Translator: AnubisTL
"Poor kid," the middle-aged man murmured, his expression complex as he gazed at the young man kneeling on the ground, sobbing uncontrollably. After a moment's hesitation, he continued, "But even if you can buy some accessories in Neon City, you still won't be able to upgrade your train."
"That's true."
"But at least it gives you a little hope, right?"
Chen Mang, sitting by the floor-to-ceiling window, glanced curiously at the information about the young man on the tablet Xiao Ai had handed him.
"Trapped in the White Zone."
"You can actually get trapped in a zone?"
He had never considered such a possibility.
After all, he hadn't encountered this situation on his journey. What a pity—if someone got trapped in the Purple or Blue Zone instead, they'd have accumulated mountains of iron ore by now. With nowhere else to spend it, all that ore would end up flowing right here to him.
But trapped in the White Zone? Even prolonged, stable development there wouldn't yield much. The White Zone lacked Tier 3 Mines, and even Tier 2 Mines were extremely rare.
Tier 1 Mines were the norm.
A Tier 1 Mine typically produced around 10,000 units of iron ore—hardly enough for anything substantial.
"Just a few scraps."
"Theoretically, this shouldn't happen," Xiao Ai said, shaking his head. "We still don't fully understand how these zones form, but we know one thing: their existence effectively reduces the mortality rate of this planet's residents."
"Without these zones to contain the terrifying monsters, no trains would have developed. In the early days of the apocalypse, those monsters would have wiped out all life on the planet."
"Take the Tier 15 Red-skinned Rabbit, for example. With a speed of nearly 4,000 kilometers per hour, even on a planet as large as Aquablue Star, a single rabbit could have cleared all life in a short time."
"Like peeling an onion, layer by layer."
"For trains, zones are overwhelmingly beneficial, with very few drawbacks."
"Theoretically, this zone shouldn't exist. But in this world, everything has its bugs. It's not surprising to find such a place, though these zones must be extremely rare. After all, this is the first one we've encountered in all this time."
"..."
Chen Mang glanced at Xiao Ai, who paused, and said, "Before Neon City, we never encountered train conductors from zones like this."
"Also,"
"Stop using inverted sentence structures so much. They sound awkward."
"Understood, Train Conductor."
After observing for a while, Chen Mang returned to the Stellaris's locomotive cabin. There was little work for him to do there, so he might as well rest.
Meanwhile—
Within this space—
The fully powered headlight dispelled the darkness, illuminating the area as brightly as day.
Yet without true sunlight, prolonged exposure left one with a slightly oppressive feeling.
Chen Mang sat in the locomotive cabin, casually picking up an apple from the fruit bowl on the table and taking a bite. He gazed at the Gold-grade accessory blueprint in his hand.
Gold-grade.
One tier higher than red-grade.
In all the train's history, this was the only Gold-grade accessory blueprint they had ever acquired. It was obtained during their second visit to Neon City, after Xiao Ai unlocked unlimited currency privileges and raided the third floor of the mechanical shop.
Most of the items acquired that day had been returned to the Mechanical Train Parts Store, but Chen Mang had kept the most valuable ones. Even if he sold them, no one else could afford them, and besides, he was reluctant to part with them.
Robot Research Center: Gold-grade accessory. Requires 100,000 units of iron ore to craft.
Comes with two built-in robots:
Mining Robot
Mechanical Dog
The former can mine copper ore, iron ore, and harvest lumber from Lumber Mills, with a fixed extraction rate of one unit of ore per hour.
Manufacturing a single Mining Robot requires 10,000 units of iron ore.
A Tier 1 Energy Stone can power it for 180 days of continuous operation.
Defense Tier 0, Attack Tier 0.
The latter possesses attack and exploration capabilities.
Manufacturing a basic Tier 1 Mechanical Dog requires 10,000 units of iron ore.
Defense Tier 0, Attack Tier 0. Even outside the target acquisition radar range, the Mechanical Dog can transmit information back to the Train AI's data processing center via its built-in Mechanical Eye.
Customization options include modifications to defense, attack, and functionality.
For example:
A cannon can be mounted on the Mechanical Dog's back to enhance its combat capabilities.
Activating the energy stone within the Mechanical Dog's body grants it a self-destruct function.
All customization options require additional iron ore.
"..."
Chen Mang leaned back in his chair, gazing at the accessory blueprint in his hand. He gently shook the apple core onto a nearby napkin, waiting for Xiao Fang to collect it and deliver it to the Breeding Carriage, where they would attempt to grow an apple tree.
This would significantly lower fruit prices, though the produced fruit wouldn't have customizable flavors or textures.
Robot Research Center
Extremely powerful accessory.
Can create two types of robots:
Mining Robot and Mechanical Dog. The former replaces residents, while the latter replaces guards. From a certain perspective, with this accessory, a mechanical train could function like a flesh train, operating normally even with only the train conductor aboard.
Currently, the Mining Robot isn't particularly useful to him, as he already has plenty of residents for mining. However, as the train gradually develops and ventures into higher-tier zones, the mining robots will become essential.
A Tier 1 Energy Stone can power continuous operation for 180 days.
Extremely cost-effective.
While not particularly useful elsewhere, these robots are invaluable here. They can drastically reduce his mining time. By now, the Titanium Crystal Mine and Iron Ore Mine have been completely exhausted.
Only the Red Heart Rock Mine, Copper Ore Mine, and Lumber Mill remain unexploited.
He immediately crafted the accessory and consumed it.
Using 4.5 million units of iron ore, he upgraded it to Tier 10 in one go, unlocking two corresponding overpowered effects.
Robot Research Center Tier 5 Overpowered Effect: After installing this accessory, the manufacturing cost of all robots produced by the train's accessories is halved.
Robot Research Center Tier 10 Overpowered Effect: The manufacturing cost of all robots produced by the train's accessories is halved again.
These two overpowered effects were insane.
This meant that the price of a Mining Robot was now just 2,500 units of iron ore.
At that price, it was practically a clearance sale.
"Hah..."
Chen Mang exhaled in satisfaction. The most crucial aspect wasn't just the halved cost of Mining Robots, but that the reduction applied to all robots produced by the train's accessories, including the Black Hole Armed Robot.
That accessory already had a built-in cost-halving effect.
With both effects stacked, it was clear:
In the future, he could raise a massive robot army!
Upgrading the Robot Research Center from Tier 10 to Tier 20 required 14.5 million units of iron ore, but the train currently only had 10.12 million units. The iron ore supply was insufficient, preventing further upgrades for now.
We'll talk about it once we have more iron ore.
Forge!
In the next moment—
From the space gate within the "Mecha Research Center" in Carriage No. 2, a line of pitch-black robots emerged, silently filing out of the carriage and stopping outside the train without making a sound.
They formed neat rows.
Remarkably quiet.
Impeccably aligned.
He had spent 5 million units of iron ore to forge 2,000 "Mining Robots."
And he had spent another 1 million units of iron ore to equip each robot with a Tier 1 Energy Stone, ensuring each robot could operate continuously for 180 days.
The scene was truly awe-inspiring.
"Good, good, good!!!"
Chen Mang stood outside the train, his face beaming with satisfaction as he gazed at the 2,000 Mining Robots before him.
When you command a large group of people who obey you completely, even a normally timid coward feels a surge of heroic spirit!
The sight was overwhelmingly powerful.
These mass-produced machines, churned out on an assembly line, could be produced at a rate of one every few seconds—an astonishingly rapid pace.
Eight hundred men could storm the Xuanwu Gate.
Imagine what two thousand could do.
Eight hundred men have their tactics, and two thousand have theirs.
"They're all industrial waste."
Xiao Ai stepped forward and pointed at the lead robot. "Train Conductor, look at this robot's design. It's completely lacking in features—even its Mechanical Eye is the lowest grade. It doesn't even have a signal receiver, which means I can't remotely control these robots in real-time."
"These robots can only perform pre-programmed tasks."
"No voice communicator."
"No AI Chip."
"Forget armor—they didn't even bother with synthetic skin. The skeleton and wiring are completely exposed. One swing of a pickaxe would smash them to pieces."
"You're right about everything," Chen Mang said with a smile, nodding. "But he's only asking for 2,500 units of iron ore. If he were selling them for 500,000, I'd call them industrial waste too. But they're just too cheap to pass up."
"Have the instructions been programmed?"
"They're ready."
Xiao Ai said with a serious expression, "After standing here for another five minutes, they'll head to the Red Heart Rock Mine to begin mining operations. Once they've finished there, they'll move on to other mines, extracting resources from all of them before returning to the Stellaris."
"New instructions can only be deployed after these robots return to Carriage No. 2 for redeployment. No new commands can be issued mid-operation unless I physically run over, access their brain-machine interfaces, and manually input the new instructions—a massive undertaking."
"This is truly industrial waste."
"Robots that can't receive real-time commands have no place in this era. They should be tossed into a junkyard shredder."
"Don't be so harsh," Chen Mang chuckled. "They're all good little helpers for the Stellaris. Why don't you investigate if we can sell these robots to other trains?"
"We'd need to modify their low-level permissions. By default, they're programmed to be loyal to the Stellaris. I lack the authority to alter the low-level permissions of other robots. This requires you, Train Conductor, to return to the train control panel and sign an agreement granting me temporary access. Only then can I check if these robots' low-level permissions can be modified."
"Alright."
Just then—
Several residents, who usually handled daily tasks, emerged from the carriage carrying a batch of newly forged Tier 4 pickaxes and placed them on the ground.
Five minutes later, the mining robots began to move. The lead robot picked up a pickaxe and slowly advanced toward the distant Red Heart Rock Mine, taking one step, two steps, three steps—a devilish march.
It steadied itself, raised the pickaxe, and began to strike.
The entire process was utterly mechanical, each movement so standardized that even the height of each swing was perfectly consistent.
As more robots joined in, the nearby Red Heart Rock Mine became swarming with them. The rhythmic clanging of mining echoed across the area. Though there were only 2,000 residents, their productivity, thanks to the robots' 24-hour operation, rivaled that of nearly 3,000 residents.
The residents themselves worked long hours, and many could mine more than one unit of iron ore per hour.
"Even though they're industrial waste, if we can sell these things, we could make a fortune," Xiao Ai remarked, gazing at the working robots in the distance. In his mind, these robots were nothing more than industrial waste, far inferior to those in Neon City. Their physical structure was even inferior to the Black Hole Armed Robots.
Extremely crude.
So crude, it looked like something a child had cobbled together from industrial waste.
Yet, one had to admit, it was a stroke of genius for mining!
"It won't make much profit," Chen Mang said with a smile, shaking his head. "The factory cost is already 2,500 units of iron ore, far more expensive than a slave. At the gatherings, a normal slave would only cost 500 units of iron ore."
"Plus, its daily consumption is higher than a slave's."
"One Tier 1 Energy Stone can power it for 180 days, which works out to an average daily consumption of 2.7 units of iron ore."
"Ten loaves of bread cost only one unit of iron ore. Slaves on a normal train don't even consume that much food daily."
"The only selling point is its ability to work continuously for 24 hours."
"Newcomers definitely can't afford it, but selling it to seasoned train veterans should be no problem."
"Still, we can make a little profit and diversify the shop's inventory."
In the cosmos, there's a law called the "Law of Conservation of Smiles."
This law is somewhat similar to the Law of Conservation of Energy.
Smiles don't appear out of nowhere.
A smile that bloomed on one face would vanish from another.
Chen Mang laughed.
But the smiles on the residents' faces gradually faded.
"..."
A middle-aged man, leaning on his pickaxe, stared blankly at the rows of robots mining in perfect unison nearby. Despair deepened in his eyes as he realized he was about to lose his job.
Why?
He had been so close to achieving First-Class Resident Status, with all the benefits that came with it. This space was rich in minerals, and he had been working tirelessly, sleeping only four hours a day and relying on Cola to keep going, all to mine more ore and upgrade his status sooner.
But...
When had these mining robots appeared?
How could he possibly compete with machines that could work 24/7 without rest?
Why does life have to be so cruel?
Before the apocalypse, he had been an illustrator. He admitted his skills weren't exceptional, but they had been enough to make a living. Then AI was invented, and he lost his job. He was bitter, but also resigned.
He couldn't even find someone to vent his frustration to.
This was the relentless tide of the era, something no single person could stop, like a mantis trying to block a chariot. He accepted it, finding it perfectly normal.
But—
It's the fucking apocalypse! Why is my job still being replaced by AI robots?!
Panic spread through the crowd like wildfire. If robots could completely replace their jobs, what was their purpose on the train?
In the apocalypse, no one could afford to be useless. It wasn't that people disliked laziness; everyone understood that in this world, if you lacked value, you'd almost certainly be abandoned.
A person who couldn't create value often had no reason to live.
Wasting food.
Death was the best end.
It was already midnight. Most residents had returned to their carriages to sleep, leaving only a handful of them still working overtime. Those mining at this hour were either desperate for advancement or eager to earn more stellar coupons.
"Can... can we even get out of here alive?"
"The machine guns in the Residential District haven't started the purge yet, have they?"
"No, don't worry about that. As far as I know, machine guns cost far more than we do. They'll probably just close the refrigerator doors and lower the temperature—that's more resource-efficient."
"Why don't you just give me a pickaxe now? I'd rather be smashed to death than frozen to death."
Just then—
A panel materialized in the Iris Chips of all the residents who were still awake.
[All residents are to continue their usual routines. Those with special talents should register with Old Pig. For a short period, residents will mine alongside Mining Robots. Subsequently, the Mining Robots will gradually replace most of the residents' mining work.
During this transition, all residents are encouraged to cultivate their talents to facilitate the train's assignment of suitable roles.
Those already employed in Neon City as madams, salespeople, shills, etc., can still earn stellar coupons based on their performance and work hours.
Residents without special talents may continue mining in the future.]
The announcement instantly calmed the restless hearts of the residents who were still awake. If Lord Mang had said it, then there was nothing to worry about.
Phew
Hundreds of residents exhaled in relief. Their greatest fear had been being deemed worthless and either turned into soap or sold to other trains. Only those who had lived on other trains before coming to Stellaris truly understood that Stellaris was akin to Eden in the apocalypse.
However, it was clear that while mining robots would initially work alongside the residents to extract iron ore, these repetitive tasks would inevitably be replaced by robots in the future. To maintain their privileged status on Stellaris, they would need to demonstrate unique skills that robots couldn't replicate.
"It's not so bad," a man nearby remarked nonchalantly. "I bet as the train develops, they'll find ways to let us stay awake 24/7. Then I can mine around the clock and match the robots' output, right?"
"If I eat even less, I might consume even less energy than a robot."
"Brother, even robots can't withstand that kind of strain. Are you a goblin or something?"
"Goblin?" The man shook his head dismissively. "My resident ID is 67. I'm one of the train's earliest residents. When I joined, there weren't even goblins yet. At first, those goblins were the toughest, mining the longest hours every day."
"But look at them now. Where are they? They all collapsed from exhaustion and went back to sleep."
"Speaking of beasts of burden..."
"I've never submitted to anyone, not even the goblins. Human potential knows no limits."
Inside the locomotive cabin, Chen Mang sat in his chair, gazing at the control panel screen. He wondered how the Dreamstone acquisition was progressing and whether any trains were selling such things.
The train currently lacked production efficiency.
What it really needed were more mines.
Not every place had such abundant mines. If it hadn't been for the fortuitous encounter map Erdan found, Chen Mang would never have stumbled upon such a rich high-resource mining area. Even the 2,000 Mining Robots couldn't fully replace the residents.
But...
When the train was mining normally, one or two mines wouldn't require so many people. The extraction efficiency was somewhat excessive. Once he had acquired a sufficient quantity of Dreamstone, he could begin constructing his own "Cyber Mine."
Residents could mine in their dreams.
Out of humanitarian considerations:
Twelve hours of mining in the Cyber Mine, followed by twelve hours of rest.
From a certain perspective, it could even be said that there was no actual mining at all, only pure rest. After all, could work done in a dream truly be considered work?
In this way—
He had gained another source of iron ore!
Precisely because he had already planned this, he felt there was no need for the residents to worry about losing their jobs.
Unemployment?
Absolutely not.
After all, robots couldn't dream. This was a uniquely human ability, and the only ticket to enter the Cyber Mine.
Soon—
Twenty-four hours had passed.
The third opening of "Neon City" had concluded. In the locomotive cabin, Uncle Li stood beside him, looking at the report in his hand, and began to report: "Last night marked the third opening of 'Neon City,' operating for twenty-four hours. The cumulative number of train conductors entering Neon City has increased year-over-year."
"Stop."
Chen Mang raised his hand to interrupt Uncle Li's report. "You don't need to give me so much data every time. Just simplify it. Tell me how many people entered Neon City this time, and how much iron ore I can take."
"Yes, sir." Uncle Li nodded, glanced at the data, and resumed his report. "A total of 912 people entered Neon City. The net profit is 7.92 million units of iron ore, all of which can be taken."
"That's so little?" Chen Mang frowned, his tone accusatory. "How can the profit be so much lower than last time, even though more people entered?"
"I put so much effort into creating Neon City. Why is it earning less and less?"
"Summon Li Shiji and Xiao Ai. I want them to explain exactly what's going on."
"Only 8 million units of iron ore in a whole day?"
"Is Neon City experiencing a Resident Evil outbreak?"
(End of the Chapter)
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