For humanity, burn the stars.

As Qin Heling's exploration vehicle came to a stop, the surrounding players' attention was immediately drawn to it.

When the other five players got off the bus with Qin Heling, the other players stared wide-eyed at them in disbelief.

'???'

Why did they get out of the car?

"What does this mean? Why is there a captain's shuttle service?"

Although their hearts were filled with all sorts of questions, they said nothing in front of Qin Heling, but their eyes conveyed their meaning.

Upon seeing this, Qin Heling immediately returned to his captain's cabin, leaving the space to the players.

Only after Qin Heling's figure disappeared from sight did the players outside swarm forward and surround the five players, including [Caiji].

"Wow, what's this? The captain himself is taking people for a ride?"

"If that's your explanation, did you sell the ditch to the captain?!"

"Are you guys on some kind of mission? Share it with us, I want to ride too!"

[I'm such a noob] laughed as he recounted the whole story and quickly posted it online.

Easter Egg: Riding in the Captain's Car

After attracting a large number of viewers, he added below:

"It seems the NPCs' emotional system is far more complex than we've seen yet; there's still much to explore."

'I wonder how much computation this game requires... Maybe the affection system is used for this?'

-----------------

In the captain's cabin, Qin Heling pulled up a series of blueprints, contemplating the arrangements for the mining area.

Now that the mineral vein has been proven to have development potential, we can deploy the small resource collectors on the spaceship.

Although it is a small resource collector, that is only relative; its actual length is close to 15 meters and its weight is more than 300 tons.

This behemoth, built for resource extraction, has been waiting to be put into use.

As a tool for mining solid materials, it mainly uses short-range laser cutting, eliminating the need for traditional blasting, making it not only quiet but also highly efficient.

Other liquid or gaseous resources can also be collected, but we haven't encountered any yet, so we won't discuss them further.

The cut-off ore is directly collected inside the collector for initial crushing and screening.

If all goes well, this one machine alone can produce 500 to 600 tons of raw ore per day, which is quite efficient.

Therefore, with such a large creature in charge, players don't need to resort to inefficient manual digging in the early stages.

However, what happens after mining begins is what should be considered more.

Mining isn't just about digging it out; there are all sorts of follow-up problems that urgently need to be solved now.

As Qin Heling planned out the map, he also filtered out a few more blueprints from what was in front of him.

They haven't built the smelting production line yet, which takes some effort even to build.

Even if we start processing the mother bed now, it will probably take several days.

Moreover, the tall steel furnaces and other structures require the assistance of other large construction equipment, which adds up to a significant expense.

However, these cannot be omitted, not only for their subsequent use, but also for their indispensable role in building smelting plants.

Looking at the list of building materials that required payment, Qin Heling immediately felt a headache coming on.

Fortunately, this planet is mainly polar and there are usually no heavy snowstorms, so there will be no problem with storing the extracted raw materials in the open air.

In other words, the first thing to do next is to build the high-speed smelting equipment and the related production line.

Looking at the remaining 950 tons of base metal, Qin Heling revised and modified the equipment until he finally managed to put together a complete set of equipment for a small smelting plant.

It includes a small vertical blast furnace, as well as a complete set of feeding and output equipment, and can be put into operation as soon as it is assembled.

The blast furnaces used for smelting consumed more than 700 tons of metal, accounting for the majority.

After all, this directly affects subsequent production, so even if we have to cut corners now, we can't skimp on this.

After Qin Heling had nervously allocated the resources, she finally breathed a long sigh of relief.

Fortunately, cement and concrete can be sourced locally, eliminating the need for such expenditures; otherwise, we really wouldn't have been able to sustain ourselves.

Once completed, it will be able to process approximately 225 tons of raw ore and produce about 130 tons of pig iron per day.

There was no way around it; after all, that small resource collector was made by the Starsea Federation, and its efficiency was not on the same level as this cobbled-together smelting equipment.

Anyway, storage space isn't a concern. We can accumulate more resources later and build another one to increase production.

Qin Heling looked at the plan in front of him and pondered for a moment.

It will take about three or four days for this entire system to be built and put into use.

During this time, players won't be idle; they can start building around the mining area.

As development progresses, it will be necessary to build energy stations and living and rest areas for players.

There's no need to worry about energy on the spaceship; it's more than enough for their current situation. They can simply run a cable over there to provide power.

Establishing energy transfer stations along the way would be helpful; these can serve as small tasks in the early stages to keep players busy.

Once the smelting equipment is built next to the mine, it can be processed quickly after production.

We can build and burn simultaneously nearby to establish the first small industrial zone.

Yes, the construction phase will also take place there.

After all, it's impossible to smelt the metal there and then transport it to the mother bed construction site for processing, right?

While building a mother bed is very useful, the cost of transporting so many minerals back and forth is a significant extra expense.

Moreover, in the early stages, the simple production of pig iron is enough for players to live on and expand their businesses.

After some thought, Qin Heling did not rush to start building the blast furnace and related facilities for steelmaking.

He prioritized the planned transport vehicle, placing it in the order of first construction.

With transport vehicles, large equipment and goods can be transported, and a large number of players can also travel directly with the vehicles.

Now that more players have returned to the spaceship, Qin Heling plans to have some of them work in the mining area tomorrow.

Therefore, it's impossible to let players walk there on foot, as that would waste a lot of time.

Even with this car, Qin Heling doesn't intend for them to "commute" to and from get off work every day.

We'll just leave them there and build a new living area around that place, using the newly produced metal.

Before long, a new batch of players will arrive.

After all, with the increasing number of players, the crew cabins will definitely not be enough.

Once the production line is completed, they will also build some houses nearby to meet the housing needs.

Similarly, to prevent production from being wasted, it should be stipulated how many points can be redeemed for what kind of house.

Qin Heling nodded in satisfaction with his arrangements.

Now all that's left is to wait for the plan to proceed.