After the Sea Wolf's refit was complete, all the mechanical insects were reassigned once again and thrown into the next stage of development at full tilt—upgrading the base!
Besides further disguising and improving the island's surface, Nie Yun also turned his attention beneath the sea.
First, building the base underwater was far more discreet than building it above the surface. The mechanical insects could also move and expand without restraint.
Second, aside from countless shipwrecks and man-made debris, the ocean floor held seemingly inexhaustible mineral deposits, all of which Nie Yun needed as raw materials.
The seabed's mineral resources included a variety of metallic placer deposits and nonmetallic materials.
For example, the continental shelf contained minerals such as glauconite and apatite, as well as various building materials. In the deep sea, there were vast quantities of manganese nodules and polymetallic mud.
Mineral deposits in the rock strata mainly included iron, coal, and sulfur. Dozens of mineral resources that could potentially be mined were already known.
It was just that, due to the cost and difficulty of extraction, humanity could not yet make effective use of the ocean floor's precious resources.
But for Nie Yun, who had mechanical insects at his disposal, none of this posed the slightest difficulty.
To Nie Yun, the resources on the ocean floor were practically an inexhaustible treasure trove, so it was only natural that he set his sights on them.
Dozens of meters beneath the sea near the island, a gigantic cavern thirty meters in diameter was gradually taking shape. Countless Xiaolang Robots and Mechanical Spiders bustled in and out, hauling earth and rocks, leveling the ground, and building various kinds of equipment.
By now, nearly three hundred square meters of ground inside the cavern had been leveled. More than a dozen simple warehouses had also been built there to store different kinds of raw materials.
Farther away, thousands of Xiaolang Robots radiated outward from the island, venturing across the seabed to gather raw materials and minerals before piling them in the resource warehouses inside the cavern.
Inside the resource warehouses, countless mechanical insects were also sorting and breaking down the minerals.
Iron-bearing materials were used to expand the colony, producing new Xiaolang Robots and Mechanical Spiders to steadily replenish the collection and transport teams.
Other materials were sorted and stored, either as raw materials for building the base or as reserve supplies!
To help the Xiaolang Robots work more effectively underwater, Nie Yun added webbed structures to their hands and feet and improved their overall waterproofing.
He had also specially developed a simple program, allowing them to handle basic underwater tasks such as clearing, hauling, and exploring without needing his direct control. This freed him from an increasingly heavy workload.
With the Xiaolang Robot Underwater Type and the Mechanical Spiders controlled by Nie Yun working together, each made up for the other's shortcomings, and their efficiency was maximized.
Given the crucial role the Xiaolang Robots played, another of his main focuses was optimizing their internal programs.
Whenever a Xiaolang Robot made a logical error or a mistake on the job, Nie Yun received the information and could improve its intelligence program right away, then synchronize the upgrade across all the Xiaolang Robots.
Having so many robots meant having vast amounts of experimental data, providing Nie Yun with ample samples and a solid basis for improvements.
It might have sounded simple, but even the most cutting-edge software companies on Earth probably couldn't do what Nie Yun did: "spot a problem and fix it immediately"!
It was a perfect optimization cycle. Under normal circumstances, the cost of doing this would have been astronomical, but for Nie Yun, it took no more than a passing thought.
Nie Yun was practically cheating. The intelligence of the robots under his command was being optimized at a rate of one major update per hour, while their efficiency was improving at a speed that left people stunned.
With the robots' help, the underwater base was expanding at a visible pace. Its transformation could be described as happening with each passing day.
Once construction of the base was steadily on track and he no longer had to keep an eye on it every moment, Nie Yun finally let out a long breath of relief.
Although his stamina had become increasingly inhuman since merging with the mechanical insects, several days of high-intensity operation had still left him exhausted.
"Haah~" He yawned and headed toward his luxurious presidential suite aboard the Sea Wolf.
The moment his head hit the bed, Nie Yun fell asleep.
At that moment, not far from the secret base, a makeshift wooden raft drifted with the waves.
Its sail had clearly been fashioned from a tent. Now it hung in tatters from a mast made of logs, providing the raft with a meager bit of propulsion.
"B-Big Brother! Are we going to die?" A burly man with a pale face leaned weakly against the mast and asked.
Behind him, another sturdy man was just as listless. At the question, he mustered the last of his strength and shouted, "Bullshit! We'll see land soon! Just hang in there for me!"
These two were none other than the unlucky men who had kidnapped Chu Xiaoxiao that day: Big Brother and Third Brother of the "Pinming Sanlang" gang.
Their situation was tragic. Their uninhabited island was remote, but still near a shipping route. Yet when luck turned against you, even a mouthful of cold water could make you choke. The two brothers had waited eagerly for seven or eight days, but not a single ship had come by.
Worse still, their fresh water and food were almost gone...
Having never learned a thing about surviving in the wild, the two had no way of living off the land like Bear Grylls, biting the head off a creature and chewing away until it tasted like chicken.
So they hastily built a simple raft, took the little fresh water they had left and some wild fruit, and set out to sea in search of survival.
But with no sailing experience whatsoever, the two soon got lost in the vast ocean. They had no idea that they were drifting farther and farther from the mainland.
Two more days passed. Their fresh water ran out, and they were completely out of food.
"Crunch!" Big Brother took out the last piece of fruit and bit off a small mouthful. He chewed it a couple of times in his dry mouth before finally forcing it down, then held the fruit out to Third Brother behind him.
"This is the last one. Eat it!"
Third Brother didn't take the fruit. He gave a bitter smile. "Big Brother, you eat it. I've got a big appetite, so this little bit won't do me any good. You need to keep your strength up. Maybe one of us can still make it."
Big Brother's eyes grew moist at those words, but he cursed instead. "I said eat it, so eat it! Quit running your mouth. Are you itching for a beating?"
Only then did Third Brother obediently take the fruit. He stared blankly at the sea in the distance, then suddenly froze. The fruit he'd been about to put in his mouth slipped from his hand with a plop.
The fruit rolled right past Big Brother, then dropped into the sea, raising a tiny splash.
"Hey! You wasteful idiot! What the hell are you doing? That was our last bit of food!" Big Brother was stunned for a moment before he finally reacted and let out a howl of despair.
He spun around in a fury and grabbed Third Brother by the collar, ready to give him a few blows. But Third Brother was pointing excitedly into the distance. "B-Big Brother! An island! There's an island!"
Big Brother stared dumbfounded in the direction Third Brother was pointing. Sure enough, there was an island—a lush, verdant green that represented hope for survival...
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