This game is so weird!

"Beep! The construction of the first employee-owned housing on the planet Scar Star has been completed."

"The base is now equipped with facilities for building factories, manufacturing plants, residential housing, energy facilities, and signal towers. Initial construction work is complete, and the base level has been upgraded."

"Current construction level of Scar Planet: Beginner."

"Licenses for basic industrialization technology, basic tourism technology, and basic exploration technology have been unlocked."

"Continuing to complete mineral infrastructure construction, food production construction, or completing the exploration of the current target area will grant the corresponding development route level."

"The base level is equal to the sum of the development levels of the three routes. If a planet has the potential for a unique development route, it can apply to the relevant departments of the Empire, and it can be established after evaluation."

With the voice prompt of the funny face, lines of text appeared on the helmet visor in front of Li Ang.

[Upgraded to a basic development base]

[The following development paths have been unlocked in the initial base: Industry, Tourism, and Exploration (details and subsequent upgrades can be viewed on the base management page)]

[Unlocked technologies include: mining machines, refineries, primary conveyor belts, biomass food plants, comfortable housing, underwater propulsion systems, large oxygen tanks, and variable fins...]

[Gain 1 Universal Technology Point, which can be used to unlock technologies by selecting them on the Expedition Base upgrade page]

Explore the depths of the mine next to the base.

Li Ang, who was about to direct the bio-engineered team to be stationed in the mining area for manual excavation, stopped.

I carefully perused the information that had just flashed by.

"Huh? This thing needs to be unlocked?"

Li Ang reached out and scratched his head, but failed; he only managed to scratch the helmet.

No wonder the three development paths were grayed out when I logged into the management interface before.

"However... mining machines and refining machines can finally experience the joy of automation."

Li Ang looked down at the heavy mining rifle in his hand and put it back into his bag.

After two days of exploration, the approximate mineral distribution of this cave has been explored, increasing the global exploration progress of Scar Planet by 0.0000...001%.

Overall, this cave, whose formation is unknown, passes through three mineral layers, mainly containing shallow titanium ore veins, medium copper ore veins, and bottom quartz, iron sulfide, and a small amount of gold ore veins. The specific exploitable amount is unknown.

There are a few nests of explosive fish in the middle of the mine. It seems that they swallowed iron sulfide and then separated sulfur and crude iron blocks through an unknown reaction, producing explosives in their bodies.

The sulfur blocks found inside the nest seem to prove that they were food for the exploding fish, while the scattered iron pieces around it may be its excrement.

In conclusion, based on existing mining technologies, it should be possible to automate the development of basic resources using several mineral veins.

Under the protection of the cyborgs, Li Ang used bait to avoid the exploding fish and arrived at the bottom of the mixed mineral vein.

Pull out the construction gun and switch to the industrial entry.

Mining Machine: Automatically mines ore from underground veins using unmanned mining machines. 40*any metal ingots, 5*copper ingots.

Refining machine: smelts and purifies ores to produce various metal ingots. Underwater operation requires watertight treatment and the production of oxygen and hydrogen through water electrolysis, consuming a significant amount of electricity. 50*any metal ingots, 10*copper ingots.

The mining machine is a relatively spacious building. The main part exposed above ground is the mineral sorting equipment, which consists of a turbine-like structure and an upright sorting station.

The robust turbine blades pour the mined ore from underground into a sorting station, where specific ores are automatically sorted and stored in storage chambers, and then transported out via conveyor belts. The remaining minerals, rocks, and soil return to the turbine, where they are returned underground for further processing under similar rotation.

It has many functions, but what is exposed on the ground is actually just a huge turbine fan and a vertical rectangular sorting station.

On the surface, life is peaceful and serene, while underground, mining robots are working hard and diligently.

Li Ang found three relatively flat spots, used the mining gun to trim the extra corners in the cave, and then used the construction gun to put down the mining machine.

However, refining machines are more complicated.

The cave space is not large enough, and there are also some problems with the electricity.

When Li Ang was building the exploration base, he did not expect that he would have to build an automated industry so soon, which resulted in a small number of power stations being built and a low total load.

After returning to the safe house built at the bottom of the cave to replenish his oxygen, Li Ang pulled the power line to the vicinity of the mining machine.

A utility pole was installed in the center, and the power lines were divided into three parts and connected to the three mining machines.

When the power is turned on, the machine's red warning light turns green. As the machine runs, the water currents on the seabed vibrate and hum, and the turbine begins to rotate slowly, stirring up several streams of mud and sand.

After setting up mining sites for quartz, iron ore, and gold, Li Ang also pulled conveyor belts from three mining machines, constructing three conveyor belts upstream.

Upon reaching the middle level of the cave, we entered a more spacious area.

Li Ang set up five ore warehouses in the middle area and used conveyor belts to store three types of ore into the first three warehouses respectively.

Following the practice of the lower level, after installing and setting up mining machines above the copper mine, the mined copper ore was stored in the fourth warehouse.

Finally, Li Ang returned to the mid-level safe house to catch his breath. After his oxygen tank was full, he went back to the warehouse, ready to finish building the refining machine before returning to the sea to mess with the power.

Along the warehouse exit, at a distance from each other, Li Ang built five refining machines in parallel.

The refining machine is more futuristic than the mining machine, consisting of a cuboid upper layer and a lower raw material input port and product output port.

The upper structure has a few striped patterns that reflect light slightly.

After connecting the different materials to the four refining machines, Li Ang built two connectors to simply summarize the output of the four product conveyor belts.

The collected ingots are then fed into a newly built metal ingot warehouse at the front, and finally a new conveyor belt is pulled out from the warehouse and carried upstream.

As it floated upwards, the conveyor belt expanded upwards, while he also had the cyborgs simultaneously build power transmission lines from the refining machine.

The plan is to take advantage of this ascent to transfer the metal ingots to an underwater warehouse via conveyor belt for later retrieval, and to complete the construction of power facilities along the way.

Before long, a platform appeared on the sea near the exploration base.

Four or five generator towers, with solar panels on top and vertical turbine blades in the middle, stand on the platform, their spiral blades, resembling DNA, spinning rapidly in the sea breeze.

Next to the generator is a huge square building, which is an enlarged version of the warehouse previously built on the island, a standard cargo warehouse, also equipped with drones for automatic transportation within the base area.

After connecting the wires, Li Ang led the cyborg back to the seabed.

After several difficult attempts to lure and ambush the fish, the upper cave area's burrows were cleared out, and the titanium ore mining line was also pulled to the middle layer's refining station.

After connecting the power supply to the refining machine and setting the refining of five minerals, the refining machine started working.

The stripes of the refining machine were filled with blue light. The raw materials on the conveyor belt below were drawn into the machine. The rectangular machine slowly expanded and then compressed inward, and a lump of metal ingot was spat out from the output port.

Hmmmm... I've mastered the art of alchemy.

When science develops to a certain point, it becomes not much different from mysticism for ordinary people like Li Ang.

After tinkering with the production line, Li Ang and his three colleagues returned to the exploration base.

Another monitoring station was built on the side of the exploration base, allowing the comical face to control several underwater drones to inspect the production line inside the cave at irregular intervals.

After having several bio-engineered humans participate in the preparation of the exploration base and provide security, he finally had time to relax on his bed in his bedroom.

I got a little too excited.

Who understands the fun of building a production line and pulling a conveyor belt? They end up getting so caught up in it that they're exhausted.

As Li Ang (the exploration team leader) fell asleep, Li Ang (the main body) on the other side woke up.

"Can't a person get some sleep???"

Li Ang took off his helmet and sat up in bed, cursing.

"Needing cattle and horses doesn't mean I want to be one... Oh well, I'll just have dinner and go back to sleep!"

"Beep beep beep! A voice call connection has been received from the Development Division. Do you wish to answer?"

A pop-up window appeared in front of me, with a large "Z" flashing in the air.