Settlement

If a person could focus completely, time passed very quickly.

Zhou Yi became wholly immersed in digging stones. The little cart beside her filled up again and again, only for her to store everything in her Space Ring.

With no Xiao Fu to chat with her today, Zhou Yi began silently circulating the Star Gathering Art amid the monotonous, repetitive work.

She was earning stones, obtaining Nutrient Solution, and cultivating—all without interfering with one another.

Perhaps the combined exhaustion of physical labor and mental cultivation had drained Zhou Yi too much. By noon, she had to drink another three tubes of Nutrient Solution before she finally felt full.

"At this rate, I'm afraid I won't make it to next week."

Zhou Yi quietly calculated. She had no reserves left at all. At the rate of nearly ten tubes of Nutrient Solution a day across three meals, the few Star Coins she had left would not even last a week.

"Looks like I need to think of something."

When the call signaling the end of the shift came, Zhou Yi stopped what she was doing and counted today's haul.

She had already stored thirty Crystal Stones in her Space Ring, while another seventeen sat in her cart.

She had found three Primary Crystal Stones, with one more sitting in the cart.

Zhou Yi glanced over the cart, then openly placed her little shovel on top and pushed it toward the gathering point.

More than a hundred miners pushed their carts back from mine tunnels in every direction, returning to the main hall and forming two long lines.

The cartload of stones Zhou Yi had attracted quite a bit of attention.

How could such a young girl dig up so many stones all by herself?

How had she done it?

"Hey, did you dig all these stones yourself?"

The person standing in front of Zhou Yi turned around and asked her warmly.

Zhou Yi looked closely and recognized the plump older woman who had stood ahead of her yesterday.

"Mm-hm."

Zhou Yi answered.

Once someone started the conversation, the others could no longer contain their curiosity. They began asking questions over one another, seeking shortcuts from Zhou Yi and asking which mine tunnel she had entered.

Zhou Yi answered them one by one, saying she had no special method. She had simply used her shovel to dig bit by bit, and the yield in her tunnel was no different from the others.

"Did you bring this shovel yourself? Can I hold it and take a look?"

An old miner was the first to notice what was unusual about the little shovel sitting in the cart.

"Sure. Go ahead."

Zhou Yi agreed generously. After all this time, everyone's attention had finally shifted to the little shovel.

Though these people were not her target, having more people who recognized its value was always a good thing.

"The material of this shovel is really unusual. With this hardness and how thin and light it is, it could definitely cut the effort needed in half!"

The old miner gripped the little shovel and swung it several times, unable to put it down. He had mined all his life. If he had a shovel like this, he could definitely dig up far more stones!

Seeing this, the others also came up to handle it.

"Where did you buy it? Was it expensive?"

The people of the D-Class Star Block knew very little about mecha. Even if they had seen Mechanical Shovels mentioned on the Star Brain, now that they were looking at the real thing, no one dared make the connection.

Though the old miner loved the shovel dearly, he also knew that materials and craftsmanship like this would not come cheap.

"I didn't buy it. A relative made it."

"Are you selling them? How much per shovel?"

The mine provided shovels, but compared to Zhou Yi's, they were complete trash.

Barring any surprises, the native residents of D72 Star Block would spend their entire lives mining. A better shovel meant more ore, more Nutrient Solution, and a better life.

Everyone could do that math.

"Ten thousand Star Coins each."

Zhou Yi named the price she had long decided on.

Ten thousand Star Coins could buy a thousand tubes of Nutrient Solution. At Zhou Yi's current appetite, that would last her three months.

"That expensive..."

The line moved forward in an orderly fashion, and after hearing the price, everyone gradually looked away.

The shovel did seem useful, but spending three months' wages without eating or drinking just to buy a tool was far too extravagant.

They might as well keep using the free shovels issued by the mine. After all, their time and strength were worth nothing to people like them.

"Can't be helped. My relative made it. Even my own family has to pay that price."

Zhou Yi pushed the blame for the shovel onto a nonexistent relative. Otherwise, it would be rather strange for someone from a family capable of making such a shovel to be out working and hauling stones.

Seeing that none of them had any intention of buying, Zhou Yi was not disappointed.

After all, ordinary laborers like them had never been her target customers.

As she chatted with everyone, she kept an eye on Gal from the corner of her eye and clearly saw him glance over when they asked about the price.

Ten thousand Star Coins was obviously a huge sum for these laborers.

But for Gal, who settled accounts worth tens of thousands of Star Coins every day, it was merely a drop in the bucket.

Spending money on tools to raise the mine's purchasing rate in the long run—anyone with a brain would never pass up a deal like that.

The only question was how much authority this curly-haired guy actually had.

Zhou Yi looked at the shovel on the cart, wondering how long it had taken her to make it last night and whether making a few more would make the task workload too great.

When it was finally Zhou Yi's turn to settle up, Gal glanced over the Crystal Ore in her cart, then took several extra looks at the Primary Crystal Stone before giving her twenty-one bottles of Nutrient Solution.

Sixteen ordinary Crystal Ore pieces, sixteen bottles of Nutrient Solution.

One Primary Crystal Stone, five bottles of Nutrient Solution.

"Wait a moment after this. I want to talk to you about that shovel of yours."

After taking the stones, Gal said this.

"Alright!"

After so much buildup, this was exactly what Zhou Yi had been waiting for. Without even a hint of restraint, she happily agreed, put away the Nutrient Solution, and went aside to wait.

Gal settled accounts quickly. In just over half an hour, everyone else had been paid as well.

After leading the group out of the mine and waiting until the crowd had dispersed, Gal spoke to Zhou Yi.

"Can I take a look at your shovel?"

"Of course."

After taking the shovel and examining it carefully, Gal was certain—it was a Mechanical Shovel.

The materials used for it simply were not very good. They seemed to be recycled mech scrap.

Although its material was inferior and it could not compare to the Mechanical Shovels used in those high-grade Star Block mines, its design was indeed quite ingenious, making up for the shortcomings of the materials.

At ten thousand Star Coins, this Mechanical Shovel was practically a steal. He would be making a killing.

After all, a single Mechanical Shovel sold by the guild could never be bought for less than thirty thousand Star Coins.

"Is someone in your family a Mech Master?"

Only a Mech Master could make something like this.

But skilled Mech Masters disdained making such tools, while less capable ones could not make anything good.

Yet aside from its material flaws, the shovel before him was perfect in every other respect.

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