Snapped.

A ring shattered.

"Pooh!"

Inside the collapsed room, the steward spat on the ground, waved his hand to disperse the smoke and dust, and glanced around, but found it empty.

Only a few purple things floated in mid-air, which looked somewhat eerie.

"What about people?"

Just as I was wondering, suddenly, a powerful force came from behind, like an extremely sharp sword slashing down, or like a heavy hammer smashing down from above.

With a thud, the old steward was sent flying out of the room, rolling several times on the ground before coming to a stop.

It is the King's Extreme.

Just as the old steward raised his hand, he quickly threw out an Ender Pearl, teleported behind the old steward, and launched a surprise attack with a jump slash, dealing massive damage in one hit.

But the feel is off.

The old steward was indeed knocked away, but he didn't lose any health.

Wang Ji quickly caught up, attempting to deliver another blow.

"He has a magical shield!"

Ryder quickly spoke up to remind him.

At the same time, two elite soldiers at the entrance of the hall quickly rushed back to defend the area.

"Stop him!"

The steward angrily gave the order, looking quite disheveled as he got up.

Two soldiers, one wielding a sword and the other an axe and hammer, attacked Wang Ji simultaneously from two directions.

Wang Ji quickly turned around to parry, taking the hit head-on, and first cut down the soldiers wielding axes and hammers.

The soldier with the sword looked astonished.

I used all my strength just now, but I couldn't budge the small figure in front of me at all. Instead, my hand was numb from the impact.

Boom!
He was also knocked away.

This time I felt right.

After crippling two soldiers who came to reinforce him, Wang Ji immediately rushed towards the commander.

The steward quickly raised his left hand.

Snapped.

Another ring shattered, the air crackled, and a raging inferno appeared out of nowhere, shooting from the ground to the dome and staining the entire hall red.

The powerful heat blew everyone away, keeping them at bay.

Except for Wang Ji.

That pitch-black, nightmarish figure broke through the flames, relentlessly pursuing.

[Fire Resistance]

The medicine I drank beforehand took effect, giving me immunity to the flames.

Boom!
The steward was once again sent flying, his body shimmering with a faint purple light.

He was not injured, but he was even more afraid.

"Why aren't you dead yet!"

Ignoring the steward's nonsense, Wang Ji seized the opportunity to throw out the Ender Pearl and chased after him with another sword strike.

bump!
After that sword strike, the ring on the steward's right index finger shattered, and his body lost all its radiance.

The shield finally disappeared.

Fear crept onto the old steward's face.

puff.

The black longsword slashed through, leaving a horrifying gash in the steward's chest, from which crimson blood gushed forth.

The not-so-pitiful old man wailed and cried out, "You can't kill me! No, wait!"

Snapped.

As a large amount of blood flowed out, a ring shattered automatically, and the laceration on his chest healed rapidly, stopping the bleeding and forming a scar in the blink of an eye.

But this only exacerbated the old steward's suffering.

Because the person in front of him showed no sign of stopping.

"Wait, wait... I told you to wait!"

The old manager yelled at the top of his lungs and kept crawling backward.

puff.

But the sword still caught up with him and pierced his heart without stopping, giving him no time to react.

"The health regeneration speed is quite fast."

Seeing that the manager's health bar was completely empty, Wang Ji breathed a sigh of relief.

He couldn't be bothered to listen to what this person had to say.

A guy like that is a menace if he lives even a second longer, and Wang Ji doesn't want to gamble—gamble that the old steward's remaining spell rings won't threaten him.

Everything happened in a flash.

Just as the aftershocks of the flames subsided, the two soldiers scrambled to their feet. When they saw that the steward, who had been shouting just moments before, was already dead, their hearts skipped a beat.

The sky is falling.

"The steward is dead!"

A hint of fear crept into their eyes as they looked at Wang Ji.

This feeling was familiar to both of them; it was something they only experienced when others looked at them in the past.

But today, things have gone wrong.

Before long, the two so-called regular soldiers also lay down next to the old general, gradually growing cold.

"Aside from lacking some skills, well done."

Ryder came over and gave a comment.

Wang Ji turned his head and said, "It's not too difficult. Apart from having a lot of magic rings, there's nothing special about this old man."

After saying that, Wang Ji pointed to the two soldiers on the ground and asked, "Is this the powerful regular army you were talking about?"

"I didn't feel much difference."

Ryder's face twitched.

He recalled how Wang Ji fought.

There was no skill involved, almost no movement techniques or coping strategies, and the strength was somewhat wasted.

In short, it can be summed up in one word: reckless.

The fighting style is primitive. "You're different."

Ryder said, "I underestimated your strength."

"For ordinary people, whether it's formal or not makes a big difference. People who have been trained in the army for many years can easily handle ten servants and guards while wearing the Imperial standard magic steel armor."

"However, while people are discussing the so-called regular army and the ragtag minions, those with greater power disdain it."

"Because for them, there is no essential difference between the two; they are both things that can be solved with a flick of the finger."

Wang Ji didn't say anything.

That's true.

To others, there might be a big difference between these soldiers and guards; one of the former could take on ten or more of the latter.

But for him, it was just a matter of chopping a couple more times.

After the battle ended, Wang Ji immediately took off the two remaining rings from the old steward and handed them to Ryder for study.

Then he walked out of the hall and began the liquidation operation of the large mine.

"This is the first step in cleaning up the huge garbage that is the Empire."

Outside the door, the long-suffering miners all looked up at the unfamiliar visitor.

On this day, the large mine changed.

The mine manager died, and the rest of his servants were also purged.

Those overseers who enjoyed beating and abusing workers and often caused their deaths knelt on the ground in fear, begging for mercy.

The workers watched all this numbly, thinking that a new ruler had arrived, and that it had nothing to do with them; it was just a change of leadership, and they would still suffer as before.

—Until that stranger gathered them together and began to investigate what was happening in the mining area.

Of the two, Ryder was much better at it and had a great deal of experience with similar tasks.

Thus, one by one, the evils buried in the mine were brought up again and unearthed.

From top to bottom, from the general manager to the foreman to the guards, no one in this large mine is innocent—their selection is based on acts of harming others.

It seems that only through such behavior can they express their loyalty.

When these inhuman villains were executed and the workers were no longer forced to work at the cost of their lives, they realized that things seemed to have really changed.

"But if I don't work, what should I do?"

People who were used to being enslaved were somewhat bewildered.

Wang Ji had little management experience, so he could only ask Ryder to organize the people in the mining area and settle them down for the time being.

More than a decade of experience managing a small town has paid off.

After a period of anxious activity, the mining area recovered from the chaos, and people settled down for the time being. Groups in various areas elected their own representatives and organized various activities in an orderly manner.

Under guidance, they began to use hoes to cultivate the land and also picked up fishing rods to fish in the water to obtain food.

Looking at the still bewildered group of people, Ryder knew that the current stability was only temporary.

When people are not full, they only think about how to get enough to eat; once they are full, they think about many other things.

At this point, some guidance is needed.

He couldn't help but say, "If Ian were here, he would be better at handling things specifically for each individual."

Wang Ji asked, "And what about you?"

"Me? I'm okay at doing some management and statistics work, that's what I've always done."

"That's it."

Wang Ji nodded.

Actually, it's quite a coincidence when you think about it.

There were three of us: a retired grassroots cadre with a wide range of basic skills, a village and town manager with plenty of experience, and myself, well... I could be considered a jack-of-all-trades engineer.

They're a match made in heaven.

Time is tight, and there's no room for waste.

After settling down in the mining area, Wang Ji called over Cole, who was familiar with the local roads, and immediately went with him to take a tour of the work area.

It has to be said, this place is truly extraordinary.

The production tools are complete.

In the room where tools are stored, besides pickaxes, there are also hammers, wedges, crowbars, and other tools for doing delicate work.

Further in, you'll find more sophisticated transportation facilities, including but not limited to minecart tracks, elevators, gear machines powered by magic stones, and a place that is extremely labor-intensive and is known as the flesh and blood conveyor belt.

Looking up, you can see tall supporting pillars, some simple ladders, and grease candles or miners' lamps made of some kind of luminous stone on both sides of the wall.

Besides the miner's lamp, there were some very distinctive runes on the wall that were easily recognizable; according to Ryder, they were for ventilation.

That's how the foul winds I felt outside were sent out.

Wang Ji continued his exploration, stopping to study each unfamiliar tool or instrument for a while.

The progress bar for production tools is constantly rising.

【8%10%20%30%】

Pumps that transmit power using gears and chains, drainage devices based on the principle of simple runes...

The smelting area contained large crucibles, reverberatory furnaces, and forging furnaces that Wang Ji had never seen before, as well as the Imperial Smelting Furnace, which Wang Ji was quite familiar with.

It is also equipped with a variety of auxiliary devices, such as manual bellows and magical blowers.

[40% 50%]

As Wang Ji ventured deeper into the mining area, he arrived at the mineral processing room, where the crushing and washing processes were carried out. The crushing hammer, the special anvil, and the water tank were all added to the crafting table, becoming craftable structures.

These devices effectively increased output.

Wang Ji kept watching and learning various recipes, gradually unlocking the empire's production technology.

As the crafting recipes continued to expand, a whole host of related tools for casting, forging, finishing, and repair were added.

The mining area is very large, and there is a lot of equipment.

It took Wang Ji a whole day to go through everything.

When Wang Ji finally mastered the last tool, the progress bar reached 100%.

All the clues connected in Wang Ji's mind.

From mining area exploration, development, and space hardening, to extraction, processing, smelting, and casting, and then to forging, polishing, and various other processing and maintenance processes, as well as the necessary environmental modifications to maintain all of this, and all sorts of specialized equipment and tools…

Everything is interconnected; rough objects form a precise whole; small steps combine to leverage powerful forces, ultimately yielding abundant fruits of labor.

—That unparalleled wealth, every single bit of it, is inseparable from the help of these tools.

These are the production tools used by people, the crystallization of human wisdom.

Wang Ji opened his eyes.

[Cognitive Points +1]

　(Sorry, I didn't control myself well and wrote too much transition content. The plot won't drag on; the empire is about to fall.)

　　
　
(End of this chapter)