"The rock layer and soil above the Farmhouse Shelter."
"They have fulfilled their historical significance and it's time for them to step down."
Through long-term subtle influence.
Shelters built underground were considered safer than those built above ground.
This fixed psychological implication.
Even though Su Wu had developed the shelter to its current massive scale, with a diameter of 7 kilometers and accommodating 27 million people.
He still retained the 10-meter-thick rock and soil layer above the shelter.
But in reality.
Relative to the shelter's enormous size, the 10-meter thickness was like a layer of dust on a giant's skin.
Apart from limiting the speed at which Su Wu could build the shelter.
It had almost no other use.
Now.
Su Wu broke this psychological shackle.
It was like being reborn.
And it would soon reflect in various parts of the Farmhouse Shelter.
Allowing tens of millions of people to feel the impact of this change.
[Self-check completed.]
[Activating combat mode.]
The voice of the Artificial Intelligence echoed in Su Wu's ears.
Bringing him back from his reverie.
On the holographic projection in front of him.
The surface of the Farmhouse Shelter.
A circular rapid-setting cement platform began to rise slowly.
Supported by four retractable metal pillars below.
It ascended to a height of 150 meters amidst the snowstorm.
[Super-large electromagnetic railgun has reached the designated position.]
[Commencing combat stance.]
A tower, along with a barrel.
A massive metal turret over 500 meters in length.
Gradually revealed its original form on the high-altitude platform.
Then, a row of blue cold light indicators.
Lit up from the front of the barrel.
Extending all the way to the ammunition chamber of the tower.
This indicated that the entire super-large electromagnetic railgun was ready.
Ready to fire at any moment.
"The charging time before each shot is one minute."
"After charging, the maximum energy storage time cannot exceed 30 seconds."
Su Wu browsed through the various data fed back by this newly born super weapon in operation.
With the Amethyst Crystal Entity's remnants as the core.
And invested with over ten thousand points of Spirituality.
Under the framework of highly advanced electromagnetic theory.
This was the highest specification electromagnetic weapon that could currently be manufactured.
The power of the super-large electromagnetic railgun was undeniable.
Even though it hadn't been tested in actual combat.
Just the data presented in theoretical calculations.
Already showed that its attack intensity per unit area exceeded all conventional weapons, as well as strategic weapons like ballistic missiles and nuclear bombs.
It was quite close to the Skyfall Strategic Strike System of the Eden Satellite.
However, such pure and extreme power.
Was not without its cost.
After each shot.
The entire super-large electromagnetic railgun needed a complete overhaul.
Replacing the core components made from the Amethyst Crystal Entity's remnants.
Some overheated parts of the barrel also needed to be repaired.
All in all.
A frequency of one shot per hour was considered good.
As for the firing cost.
It mainly depended on the storage amount of the Amethyst Crystal Entity's remnants.
After all these days.
The amount of Amethyst Crystal Entity's remnants Su Wu had collected that could be used as consumables.
Was only enough for the super-large electromagnetic railgun to be used seven or eight times.
"Let's try one shot anyway."
"The number of Amethyst Crystal Entity's remnants will only increase."
After some consideration.
Su Wu decided to splurge a bit.
A new weapon, without a test shot.
Relying solely on paper data for evaluation might not be reliable.
And it would be hard to form an intuitive and accurate impression.
Authorizing the Artificial Intelligence.
Soon.
The turret on the 150-meter-high platform.
Started to flicker with a blue-white light.
Under the powerful energy convergence.
Even a weak electromagnetic field formed.
Repelling the snowflakes sent by the strong winds to the turret.
[Attack mode selected, armor-piercing.]
[Target confirmed, Luofeng Peak in the northwest direction.]
[Fire.]
A piercing blue beam shot through the snowstorm along the way.
Violently crashing into the mountains more than ten to twenty kilometers north of the Farmhouse Shelter.
Then burrowing into the mountainside of one of the big mountains.
After more than half a minute.
A thunderous roar came from afar within the mountains.
Echoing above the surface of the Farmhouse Shelter.
And at the birthplace of this roar.
Where the super-large electromagnetic railgun had attacked.
A tunnel several hundred meters long appeared.
This shot.
Directly pierced through the entire mountain.
"Performance meets expectations."
"Attack intensity is quite good."
Through the monitoring, looking at the situation in the mountains.
Su Wu was quite satisfied with the performance of the super-large electromagnetic railgun.
With this new strategic weapon in hand.
He would face the evolution of the Amethyst Crystal Entity with much more ease.
Then.
After confirming that the turret's condition post-firing didn't have any unexpected issues.
Su Wu began to have the platform in the air return to the ground.
Previously, sending the super-large electromagnetic railgun to a height of 150 meters was for the convenience of extreme testing.
In fact, as long as it could hit the target.
The turret could launch attacks at any height below 150 meters.
At the same time.
The Laser Defense Array originally deployed above the core area of the Farmhouse Shelter.
Was also simultaneously transferred to the mobile platform where the turret was located.
To facilitate a more stringent protection of the super-large electromagnetic railgun's safety.
Completing the final testing of the electromagnetic railgun.
Su Wu then projected the overall structure diagram of the Farmhouse Shelter onto the metal platform.
Today, besides building and testing the super-large electromagnetic railgun.
There was another equally important matter.
"The temporary warehouses on the surface have all been relocated."
"All personnel under construction within the shelter have been transferred to safe areas."
"Various key equipment have also been prepared for impact prevention."
"We can commence large-scale blasting now."
Su Wu's gaze swept over the now deserted construction sites from the fifth underground floor to the first underground floor.
After confirming there were no oversights in the preparations.
Su Wu issued the detonation command.
In the next moment.
Continuous yet subtle explosion sounds echoed around the Farmhouse Shelter.
A large amount of dust, accompanied by the detonation of bombs buried underground.
Shot straight up into the air more than ten meters high.
Within just a few minutes.
Centered on the core area of the Farmhouse Shelter, all places within a radius of 3.5 kilometers.
Were as if plowed.
From the originally almost solidified hard rock soil into a piece of soft land.
After Su Wu removed the inherent impression of having to work underground.
The expansion of the Farmhouse Shelter.
Had a better construction model.
That was to dig a pit first.
Starting from the ground, directly removing all the earth and rocks that hindered the shelter's expansion.
Then continue to build the shelter within the pit.
The advantage of this.
Was directly simplifying the most difficult and time-consuming excavation step in the shelter expansion process into a mere transportation job.
And without the constraints of the excavation step.
Taking advantage of the rapid-setting cement's characteristic of solidifying within three minutes.
All the remaining construction processes could be incredibly fast.
"According to the new model."
"The expansion project from the fifth underground floor to the first underground floor, which originally took about 50 days."
"Can be shortened to a mere 7 days."
"Three days for transporting the ground's earth and rocks."
"Two days for expanding the shelter from the fifth underground floor to the first underground floor."
"And one day to avoid the possible occurrence of a Low-Temperature Cold Wave at any time."
Working on the surface, simple as it was.
The harsh environment there still brought some interference.
The excavators and ordinary transport vehicles, designed from the start to work underground.
Had no ability to resist the Low-Temperature Cold Wave.
During the period of the Low-Temperature Cold Wave, work had to be temporarily halted.
However, despite this.
The overall work efficiency was still much higher than before when confined underground.
Only one week was needed.
To complete the work originally estimated to take nearly two months.
Allowing the over 20 million people outside the Farmhouse Shelter, and the Plantation that was about to fill most of the subsidiary shelters of Jianghe City.
To directly move into the Farmhouse Shelter.
"Then, due to the significant reduction in construction difficulty."
"The large amount of labor saved in the construction team."
"Can all be concentrated on the construction of the shelter's eighth underground floor."
"Separated by the already constructed seventh and sixth underground floors."
"The eighth underground floor, located deeper underground, still needed to use the traditional method of excavation followed by construction for expansion."
"But this part."
"Was not that urgent."
"Fast or slow didn't matter."
Su Wu suddenly realized in his planning.
The previously always insufficient, precious space of the Farmhouse Shelter.
With this change in construction method.
Had been completely resolved.
The residents' activity area, the food plantation, and even the meat breeding farm he had been yearning for, which were difficult to cut down.
Could all start construction simultaneously a week later.
No longer needing to be indefinitely postponed.
At the same time, influenced by this.
The tens of millions of shelter residents who now needed to work more than 10 hours a day.
Could all revert to the original 8-hour work system.
No longer needing to endure excessive labor pressure.
"Just a change in perspective."
"Brought about such a huge change."
"Turning the original hard mode into easy mode."
Su Wu sighed lightly, feeling a bit of regret for his past mindset.
But fortunately, the realization wasn't too late.
"Next."
"Since the shelter's space is now sufficient."
"Then we can strive to transfer the population around the wide river basin and Yu'an City over faster."
"Only by transferring them to the Farmhouse Shelter."
"Can they truly become the ruled populace recognized by the system."
"Providing the Spirituality that belongs to the ruled populace."
Over 20 million ruled population could provide over 2000 points of Spirituality daily.
According to Su Wu's game currency exchange ratio.
These newly added Spirituality incomes were approximately equivalent to an increase of over 100,000 tons of grain daily.
Or more of other resources.
It was a rather considerable income.
After all, it was still the apocalypse.
In this era where humans could only hide in underground shelters.
For most people, the most important thing was the food needed to sustain survival.
In a sense, the game currency issued by Su Wu.
Might not even be as solid in value as food.
It was approximately equivalent to precious universal currency.
"Also, can let loose."
"Further expanding the scale of external plunder."
Su Wu had spent a week before.
Only occupying 30 large and small shelters in the northern region.
There were many other factors in this.
But one of the quite important reasons.
Was Su Wu's lack of sufficient shelter space to accommodate the population.
This made him somewhat restrained in the process of conquest.
Afraid of indigestion from eating too much.
Now, naturally, there was no such concern.
No matter how much population was consumed, Su Wu could easily accommodate them.
Of course, so-called plunder.
Wasn't necessarily about forcefully occupying shelters.
Even now, in the entire eastern continent.
For many shelters without enough space to produce food.
Excessive population was a burden.
Su Wu only needed to have a caravan pull a cart of grain, or other industrial goods over.
Easily able to exchange for an equivalent cart of population in many places.
This method.
Was more efficient in collecting population than attacking shelters one by one.
And wouldn't provoke public outrage, nor elicit a strong backlash from the federation.
"Just right."
"Those Plantations built in the subsidiary shelters."
"No need to dismantle, and can even continue to be built."
"Until all the space is utilized."
"Then their output can be used as commodities for external trade."
The Plantations in the subsidiary shelters.
Because they couldn't guarantee sufficient safety.
Were not suitable to become the main food production bases under Su Wu's rule.
But as additional economic production sites.
For exchanging population and other resources externally, there was no problem.
This way.
They produced as much as they created value.
And if destroyed by accident, wouldn't bring a crippling loss to Su Wu.
Returning to sit in front of the control console.
Su Wu opened the production list of the Super Factory again.
Since the scale of external plunder was to be accelerated.
Then the most important transport tools, the Icebound-class Land Battleships and snow transport vehicles that made up the caravan.
Naturally, the more the better.
Considering the occupation of Steel City, whether it was rare resources or ordinary resources.
Wouldn't be too scarce in the short term.
Thus, expanding production would basically not have much pressure.
"According to the current statistics of resources over at Steel City."
"The Icebound-class Land Ba
ttleships can ultimately produce about 120 more units."
"As for the snow transport vehicles, the Super Factory can sustain full production for over a month."
The Super Factory's productivity was powerful as it was.
But its footprint was ultimately only about 10 million square meters.
There was still a production limit.
Even with sufficient resources, the total number of snow transport vehicles that could be produced in a day was only 500 units.
(End of Chapter)