"So, is that why everyone insists on exchanging for Fixed Star Coupons?"

"Is it merely because of the strict rule that transactions in Neon City must use Fixed Star Coupons? When sellers realize that the Fixed Star Coupons they receive are almost worthless, will they still be willing to sell items? Even if they choose to sell, they'll definitely mark up the price, leading to a market collapse."

"That's why we need to establish an anchor for the Fixed Star Coupons here."

"We must increase the number of scarce and even unique products in the direct-sale stores!"

"The premise of a primarily free trade environment is that the 'direct-sale store' and its people, goods, and environment must be perfected."

"Only if the products are attractive enough will people figure out ways to obtain Fixed Star Coupons, whether by trading iron ore or through free transactions and other methods."

"That's my suggestion."

"Very well supplemented." Chen Mang, sitting in his chair, looked at the old man and smiled, then turned to Ai next to him: "What job does he have on the train?"

"Secondary resident status, ID number 5987, responsible for mining."

"He's getting old, let's find him a more relaxed job instead of mining."

"Understood!"

The old man, sitting in his chair, showed a gleam of joy in his murky eyes and hurriedly stood up, trembling: "Thank you, Master Mang."

"Please sit down. Does anyone else have any good suggestions?"

Just then, Old Pig also spoke up.

"Master Mang, I think the casino is a place worth focusing on. The desire to gamble is one of humanity's deepest urges, especially successful people who find it even harder to resist this urge, or rather, successful people often have an extremely arrogant personality, refusing to believe they can lose."

"For those senior train captains, a casino is an excellent entertainment venue. We can earn massive profits just from taking a rake in the casino."

Subsequently,

The rest of the people continuously offered their suggestions one after another.

"Master Mang, I believe the Custom Shop is also a great platform. Many people would certainly want to experience the robots."

"I think we can give away that spicy duck for free, and sell a bottle of mineral water for 1,000 Fixed Star Coupons. Someone will surely buy it."

"I suggest adding some motorcycles, making them shared motorcycles."

"How about setting up a Wanted List? If anyone holds a grudge against any train, they can post a bounty task."

"I thought of something else, perhaps..."

Various ideas and suggestions continuously echoed throughout the train compartment.

At first, everyone was somewhat reserved because this was their first time speaking with Master Mang and discussing significant future plans for the train, but as the atmosphere became lively, everyone began speaking freely.

One idea after another kept coming up.

Some ideas were completely unusable, some were not quite realistic, and some had strong innovative potential.

In this brainstorming session,

an endless stream of ideas surged forth.

Ai, meanwhile, was on the side, diligently recording all the ideas, but looking somewhat confused. Despite having high computing power, he felt he could have thought of every idea mentioned by these people.

But why didn't he think of them before?

Is this the difference between a human brain and AI?

For a moment, he felt as if he realized something — perhaps this is the distinctive radiating fan-shaped thinking attributed to human brains.

...

An hour later,

the brainstorming session ended. Chen Mang sat alone in front of the control panel, reviewing all the recorded ideas, continuously editing and supplementing them.

Some ideas could be adopted, and some required modifications.

It's true that many hands make light work.

In the initial stages of the train's development, residents only had one role, which was mining; no matter what position of authority or job one had held before Doomsday, if they couldn't mine, they were useless, utterly worthless.

But as the train began to gradually develop,

the role of residents wasn't just limited to mining anymore.

Of course, most still mined.

After all,

before Doomsday, most people were ordinary, and you couldn't expect a vocational school girl to confidently stand in the train compartment eloquently laying out her plan for Neon City's future before Master Mang.

Better to obediently go back to mining.

Time passed without notice.

Only after a while did Chen Mang let out a long sigh of relief, leaning back in his chair and stretching his somewhat aching muscles. He looked at the plan in his hand and smiled, feeling that the preliminary plan was basically complete and thorough.

After leaving the Goblin Tomb,

the first round of Neon City Free Entry Tickets would begin to be distributed.

Indeed,

although this plan seemed of high caliber and the future profit expectations were great, at the initial stage, he still had to rely on the most straightforward — grassroots promotion, to achieve initial spread.

Perhaps... could collaborate with "Balance"?

"..."

Leaning back against the chair, Chen Mang pondered; as far as he knew, the organization "Balance" had cross-regional communication capabilities, and it should be spread like a spiderweb across many regions.

If he collaborated with this organization, he could quickly promote his "Neon City".

However...

he had killed a few people from this organization, which might make it difficult to collaborate, as he hadn't seen any train in Crisis Valley claiming to be part of the Balance organization. Perhaps he could look for an opportunity to approach them.

Despite some tensions, in a post-apocalyptic world, what are such minor conflicts?

...

With everything planned out,

Chen Mang sat back in his chair, looking at the information on the control panel screen, unable to help smiling. This day truly marked a turning point in his life. If he was to rebuild civilization, vast resources would be essential, and the Neon City would become a money-making machine, continuously providing him with endless resources.

Conveniently, he had someone in charge.

"Qi."

Besides Qi, no one else could stay indefinitely in Neon City. With Qi managing things for him, many troubles would be avoided.

He was in a great mood.

Even if bad news were to come now, he wouldn't be angry.

Just then—

A flash of white light streaked across the train compartment, followed by Ai's voice: "Train Captain, we successfully manufactured a receiver using the materials from last time. Do you want to come take a look?"

"Sigh."

Chen Mang let out a slightly helpless sigh, but couldn't help the slight upward curve of his lips: "Why is it always good news, can't there be some bad news?"

...

In the Armor Research and Development Center of Carriage No. 2.

Chen Mang looked at the almost identical receiver in front of him, nodding in satisfaction: "This can receive scattered core energy from the universe, right?"

"Yes, it can."

"How many can we manufacture with this batch of materials?"

"Including this one, we can make up to four."

"Hmm..."

After thinking for a while, Chen Mang spoke: "If one receiver operates continuously, it can absorb 480,000 units of iron ore, and with these four, making a total of five, that's a total absorption of 2.4 million units of iron ore per day, right?"

"Yes." Ai nodded: "If more materials like this are found in the future, we can produce more."

Chen Mang patted Ai's shoulder, expressing his emotion.

"That's enough."

"It's equivalent to forming two level-4 iron mines in just 10 days. I realize you're a genius. Can you tell me how you learned to make receivers? This is a complex thing, right?"

"I dismantled the existing one in the train and reversed engineered it."

"... Can the one you dismantled be reassembled?"

"Yes, it can."

"That's good. Tell me, your recent merits have been significant. What kind of reward do you want? Shall I take you to the Neon City Custom Shop next time?"

"I want the Train Captain to praise me."

"Ai."

"Here I am."

"You are amazing."

"That's not the kind of praise I want."

"Then how should I praise you?"

"I want the Train Captain to read this comment aloud to praise me."

"..."

Chen Mang took the piece of paper that Ai handed over, read it carefully, then expressionlessly tossed it aside, turned, and walked toward the Gate of Space.

"Absolutely impossible."

"I, Chen Mang, would never say something so embarrassing in this lifetime."

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