"The golden color represents gold mineral resources, so does this black color represent oil?"

Zhou Yingting carefully examined the map in front of him, speculating in his mind.

However, it could also be coal resources.

"All these densely packed factories below require way too many resources."

He simply opened up some of the resources needed for technology tree upgrades, and indeed the quantity of resources required was enormous.

On some of the technology trees he wanted to illuminate below, there were prerequisites; you need to unlock the previous technologies and have enough resources to light up the technologies behind them.

"Upgrading to Level 10 technology, I have no idea how long it will take, but judging by the construction speed here, it shouldn't take too long."

"First, build various resource collection mines: iron mines, manganese mines, rare earth resources, and such. After all, these resources will be needed later on."

Zhou Yingting rubbed his hands. Starting the construction of these resource factories requires a fair amount of steel in itself.

Seeing this, Zhou Yingting looked at his remaining resources and then began constructing a Level 1 steel mill.

The Level 1 steel mill can produce 50 units of steel per hour, but it requires 10 units of electricity every hour.

The base generates 20 units of electricity per hour.

Aside from the gold smelting plant, which requires 10 units of electricity per hour, the base itself requires 5 units of electricity every hour.

With this, only five units of electricity are left available, which is far from meeting the demands of the Level 1 steel mill.

The reduction in electricity straightway cuts the steel mill's hourly output of 50 units of steel in half to 25 units per hour.

Under the current conditions, building a wind turbine is the most suitable option.

But wind power generation also requires 5 units of copper, 50 units of steel, and 500 units of gold. Fortunately, the base has 10 units of copper available.

Zhou Yingting carefully calculated and immediately felt the scarcity of resources was severe.

The electricity couldn't fully satisfy the steel mill, and the gold smelting plant couldn't stop; the construction of various factories all relied on gold, and the further you went, the more gold was needed.

The large gold mine he discovered could probably yield 100,000 units of gold, and once it's mined out, more gold mines must be located.

Luckily, he knew where these resources were distributed, so there was no immediate worry about gold.

"It's better to build the steel mill first. Once it's built, I can wait for a bit."

Zhou Yingting rubbed his temples and, given the present situation, could only rely on time to wait for some resources.

The wind-generated electricity can provide 50 units of power per hour. Once wind power is up, it can slightly alleviate the pressure.

After constructing the steel mill, Zhou Yingting began to wait patiently, waiting for enough steel units to accumulate before beginning to build the wind turbine.

......

"Gold, gold, isn't there any gold around here? How long has my exploration vehicle been out, and it still hasn't found a gold mine? How am I supposed to construct buildings like this?"

Under the white clouds and blue sky, a player sat in the command room, watching the exploration vehicle continuously probing the surroundings. It had already searched the vicinity over and over, yet still hadn't found the gold mine, almost making him laugh in frustration.

They had searched for hours around here without discovering even a trace of a gold mine. At this rate, would they spend days, maybe ten days or more, unable to find one?

If that were the case, how could development move forward?

Starting off behind means falling behind at every step.

"It's troublesome. With all this dirt and grass everywhere, who knows where the gold mine is actually located."

As he thought about this, his face turned a bit grim.

"Beep beep....."

Just as he felt a deep sense of frustration, a light spot appeared on the command room screen, causing his eyes to light up for a moment.

Subsequently, he quickly switched to the screen on the exploration vehicle, eager to see the situation.

As the screen connected, the scenario that appeared took him aback, and his face immediately filled with joy.

The video transmitted by the exploration vehicle showed a stream of golden lava continuously flowing.

"Gold mine?"

Seeing this scene, he instinctively stood up, his eyes immediately filled with elation.

"So much gold! If I can bring this gold back to Earth, wouldn't I be set for life?"

"Even if it costs me ten years of life expectancy, being able to bring back this much gold could assure my livelihood for the rest of my life, right?"

He was a newcomer, entering this entry copy for the first time.

Upon entering, he heard about everything within this entry copy from others.

According to those experienced players, completing the tasks within the copy was necessary to obtain the rewards.

This time, about a thousand people entered, and naturally, trying to make the top ten among them was incredibly tough.

Besides that, there were other advanced civilizations within this copy.

By all accounts, breaking into the top ten was extremely challenging.

Therefore, even knowing there was a strong chance to win ten million if he could make it to the top ten, he didn't hold high expectations for himself.

If he could bring back this much gold, surely its value would exceed ten million. At most, he'd trade ten years of his lifespan.

By comparison, this is very cost-effective.

The ideas in my mind are quite good, but the key is how to take the gold out of this instance.

I haven't heard anyone mention any way to take things out of the instance before.

Thinking about it, it's really a headache.

....

"What the hell is this place! Why is it all seawater around? Such a tiny island, and you want me to deploy a base?"

Surrounded by a vast ocean, his face was full of despair.

How is he supposed to deploy a base in this situation?

Once the base is deployed, how can resources be extracted?

Even without experiencing this instance, he knows that finding a continent is the best way to extract resources.

But now, he's been flying on this little metal ball for who knows how long, and all he can see is ocean.

This situation makes him mumble in his heart, could it be said that everyone is assigned a planet, and the one he's assigned is just an expanse of ocean?

If that's the case, then how is this even playable?

"Forget it, if I keep flying, I still won't find land. I'd better find a larger island to deploy the base, and as for the rest, I'll deal with it later."

He had flown so far, and if he really couldn't find land, he could only resign himself to fate.

What he's worried about now is whether this instance is a speed competition game, whether the faster the construction, the sooner you can level up to Level 10.

If that's the case, he's already far behind.

Looking around, he found a larger island and proceeded directly to deploy the base, and then he began to illuminate the Technology Tree.

However, when he saw the various technologies that could be illuminated within the Technology Tree, he was suddenly stunned.

Within these technologies, there is a branch that belongs to ocean technology.

This means he can fully unlock this branch of the Technology Tree and develop himself towards ocean technology.

According to the description on the Technology Tree, though unlocking the ocean branch of the Technology Tree is relatively slower and more easily restricted,

in essence, ocean technology can better conceal the traces of one's civilization, making it less vulnerable to discovery and more conducive to development.

"I just flew so far, and this ocean is huge, more than enough for my development!"

Upon confirming that the Technology Tree has a branch for ocean technology development, he was overjoyed.

Based on the earlier warnings in the instance, careless technology development can easily lead to attacks from other civilizations.

So while developing technology, keeping oneself concealed is extremely important.

As long as the technology is advanced enough, there are actually a lot of mineral resources under the ocean awaiting his extraction.

After deciding on the development path, he directly began focusing on developing the Siren Technology branch.

.....

"I have enough steel now to start building wind turbines."

"This speed is so slow."

Seeing that there was finally enough steel, Zhou Yingting hurriedly illuminated the wind turbines.

As resources in the warehouse diminished, a construction progress bar for the wind turbines appeared. Judging by the bar, it would take about thirty minutes.

Level 1 takes thirty minutes; who knows how long Level 8-9 will take. Could it eventually turn into days or even months?

Looking at the construction speed before him, Zhou Yingting faintly felt a sense of unease.

Among these buildings, Zhou Yingting looked further down and found a special Engineering Mansion.

The effect of this Engineering Mansion is to drastically reduce the time needed for construction.

Seeing this building, Zhou Yingting felt a slight relief. With such a structure, there's no need to worry about the time required for future upgrades being too extensive.

But in the short term, the Technology Tree for this mansion isn't illuminable yet.

Below, there are quite a few technologies that need to be illuminated, and this Engineering Mansion belongs to Level 4 technology.

After patiently waiting for half an hour, the wind turbines were finally completed.

As power generation increased, the steel factory's capacity was restored, from 25 units to 50 units.

The next technology that can be upgraded is....

Zhou Yingting looked at the Technology Tree and quickly locked on the next factory to be constructed.

Looking at the countless factories to be built next, Zhou Yingting felt a bit overwhelmed.

And these are just Level 1 factories, already numbering in the tens of thousands.

Apart from these basic factories, there are also thousands of other advanced factories.

Zhou Yingting made a simple calculation and found that to meet the construction of these basic factories, ten million units of gold would be required.

Next chapter will be updated first on this website. Come back and continue reading tomorrow, everyone!

If you find any errors ( broken links, non-standard content, etc.. ), Please let us know < report chapter > so we can fix it as soon as possible.