Brothers in Misfortune

After the Sea Wolf modification plan was completed, all the Mechanical Spiders were dispersed once again and thrown into the next phase of development: base upgrading!

Beyond further camouflaging and perfecting the surface of the island, Nie Yun also turned his gaze beneath the sea.

First, building a base underwater is far more concealed than building it on the surface, allowing the Mechanical Spiders to operate and expand without restraint.

Second, besides a vast amount of shipwrecks and man-made trash, the seabed holds nearly endless mineral deposits, all of which are raw materials that Nie Yun requires.

The minerals on the seabed include various metal ores and non-metallic materials.

For instance, the continental shelf contains minerals like glauconite and apatite, along with various construction materials, while the deep sea holds massive quantities of iron-manganese nodules and polymetallic mud.

The minerals within the rock strata mainly consist of iron, coal, and sulfur; currently, it is foreseeable that dozens of types of minerals can be extracted.

It is only because of the costs and difficulties of extraction that these precious seabed resources cannot currently be effectively utilized by humanity.

However, for Nie Yun, who possesses the Mechanical Spiders, none of this poses the slightest difficulty.

To Nie Yun, the resources of the seabed are an inexhaustible treasure trove, and he naturally set his sights upon them.

At this moment, dozens of meters beneath the surface of the island, a giant cavern with a diameter of thirty meters was gradually taking shape. Countless Xiaolang Robot Underwater Types and Mechanical Spiders were constantly moving in and out, busily transporting soil and stone, leveling the ground, or constructing various facilities.

A plot of nearly three hundred square meters had already been leveled within the cavern, and over a dozen simple warehouses had been built upon it to store different types of raw materials.

Further away, thousands of Xiaolang Robots radiated outward from the island, delving deep into the seabed to collect raw materials and minerals, which were then deposited into the resource warehouses within the cavern.

Inside the resource warehouses, countless Mechanical Spiders were also responsible for sorting and decomposing the minerals.

Iron-bearing substances were used to expand the swarm, creating new Xiaolang Robots and Mechanical Spiders to be continuously added to the collection and transport brigades.

Other substances were sorted and stored, either as raw materials for base construction or as reserve supplies!

To allow the Xiaolang Robot to better perform underwater operations, Nie Yun added webbed structures to its limbs and reinforced its overall waterproof performance.

He also specifically developed a set of simple programs, allowing them to undertake various simple underwater tasks like cleaning, transporting, and exploring without requiring Nie Yun's specific control, freeing him from increasingly heavy control work.

With the Xiaolang Robot Underwater Type, combined with the Mechanical Spiders controlled by Nie Yun, the two complemented each other, maximizing work efficiency.

Given the immense role played by the Xiaolang Robots, another one of his current focuses was optimizing the internal programs of the Xiaolang.

Whenever a Xiaolang Robot encountered a logic error or work mistake during a mission, Nie Yun, upon receiving the information, could immediately improve their intelligent programs and then perform a synchronized upgrade for all Xiaolang Robots.

A large number of robots brought a large amount of experimental data, providing Nie Yun with sufficient samples and a basis for improvement.

This might sound very simple, but even the most cutting-edge high-tech software companies on Earth would likely be unable to achieve what Nie Yun does: "identify and modify instantly"!

This is a perfect optimization loop; under normal circumstances, the cost required to do this would be an astronomical figure, but for Nie Yun, it is nothing more than a flick of a thought.

Nie Yun was like a cheater; the intelligence of the robots under his command was optimizing itself at a speed of one major version update per hour, and their work efficiency was also increasing at a staggering rate.

With the assistance of the robots, the underwater base was expanding at a speed visible to the naked eye, and its changes could be described as changing with each passing day.

When the base construction gradually got on the right track and no longer required Nie Yun to watch it every second, he finally let out a long sigh of relief.

Although his stamina had become increasingly superhuman after merging with the Mechanical Spiders, several consecutive days of high-intensity operation still left him exhausted.

"Ha~" He yawned and walked toward his luxury presidential suite on the Sea Wolf.

Almost as soon as his head hit the pillow, Nie Yun fell into a deep sleep.

At this moment, not far from the secret base on the sea, a simple wooden raft was drifting with the waves.

The sail was clearly made from a modified tent, and it hung in tatters from a mast made of raw wood, providing minimal propulsion to the raft.

"Big... Big Brother! Are we going to die?" A burly man with a tiger's back and a bear's waist leaned weakly against the mast, his face pale as he spoke.

Behind the burly man, another lean man was also in low spirits. Upon hearing this, he summoned his last bit of strength and roared, "Cut the crap! We'll see land soon, hold on for me!"

These two were none other than the unlucky fellows who had kidnapped Chu Xiaoxiao, the leader and the third brother of the "Pinming Sanlang" trio.

It was a tragedy; although that uninhabited island was a bit remote, it was still close to the shipping lanes. But when a person is unlucky, even drinking cold water gets stuck in their teeth. The two brothers waited eagerly for seven or eight days, yet they didn't see a single ship.

Even more pathetic was that their fresh water and food were running out...

The two, who had never learned wilderness survival, couldn't be like Bear Grylls, who could bite off a head and crunch it to taste the flavor of chicken.

Thus, the two had no choice but to build a simple raft as quickly as possible, taking the remaining fresh water and some wild fruits to head out to sea in search of survival.

However, with no sailing experience, the two soon became lost in the vast ocean. They did not know that their position was getting further and further away from the mainland.

Two days later, the fresh water they carried was exhausted, and the two were at their wit's end.

"Crunch!" The leader took out the last wild fruit and took a small bite, chewing it twice in his dry mouth before swallowing it with difficulty, then handed the fruit to the third brother behind him.

"The last one, eat it!"

The third brother didn't take the fruit and smiled bitterly, "Big Brother, you eat it. I have a big appetite, this little bit won't do anything. You keep it to maintain your strength; maybe you can survive."

Hearing this, the leader's eyes grew moist, but he cursed, "Eat it when I tell you to! So much nonsense, are you itching for a beating?"

Only then did the third brother hesitantly take the fruit. His eyes looked blankly toward the distant sea, and then he suddenly froze. The fruit he was about to put into his mouth slipped from his hand.

The fruit rolled past the leader's front "gurgle, gurgle" and fell into the sea, splashing a tiny wave.

"Ah! You spendthrift! What are you doing? That was our last food!!" The leader reacted after a moment and couldn't help but howl.

He turned around angrily, grabbing the third brother's collar, intending to give him a few hits, but the third brother pointed excitedly into the distance and shouted, "Big... Big Brother! An island! There's an island!"

Hearing this, the leader looked up in astonishment in the direction the third brother was pointing. Sure enough, there was an island, lush and verdant, representing the hope of survival...