For humanity, burn the stars.

Three more days have passed since the new players arrived.

In these three days, the new players have all found their place.

Some joined the ranks of veteran players to ride their coattails, experiencing the game in two directions: exploration and construction.

A small number of new players, however, did not join experienced players' mentoring teams, but instead embarked on their own solo exploration journey.

Regardless of the reason, the idea of ​​attacking NPCs no longer arises.

With the initial guidance from veteran players and the game mechanics, the newbies quickly accepted the premise and began to contribute to the development of human unity (working like oxen and horses).

Overall, human exploration of this planet is gradually increasing.

In addition to the steel mine initially discovered, a new player unexpectedly discovered a coal mine.

As a combustible organic compound, and with relatively low extraction difficulty and significant medium-term applications, it can also be considered a strategic resource point.

After all, the smelter is powered directly by the spacecraft, but other newly built factories or facilities may need to be powered by fuel.

However, in the short term, mining should be given a lower priority, as there are not enough manpower and resources available for mining.

Because at this moment, the most important thing is naturally the mining and smelting of steel.

Qin Heling stood outside Mine Area No. 1, looking at the smelter that had already risen from the ground in front of him, and nodded with great satisfaction.

The small vertical blast furnace, which had consumed more than 700 tons of metal, was now erected on the open ground and connected to other equipment.

Over three days, the players worked with other engineering equipment to build the foundation, which made the subsequent assembly process much smoother.

With the assembly of a series of facilities completed, this small smelter was finally fully completed, a remarkable feat of progress.

This is also thanks to the fact that the entire equipment used to manufacture the mother bed is modularly produced, requiring only assembly to complete its use.

What was left to the players was mainly the task of stringing electrical wires, which they thoroughly enjoyed.

Previously, most resources were used for production and smelting, leaving very limited resources for the subsequent length of the wires.

Although Qin Heling produced it according to the optimal route and left more than ten meters of reserve, he did not tell the players.

At that time, the players had almost finished the other tasks, so this was a good opportunity to give them something to do.

If you pull it directly, the terrain will make it slightly worse.

Finally, the construction team mobilized all their resources and tried repeatedly, eventually finding the route that matched the plan and successfully connecting it on time.

With the power supply now complete, the smelter is officially finished and ready for operation.

The raw ore, which had been piled up on the frozen ground for many days, finally had a chance to be put to use.

Standing in front of the smelter, Qin Heling faced the large group of players before him and solemnly began to speak:

"Fellow warriors of the Human Alliance, I have witnessed your performance during this period."

"Now, thanks to your efforts, we have finally built our first smelter in this wasteland!"

"This is the first mining area, the first smelter, but this is just the beginning."

"This is a small step for humanity in rebuilding its industrial system, but a giant leap forward for humanity in its journey back to the stars!"

Players responded enthusiastically, but their eyes were all fixed on the blast furnace behind him, eagerly anticipating whether it would start operation smoothly.

Knowing what the players were thinking, Qin Heling didn't say much, but simply turned to face the blast furnace.

Under the watchful eyes of the surrounding players, he gave the order to start production at the smelter.

Once production begins, the process of this smelting furnace is fully automated.

The raw ore was lifted by the matching transport vehicles and slowly transported to the assembly line leading to the blast furnace.

Because the resource collector itself has the function of preliminary crushing and screening.

Therefore, in order to save costs, the smelter skipped the equipment for this process and directly fed it into the blast furnace.

This blast furnace is divided into three layers: upper, middle, and lower. The upper and middle layers are the smelting and refining parts.

In the uppermost furnace, the raw materials are preheated to over 600 degrees Celsius before the blast furnace leading to the actual smelting below is opened.

With the massive energy supplied by the power lines, the blast furnace began operating at full power.

Seeing that the smelting had started smoothly, the surrounding players burst into cheers.

Although they initially came just to collect points, they couldn't help but feel excited as they watched this behemoth being completed and witnessed its commencement.

This was all thanks to their hard work, and besides, the game is so realistic.

So much so that when the roar of smelting sounded, the players' sense of accomplishment instantly reached its peak.

At that very moment, a notification flashed before the players' eyes.

Thanks to your efforts, the first smelter rose from the ground, giving this wild and cold planet the starting point for industrial production.

But our goals go far beyond that; humanity's spark isn't just for smelting steel—let's forge the earth itself!

With the short-term construction task coming to an end, a new announcement popped up in front of the players.

Unlocking the smelting process will unlock subsequent currency production and trading systems. Please wait for the update.

Explore other related features on your own, or create them yourself.

Among these, the currency and trading system were naturally Qin Heling's plans.

With the increasing number of players, in addition to points, we also need to develop a currency system.

This is for players to trade with each other, and it will also be needed for the subsequent development of society.

So once the new metal is smelted, Qin Heling will use a mechanical bed to produce a coin pressing machine.

Metal currencies of different denominations were produced and issued in limited quantities to control their value from fluctuating too much.

As players were still curious about the future trading system after reading the announcement, two more new notifications appeared.

Players who earn more than 100 points in the construction series of tasks will receive an achievement title.

[Title: 'Founder of Steel' has been obtained]

Players were overjoyed to receive this title.

In fact, during this previous period, other players who went exploring had successively obtained a title – [Wild Pioneer].

The conditions for obtaining it are similar to those for the current title.

The process involves gradually exploring the spacecraft's surroundings and accumulating mission points until a certain threshold is reached, at which point the points will be awarded.

At the time, as exploration players were all getting this title, the construction players who came to fight for it were extremely envious.

Today, they finally got what they had been waiting for, and their hearts instantly felt a little better.

Most of the players who haven't earned the title yet are new players who haven't had enough time to accumulate that many points.

However, they were not discouraged, since they had a separate announcement.

Anyone who subsequently earns 100 points or more through construction tasks can also obtain this title; it is not a limited-time title.