Su Wu was among the members of the merchant convoy.
He added five more engineering vehicles.
After a moment of contemplation, he shifted his gaze to the base vehicle resting on the surface of the farmhouse courtyard.
Aside from the Miniature Mech and the manufacturing center, the base vehicle was now the mechanical creation in Su Wu's possession that had the highest single investment of Survival Points.
Many of the base vehicle's features could be considered a generation ahead of the current world standards.
Even when limited to road maintenance, the base vehicle, which could be equipped with multiple heavy-duty devices, had a construction efficiency far exceeding that of ordinary engineering vehicles.
Moreover, its armor and electromagnetic shield, enhanced by Survival Points, along with an artificial intelligence that was on par with that of the farmhouse courtyard, allowed it to exhibit extremely powerful combat capabilities in the wild, becoming the cornerstone of the entire convoy's safety.
"Having invested so many Survival Points into it,"
"It's about time it played a role."
Through the control console, he connected with the base vehicle's artificial intelligence.
Su Wu quickly checked the status of the base vehicle and found everything to be in excellent condition, even the power was at a full hundred percent.
It could be activated at any time.
All he needed to do was add various extra attachments based on the convoy's tasks.
These tasks were not difficult at all.
Even though Su Wu currently did not have any large equipment suitable for the base vehicle, as long as he issued commands on the spot, there was no need to utilize the high-end manufacturing center.
The ordinary industrial area located five floors underground in the farmhouse courtyard could manufacture all the necessary construction equipment within one or two hours.
During this manufacturing time, Su Wu equipped the base vehicle with five humanoid service robots, a Combat Drone Swarm, and a precious engineering robot.
The role of the humanoid service robots was to handle negotiations and transactions with other shelters.
For the sake of resource conservation and safety, Su Wu did not plan to assign ordinary staff to the convoy; instead, he opted for remote control.
All actual work accompanying the convoy would be delegated to the robots.
In this situation, using humanoid service robots was certainly better than employing Spider Robots and Machine Dogs.
As for the Combat Drone Swarm, there was nothing more to say.
It was purely a combat unit, just like the twenty ordinary Spider Robots in the convoy.
When necessary, it could combine with the Spider Robots to form a ground-air assault force, striking wherever directed.
The last engineering robot was an additional safeguard prepared by Su Wu for the convoy.
The professional capabilities of the engineering robot had long been proven.
Su Wu's initial shelter was built piece by piece by it.
With the engineering robot's presence, any malfunction could be swiftly repaired.
It was equivalent to having a professional maintenance team.
"This should be about right."
Admiring the convoy's new configuration, Su Wu began directing the robots to equip the convoy with various necessary supplies.
These supplies, aside from being used by the convoy itself, also included some for external trade.
This included mobile phones, various simple industrial products like hand-cranked generators, water purifiers, flashlights, medicines, solid-state batteries, and so on.
Among these, mobile phones were the most valuable and easiest to sell.
However, Su Wu himself did not have enough to use.
At most, he could spare a portion as a safety net.
In contrast, the other simple industrial goods, due to their low manufacturing difficulty, many of which could even be handmade, might not fetch a high price, but with sufficient quantity, they were more suitable for bulk trading.
Two hours passed.
Once everything was ready, led by the base vehicle and accompanied by a total of fifty vehicles of various models, they set off from the farmhouse courtyard.
They began heading southeast towards Tumen City.
In Jianghe City, eastern part of the urban ruins, Liang Liyang, clad in Exoskeleton Armor, violently slammed his hammer down.
The half-standing concrete wall in the ruins shattered with a loud crack, scattering debris everywhere.
Several ordinary people nearby, waiting, rushed forward to move the rubble away.
"That thing on you is really powerful."
"One hit and you can smash a wall."
"If it were us, who knows how long it would take."
Beside him, Fang Hongtao, while working, couldn't help but express his envy.
"Luck has its part."
Liang Liyang chuckled proudly. Then, noticing that the break time was over, he reached up to lift the visor on his face for some fresh air.
Among the hundreds of people in their dormitory building, Liang Liyang was currently the only one assigned Exoskeleton Armor.
Although strictly speaking, he only had one-third of the usage rights for this set of Exoskeleton Armor.
After eight hours of work, another person would take over his Exoskeleton Armor to continue working in the ruins.
But that didn't stop him from being the most eye-catching one in the entire dormitory.
"However, wearing this armor means more work, and the pay is still about the same as yours."
"Honestly, it feels like I haven't gained much."
After his moment of pride, Liang Liyang couldn't help but feel a bit of a complaint.
The artificial intelligence managing them truly enforced fairness to the extreme.
Not a single advantage was left for them.
"How about we switch?"
Fang Hongtao rolled his eyes.
Their incomes were indeed similar.
But with the assistance of Exoskeleton Armor, not only was the work easier, but the safety aspect was also much stronger than that of ordinary people without any protection.
For instance, if an earthquake were to suddenly occur now, someone like Liang Liyang, wearing Exoskeleton Armor, would definitely be safe from any life-threatening danger.
Whereas for the ordinary people like them, no matter how lucky they were, at least a few unfortunate souls would go missing.
Moreover, even in their regular work, the differences were evident.
With Exoskeleton Armor covering him, Liang Liyang was completely unbothered by the harsh cold outside.
While Fang Hongtao, no matter how thickly he dressed, couldn't escape the additional torment of cold due to sweating and other labor-related issues.
"If management agrees, I could lend it to you to try."
Seeing Fang Hongtao's reaction, Liang Liyang felt a bit guilty for taking advantage and couldn't help but show a sheepish expression, falling silent and refraining from further complaints.
At that moment, the sensors on his Exoskeleton Armor seemed to detect some unusual vibrations.
Liang Liyang pulled up his visor and used the long-range lens to look in the direction of the sound.
He soon spotted a large convoy driving past the edge of the urban area, heading southeast.
"What's going on?"
Fang Hongtao asked nervously beside him.
Without the various components of the exoskeleton, he, as an ordinary person, couldn't see the situation at the edge of the urban area.
"It seems like a convoy has appeared over there."
"It's quite large."
"I can see many buses."
Liang Liyang replied in a muffled voice while looking through the visor.
"Looking at the direction they're heading, it seems to be towards Tumen City."
Since this was indeed the first time witnessing such a situation, not just Liang Liyang, but almost everyone in the southeastern ruins who could utilize the observation equipment on their Exoskeleton Armor or Spider Robots couldn't help but sneak a glance.
Fortunately, the labor intensity for each of them was significantly reduced under Su Wu's intentional control.
Otherwise, with such distraction, who knows how many people would face punishment from the artificial intelligence afterward.
"Towards Tumen City."
"That should be the external trade convoy being formed up there."
"I guess we'll soon see an increase in the population here."
Fang Hongtao quickly connected the dots, recalling the previous large-scale refugee reception operation in Jianghe City.
Clearly, this was after the waterways became impassable, leading to the formation of a land convoy.
"More people are coming."
"What kind of hell is out there?"
"Everyone is trying to run towards us."
Liang Liyang's face turned sour upon hearing this.
With more people, the already scarce high-end resources in the market would surely become even scarcer.
The hamburger meal he had been dreaming of might have to stretch from once a week to an even longer wait.
"The apocalypse, I guess."
"What good life can ordinary people expect?"
"You've seen those posts from refugees online."
"There are really thugs out there, and people do starve to death."
Thinking of the horrific scenes he had seen in various videos and images online, Fang Hongtao sighed with a hint of sympathy.
Although his current life was tough, and he could only eat tasteless food every day, at least he was free from worries about food and clothing.
He didn't have to worry about the dangers brought by chaos.
Compared to those outsiders, he was already quite fortunate.
The convoy led by the base vehicle soon encountered a massive obstacle shortly after leaving the urban ruins of Jianghe City.
In front of them, the road had a section that was hundreds of meters long, twisted and broken.
The highest point of the broken concrete surface even jutted up three to four meters high.
Even with the size of the base vehicle, it couldn't simply crush through.
"There's a flat wasteland right next to it."
"Based on the ground strength, it can barely allow the convoy to pass."
In the control center of the farmhouse courtyard, Su Wu, who was constantly monitoring the convoy, immediately noticed the unusual situation.
He glanced at the artificial intelligence's suggestion to take a detour and then looked at the photos of the more rugged roads near Tumen City transmitted by the reconnaissance drones.
After a moment of silence, he abandoned the idea of taking a shortcut.
The convoy was not just passing through once and never returning.
If multiple trips were needed, it would be better to choose to repair the road sooner.
After all, no matter how bad the road was, it still had a solid foundation.
The efficiency of passage after repairs would be much higher than that of the wasteland.
"Take it slow."
"Even if it takes three to five days, as long as it can be repaired, that's fine."
Realizing that it was impossible to cross this intercity road that hadn't been traversed for a long time in a short period, Su Wu calmed down.
He simply handed over the remaining work of the convoy to the artificial intelligence for command.
At the same time, he formed a small group composed of professionals in the construction field to remotely monitor the convoy and respond to any unexpected incidents.
The benefits of having a large population became evident at this moment.
Even for something like road repair, it was easy to find a large number of qualified professionals.
After parting ways with the convoy, Su Wu opened the technology tree panel of the system again after a long time and began to consider the upcoming development plans.
"Ordinary steel becomes brittle at low temperatures."
"All vehicles that need to operate on the surface and equipment appearing on the surface in the future must have their main materials replaced with low-temperature resistant metal alloys."
"And, considering that we need to continue absorbing at least a million people from the southeast, the resources for the future development of the shelter must also be obtained from outside."
"A larger transport vehicle, more suitable for traversing harsh environments, must be redesigned."
Faced with this urgent need, Su Wu pondered for a while and ultimately chose to design a new transport vehicle based on the model of the base vehicle.
The new transport vehicle was named the snowfield transport vehicle.
It featured a tracked chassis, no driver's cabin, and would typically move via autopilot or remote control.
Its shape was roughly similar to that of the base vehicle's cabin but longer and taller.
The overall dimensions were maintained within a width of 2.5 meters, a length of 12.5 meters, and a height of 7 meters.
Its interior was also divided into two levels, capable of accommodating up to 90 passengers or carrying over a hundred tons of cargo.
Due to the use of low-temperature steel as the main material for the vehicle body and the power provided by solid-state batteries built into the vehicle, the snowfield transport vehicle could operate normally in environments as low as minus 100 degrees.
Additionally, identical models of the snowfield transport vehicle could connect with each other, forming a land train that did not require tracks, capable of traversing most complex terrains.
"This transport vehicle should be sufficient to meet all surface transportation needs for a long time to come."
Looking at the completed design blueprints, Su Wu seemed to envision snowfield transport vehicles covering vast areas, continuously transporting supplies from various places to the farmhouse courtyard.
Or perhaps a long train, with the base vehicle as the head, stretching several kilometers or even over ten kilometers, crossing treacherous mountains and canyons to reach distant locations.
However, its cost was not cheap, and it was uncertain how many could be manufactured in a short time.
With the new vehicle, related maintenance issues also needed to be addressed.
The best solution would be to have an engineering robot accompany the convoy.
But given its expensive cost, that was clearly unrealistic.
Su Wu could only settle for a less ideal option.
He chose to downgrade the design to create a knockoff maintenance robot as a substitute.
The maintenance robot did not possess the advanced mechanical arms of the engineering robot, which contained cutting-edge technology.
It only utilized high-temperature welding guns, machine-grade cutting tools, and so on.
It fundamentally lacked the mechanical manufacturing capabilities of the engineering robot.
In terms of maintenance efficiency, it was also far inferior to the engineering robot.
But at least it could repair most simple faults, preventing the snowfield transport vehicle from easily breaking down in the wild.
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