Chapter 93
The dark red rocks of the hematite vein gleamed faintly against the deep purple sky, a stark contrast to the orange-red molten iron ore clusters at the vein's edge.
The air here was filled with the familiar smell of hot metal, and when inhaled, it had a fine, granular feel, yet it gave Su Jing a strange sense of peace.
As she and her 10 robots stepped onto the rocky ground they had previously excavated, a familiar "crunching" sound came from beneath their feet—the soft thud of rock fragments being crushed underfoot, perfectly mirroring the scene of their earlier evacuation, as if they had never left.
"Everyone spread out and start a 'carpet excavation' within a 50-meter radius of the previous excavation point. Collect all the hematite ore into the space without leaving any behind."
Su Jing gave commands to the robot through her mind, her fingertip tracing the mineral vein map on the panel—on the map, next to the previously marked "excavated areas," there were still many pale red dots, representing unmined hematite.
Although the distribution is not as dense as the gold crystal veins, the total amount is considerable, enough to stockpile another batch of resources.
Ten robots responded instantly, radiating outwards. Their bodies pressed against the dark red rock surface, and diamond-coated drill bits slowly extended, emitting a familiar "swish" sound upon contact with the rock.
The buzzing sound was softer than that of gold crystal veins, but it had a stronger penetrating power. After all, hematite is less hard than gold crystal, making it easier to mine.
The outermost robot was the first to dig out a piece of hematite embedded in a rock fissure. The ore glowed with a rich, pale red light and had fine metal fragments on its surface. As soon as it was removed from the rock, Su Jing used her consciousness to store it in the "ore zone" of her space. The panel displayed: [Hematite storage +0.8 kg, current total 59400.8 kg].
Su Jing walked to the area where the robot had been excavating, bent down and picked up a piece of scattered hematite fragments. The fragments felt heavy in her hand, and the red luster on the surface was more intense than that of low-purity ore. After scanning, the system indicated that the hematite was 80% pure and had no obvious impurities. It could be used directly for subsequent refining or to make basic defensive components.
She stored the debris in her spatial storage and glanced at the surrounding rocky ground—the mine pit left from the previous excavation was still there, with many small ore fragments scattered at the bottom, obviously resources that had been overlooked. She immediately gave instructions to the two nearest robots: "Focus on cleaning the bottom of the mine pit and the cracks in the rocks. Collect the fragments as well to avoid waste."
The two robots immediately adjusted their direction, and the bodies slowly drove into the mine pit. The drill bit switched to "low-power adsorption mode" to adsorb the debris at the bottom of the pit into the storage compartment little by little, and then transmitted it to the space through consciousness synchronization.
Su Jing walked along the edge of the vein, occasionally raising her hand to signal the robot to adjust the digging angle.
Some hematite is embedded deep in the rock, only showing a little red luster, and it is easy to miss if you don't look carefully. With her previous experience in mining, she can always accurately find these hidden ores, allowing the robot to mine them efficiently.
"Robot No. 3, there is a rock fissure 10 meters to the left. It contains high-density hematite. Excavate it first."
Su Jing pointed to an inconspicuous rock crevice where the dark red rocks were brighter than the surrounding rocks, clearly indicating that there was mineral inside.
Robot No. 3 immediately moved over, its drill bit aimed at the crevice, and the "shush-shush" sound instantly grew louder. Soon, large chunks of hematite were mined out, and the pale red ore rolled into the storage compartment. The storage capacity in the space also increased rapidly, with the numbers on the panel climbing from 59,400 kilograms to 59,600 kilograms, 59,800 kilograms...
During this time, the occasional sounds of other mission participants talking could be heard from afar, mixed with the sounds of robots digging, but no one approached.
Clearly, after the previous sneak attack and Jack's team's failure, most of the other mission takers chose to dig in their own areas and dared not easily venture into the area where Su Jing was located.
Su Jing ignored the noises, focusing solely on directing the robot to dig, occasionally checking its energy status.
The previous electromagnetic interference and evacuation consumed a lot of energy. She took out a few pieces of flammable iron ore from her space and placed them next to the robot's energy interface. A pale red energy light flowed into the interface, and the robot's energy bar slowly recovered from 45% to 60%. The system prompted: "[Flammable iron ore energy conversion rate 85%, robot energy replenished, can continue high-intensity mining]."
As excavation progresses, the "excavated area" of the hematite vein expands on the map, and the pale red dots decrease, replaced by gray markers representing "cleared".
The 10 robots operated efficiently without pause, the "shush-shush" of their drills weaving through the empty mine vein, creating a unique rhythm that contrasted with the occasional sounds from afar, highlighting the tranquility of the place.
Su Jing leaned against a hollowed-out rock and brought up the system panel to check the current ore reserves—hematite had exceeded 60,000 kilograms, gold crystals 3,280 kilograms, silver crystals 8,550 kilograms, manganese crystals 6,820 kilograms, and iron ore 24,550 kilograms, with the total amount of all kinds of ores reaching 103,200 kilograms, far exceeding the 100 kilograms required by the basic mission of the dungeon, and even more than she had expected.
She breathed a sigh of relief and wiped the thin layer of sweat from her forehead—although the temperature inside the mine was not low, her Qi Refining Level 2 cultivation level made her feel almost no fatigue, only a sense of security from having a full store of resources.
"Stop mining, everyone assemble, check the storage warehouse for any missing ore, and prepare to head to the teleportation point."
Su Jing glanced at the time on the panel—less than 2 hours remained in the dungeon. She had to head to the teleportation point in advance, avoid the possible BOSS spawn areas, and ensure a smooth exit from the dungeon.
The 10 robots immediately stopped working and moved toward Su Jing in an orderly manner. The display screen on the side of the robot lit up with a light blue light, showing "Storage compartment empty, no ore left, energy remaining 55%, enough to support you to the teleportation point".
Su Jing took one last look at the hematite vein—the rocks, which had originally gleamed with a faint reddish light, now had many neatly arranged pits, yet the original outline of the vein was still preserved. In the distance, under the deep purple sky, the faint reddish light of a few stars still flickered, almost identical to the scene when she first arrived, yet completely different because of these 103,200 kilograms of ore.
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