Miner Zhou

Zhou Yi really wanted to ask how much this Intelligent Brain from a higher plane knew about him, but clearly, now was not a good time.

Because he had arrived early, the miners had not started work yet. Those who had come early stood around in small groups, each wearing a little vest.

There was a large box nearby, filled with those same little vests.

"We have to wear uniforms to mine?"

These were issued by the Alliance, specifically for people doing dangerous work. If the mine collapsed, pressing a button on the clothing would automatically send an alarm; it could light up, make noise, and be located.

As a qualified know-it-all, Xiao Fu taught Zhou Yi this knowledge that it considered extremely basic.

Zhou Yi rummaged through the box, found a slightly cleaner one, put it on, then stood to one side with the others and waited to go down into the mine.

These people were basically all natives of D72 Star Block. They all had Chinese faces and probably knew one another, chatting idly in groups of two or three.

Zhou Yi listened for a bit. Most of it was complaints about sore necks and aching backs, along with gossip about everyday family matters.

Naturally, there was no shortage of complaints about Gal. Gal was that curly-haired big brother.

Zhou Yi lost interest after listening for a while. He found a corner, sat down, and closed his eyes as if taking a nap, but in truth, he began circulating the Star Gathering Art.

Although it was not convenient to take out the Crystal Marrow here to assist his cultivation, it was still better than wasting time.

Fortunately, more and more people in little vests gathered around him, and soon it was time to enter the mine.

There was only one entrance to the mining area.

Gal and the old miners walked at the front, leading everyone down into the mine.

Two of Gal's men remained outside the mining area to stand guard and keep in contact at any time.

Zhou Yi stood quietly in the middle of the group.

There were over a hundred miners, more than thirty of them women. Zhou Yi did not stand out in the middle of the crowd.

The crystal mine was very different from the coal mines Zhou Yi knew of before. A long staircase had been built at the entrance, with a landing roughly every ten meters. Once they had descended all the stairs, they were about fifty meters underground.

When his feet touched the ground, Zhou Yi looked around at the surrounding environment.

Unlike the cramped space he had imagined, the place where the crowd stood was as wide as a small playground.

Many glowing Energy Beads hung from the ceiling and walls.

But the place was simply too large, so even with the Energy Beads providing light, it still seemed somewhat dim.

There was a table and chairs in the center of the small playground. Gal walked over and sat down.

"I'll explain the rules again for the newcomers. In a moment, everyone will push a cart from the side. Each cart has a shovel for digging Mining Crystals and a helmet with an Energy Bead. Then find any mine tunnel and go in to dig. At the end of the workday, each person must hand in at least ten Mining Crystals. If you dig more, you'll be paid one Nutrient Solution per crystal. If you find any high-quality ones, bring them to me, and I'll calculate those separately."

As a low-level star block, Nutrient Solution was a necessity. It was the most convenient thing to use to pay miners.

Zhou Yi followed everyone to the side, pushed away a small cart, and began choosing a mine tunnel.

There were nearly a hundred mine tunnels around them, fewer than the number of miners entering the mine.

But the miners did not all work alone. Many familiar with one another entered the same tunnel in groups of two or three. Some did so to improve team mining efficiency, while others simply wanted company to talk to during the day's work.

Zhou Yi put on the glowing helmet, picked a tunnel entrance that looked relatively spacious, and pushed his cart inside.

Miner Zhou officially began work.

Every mine tunnel had been dug by those before him. The one Zhou Yi chose was long and deep, around seventy or eighty meters. He walked all the way to the end before stopping with his cart.

The Energy Bead on his helmet provided very limited illumination, but fortunately, Zhou Yi's night vision had become quite strong through cultivation, and he could see clearly.

The walls around him were all grayish-brown stone and earth. Zhou Yi rubbed the wall with one hand. The soil was extremely hard and difficult to dig.

The entire passage was a dull gray-black, without even a hint of what Mining Crystals looked like.

"Ten Mining Crystals a day. With such a low requirement, they must be hard to dig up. Either the soil is too hard, or there are too few Mining Crystals."

Zhou Yi did not start digging immediately. Instead, he thought it over first.

Correct answer! The accompanying soil in a crystal mine was Crystal Soil. It had no value, and its only feature was that it was hard. Besides, even in a crystal mine, digging out crystals was not so easy. Miner Zhou, exploited by capitalism, work hard!

Xiao Fu was deeply moved. Its leek-like host could actually think this much. Perhaps he was not completely stupid after all.

Since he was here, he might as well make the best of it. Zhou Yi took out a small shovel about a meter long from the cart and swung it at the wall.

Zhou Yi used considerable force, but the blow only drove the shovel in about a fist's depth, where it stuck firmly in the wall.

With another burst of strength, he dug out a shovelful of dirt.

Zhou Yi silently stopped, pulled out his last two Nutrient Solutions, and drank them in silence.

He now understood very clearly that today was destined to be an extraordinary day.

After digging laboriously for more than ten minutes, Zhou Yi finally saw the tip of a white, translucent stone emerge from the wall.

He had finally dug up a Mining Crystal!

Having found his target, Zhou Yi struck while the iron was hot and dug with all his strength. At last, he pried the big thing out of the wall.

It truly was a big thing. The Mining Crystal's diameter was as long as Zhou Yi's forearm, and it was an irregular cube.

It was translucent white throughout, with many cotton-like impurities inside. Even a novice like Zhou Yi could tell that its purity was low.

There was not much energy in a stone like this. It could not serve as an energy stone and could only be used as building material by wealthy people.

Xiao Fu was somewhat disdainful of the stone Zhou Yi had dug up. On the plane where it came from, this stuff was everywhere, and nobody wanted it.

Zhou Yi placed the Mining Crystal on the cart and continued digging without resting.

After all this time strengthening his body, Zhou Yi's physical strength had reached twice that of an ordinary adult man.

Mining was not easy work, but he could still handle it.

Mining Crystals were difficult to dig up. If he did not rest, he could dig a few more. He had just drunk his final two Nutrient Solutions.

He truly had no supplies left...

He would be going hungry soon...

At that thought, Miner Zhou swung his shovel even harder.

The shovel was not especially useful, and Mining Crystals were not easy to find, but after working all morning, Zhou Yi had discovered the trick to mining. He gradually became more adept at it and could basically dig up one every half hour.

Luckily, Zhou Yi was alone in this mine tunnel. Otherwise, if the others learned that a young girl could mine this quickly on her first day, they would probably be furious.

After all, the highest record of veteran miners who had worked here for years was only twenty in a day. For ordinary people, twelve or thirteen a day was already the limit. With bad luck, sometimes it was difficult even to scrape together the minimum of ten.