"Artificial rice isn't some high-tech stuff; you can buy it at stores in Night City, it's just you haven't seen it before."

The melon buyer also scooped a ladle of porridge, filling a bowl for the Haitians in line.

"In the end, it's just a mixture of starch and protein, add some vitamins, a bit of fat, then gelatinize it, and finally use machines to form the granules. That's how the tapioca on the market is made. Although the taste is definitely not as good as natural rice, being able to eat it in the game is better than nothing, and it's quite nutritious."

These players, who didn't like combat, pondered daily in the chemical plant. Besides the routine production of explosives and chemical materials, they would try whatever came to mind, buying equipment and raw materials themselves, expanding the chemical plant, and adding production lines.

The red bucket of rice was something these people experimented with numerous times and communicated with the prefabricated meals industry practitioners on forums to come up with a similar product.

"Related products exist in the domestic market too, like the rice in self-heating hot pots. It's made with a similar process, just not as thoroughly chemical as ours, still using rice and wheat as raw materials."

Sometimes if you don't deliberately look into it, you wouldn't know how advanced the world's application technology has become.

As for whether it's high-tech or durable, that's not within the concerns of the citizens of Night City.

First, fill the stomach, then consider the matter of dying or not.

"You guys are freaking awesome."

Even the red bucket couldn't find words to say.

"This rice of yours could probably make a fortune."

The melon buyer shook his head.

"Make a fortune my ass, can't make money, this is our failed product, just taking it out from the warehouse to make use of waste this time."

"Apart from Asians and Latinos, Americans hardly eat rice at all, not many of those vendors even care. Even the sushi used in Japanese restaurants here is made from starch balls, no rice anymore, and the cost is high and the price is high, can't sell it."

A protein block on the market costs only 0.5 Euro-Jin, but a pound of artificial rice costs 5 Euro-Jin. Converted to RMB, it probably costs more than eighty bucks, while natural rice would be even more expensive, twenty to thirty Euro-Jin a pound, damn this rice is made of gold or what?

Even if the factory is expanded to lower costs, this kind of thing isn't easy to sell.

The only possible consumers, the players, definitely wouldn't get used to taste worse than real rice.

You can't possibly talk about nutrition with a group who sits in front of a computer all day making cola and fried chicken.

As for bread, that's even less promising.

After several rounds of industrial screening, food with multiple processes like bread or rice, which isn't easy to preserve, has basically been eliminated from the market. What they want are fast foods or even nutrition pastes that can be eaten in one bite, easily digested, and produce less waste.

The red bucket looked at those Haitians, they had no opinion, after all, free stuff shouldn't be wasted.

————

After the meal, it's time for a big cleanup of the entire residential area. First, collect the trash, load it up, and transport it out of the city. Then dismantle those broken shanties to prepare for renovation.

But not everyone agreed with this action.

"Won't doing this cause trouble?"

Gloria, who was conducting a free clinic with the medical department players, asked.

"In name, this area still belongs to those companies."

Although the Taiping Continent has been temporarily shelved due to the unified war and the Dogtown issue, legally these construction projects still belong to those companies. The Haitians living here is illegal occupation, but the companies don't bother because of cost issues.

Now Lin Miao is tearing down those shanties built by Haitians and renovating the houses, which is like helping those companies complete the last few steps. Once they return to Taiping Continent, they can drive the Haitians out of the community anytime, not only wasting all of Lin Miao's investment but also using this as an excuse to demand exorbitant compensation by saying he damaged the construction site, used non-compliant materials, etc.

Lin Miao looked at the Sea God Industry system as those robots scanned and modeled the surrounding environment after cleaning up, then uploaded data like residential population, average space per person, investment costs, and other data. Afterward, Sea God would start listing the appropriate material list according to the current Night City market prices and subsequent building renovation modeling.

Not only precise but also fast.

Even if there were any mistakes in between, or players have any comments, they could be uploaded to the Sea God database, and through continuous learning, Sea God would constantly improve its industrial design capabilities, which is what most companies are doing.

But to save computing power, they prefer directly using AI to plagiarize existing results.

"That's a problem for later, don't worry about them."

Lin Miao looked at the large number of robots operating and felt inexplicably excited.

"Before Dogtown collapses, it's impossible for Taiping Continent to restart operations. Those companies won't increase investment here, nor will they manage the Haitians."

"And after Dogtown's fall, they wouldn't dare to cause me trouble over a few neighborhood projects."

"As for the water business, I still need you to keep an eye on it. ERO's platform is a must."

Gloria nodded slightly.

She now manages ERO in good order, and as more players come into Night City, ERO's rescue efficiency rises, and after expelling a batch of black doctors and cutting ties with the scavengers, its reputation shows signs of improvement.

Before, even if ERO wanted to do this, they wouldn't dare. A single scavenger knocking on the door would be enough to give them headaches. But now those scavengers are having a hard time themselves, not knowing if the person they catch on the street is a trap.

There have been more than one stronghold being stormed by a group of mercenaries within ten minutes after catching people on the street, making the scavengers in each district jump with frustration. If this continues, they won't be able to gather enough prosthetics promised to the Soviets.

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