Designing a submarine requires a lot of considerations.
After all, humans cannot stay in a cramped and dark space for too long, or they will inevitably develop various psychological issues.
However, designing underwater robots doesn't require as much thought.
Since Xu Zhengyang won't be going underwater himself, the robots only need a sturdy shell to withstand the deep-sea pressure and the ability to launch torpedoes! That's all.
In just over ten minutes, Xu Zhengyang and Da Bai designed various models of underwater robots with different functions.
After completing this.
Xu Zhengyang gave Da Bai an order, "For now, divert all production capacity for combat robots to producing underwater robots!"
"Yes, Master," Da Bai meticulously carried out Xu Zhengyang's command.
*Water resistance is significant, so traditional kinetic weapons have major limitations underwater, and their power is greatly diminished.
Not only that.
Since light loses some of its energy when passing through water and undergoes refraction and scattering, laser weapons also cannot unleash their full power underwater.
As for Xu Zhengyang's focused electromagnetic cannon, a little rain won't affect it, but if the entire thing is submerged in water…
It's not much different from a fire poker.
Thinking of this.
Xu Zhengyang pondered for a moment and then said to Da Bai, "Set up a torpedo production line in the production area and start mass-producing various models of torpedoes!"
"Yes, Master."
Da Bai agreed and immediately sent a construction blueprint to Xu Zhengyang's smart glasses.
At the same time, Da Bai said to Xu Zhengyang, "Master, you'll need to use your Magnetic Neural skill to transform this area of the shelter into a room before I can set up the production line."
Xu Zhengyang was momentarily stunned.
He suddenly remembered that his shelter had already been transformed into an all-steel aerospace carrier.
Naturally, it couldn't be partitioned with reinforced concrete like before.
"Alright."
Xu Zhengyang agreed and immediately followed the blueprint provided by Da Bai, using his Magnetic Neural skill to create a workshop for torpedo production.
When Xu Zhengyang transformed the shelter into an aerospace carrier, he had already used up most of the remaining 50,000 square meters of space from the shelter's fifth expansion.
Now.
As Xu Zhengyang allocated the shelter's last remaining space to the torpedo production workshop, filling the shelter to its capacity.
A series of system messages suddenly appeared before his eyes: [Time-Limited Challenge Mission: The Steel Fortress (In Progress)]
[The shelter is your foundation for survival in the apocalypse. Now, you need enough steel to continue expanding your shelter!]
[Mission Objective: Expand the shelter to at least 2 km x 1 km x 0.5 km steel fortress]
[Time Limit: 29 days, 23 hours, 59 minutes, 54 seconds]
[Mission Reward: Skill Card·Transformation (Unique)]
Seeing the sudden appearance of this mainline challenge mission, Xu Zhengyang was both surprised and delighted, "A unique skill, Transformation?!"
After seeing the mission reward.
Xu Zhengyang couldn't help but speculate, "Could this skill allow me to turn the shelter into a super robot.
And then pilot the shelter as a giant mecha?"
The thought of soon transforming into a steel behemoth two kilometers long and one kilometer wide filled Xu Zhengyang with an uncontrollable excitement!
Without hesitation, Xu Zhengyang immediately issued an order to Da Bai, "Utilize the Teleport platform to gradually occupy all nearby iron ore deposits within a 2,000-kilometer radius. Deploy the armed mining vehicles to commence full-scale extraction!"
After a brief pause, Xu Zhengyang continued, "At the same time, send out the Engineering Robots to demolish any buildings that are uninhabited by survivors using explosive methods. Then, recycle all the steel from those buildings!"
Generally speaking, even a high-grade iron ore with a 60% iron content yields only about 0.4 to 0.5 tons of iron. However, dismantling abandoned buildings is a different story. By removing the bricks, concrete, and other construction waste, the steel within can be directly used to expand the shelter's volume. Compared to scattered iron ore veins that require the armed mining vehicles to laboriously collect, demolishing the densely concentrated buildings in the city makes it much easier to gather sufficient steel!
"Understood, Master," Da Bai responded, deploying 95% of the shelter's Engineering Robots. Starting from the nearby areas, they began to demolish various uninhabited buildings in White City, collecting the steel within.
While carrying out Xu Zhengyang's instructions, Da Bai also reminded him, "Master, one cubic meter of iron weighs 7.86 tons. According to the mission objective, to build a steel fortress measuring 2 kilometers in length, 1 kilometer in width, and 0.5 kilometers in height, even if one-third of the fortress is solid, it would still require at least 2000x1000x500x7.86, which amounts to 2.62 million tons of iron. This much steel is nearly equivalent to the annual steel production of some small countries before the apocalypse! With such a massive steel deficit, relying solely on the shelter's Smelting workshop and the recycled construction waste, it would be impossible to gather enough steel within a month."
Upon hearing Da Bai's words, Xu Zhengyang smiled and explained, "I'm well aware of that. You focus on your tasks, and I won't be idle either!" Xu Zhengyang then continued, "Use the satellites to search for all the large ocean-going vessels globally, mark their locations for me, and I'll go and recover them one by one!"
Before the apocalypse, large container ships typically weighed between 15,000 to 30,000 tons when empty, and they were primarily made of steel! Upon hearing Xu Zhengyang's plan, Da Bai immediately understood his intention and said with admiration, "As expected of the Master! Limited by my core algorithm architecture, I could never solve problems with such a leap of thought as you do."
"Hahaha," Xu Zhengyang laughed, "But you can handle those tedious and mundane tasks with meticulous precision, something I could never do. I guess we complement each other."
With that, Xu Zhengyang immediately set off in the Hurricane Light Multi-Function Mecha, now in shuttle mode, following the coordinates provided by Da Bai. In the following days, Xu Zhengyang and Da Bai worked in tandem, making swift progress!
Da Bai operated the armed mining vehicle to collect and smelt iron ore, and controlled the Engineering Robot to demolish uninhabited buildings, recycling the steel inside.
Meanwhile, Xu Zhengyang piloted the Hurricane Light Multi-Function Mecha in its shuttle form, constantly shuttling between the seaside and the shelter.
He cleared out the massive ocean liners occupied by Blood Plague creatures, then stored them in a dedicated dimensional space and brought them back to the shelter.
(End of Chapter)