The success of "Project Shepherd" acted as a powerful catalyst, injecting the Star Kingdom's high-speed war and industrial machine into motion.
Over the next six months, this massive operation, centered on plundering survivors, demonstrated terrifying efficiency.
The ten "Shepherd Dog" task forces are just the first batch of pioneers.
Soon, as the industrial zone's production capacity further exploded, the second and third batches, totaling thirty more well-equipped and better-manned task forces, were cast out like a boundless giant net across this vast alien continent.
Their search area expanded from the initial 1,000 kilometers to 3,000 kilometers and even further.
They traversed howling forests, crossed roaring rivers, traversed treacherous mountains, and even ventured into the deathly Gobi Desert shrouded in radiation.
The king's will, like the sword of Damocles hanging over their heads, drove them relentlessly.
The number of people scattered across this planet far exceeded Lin Feng's initial expectations.
In a vast basin about 2,500 kilometers southwest of the capital of Chengtian, lies a survivor settlement called "Steel City".
The survivors here are completely different from the unarmed white-collar workers and celebrities in the "Crying Forest".
They were residents of a heavy industrial city before the "Great Migration." Among them were a large number of engineers, skilled workers, and veterans.
Leveraging the city's existing industrial base and the residents' strong practical skills, they built a true "city" within just six months of the "great relocation".
They repaired parts of the factory, enabling them to produce rudimentary weapons, vehicles, and daily necessities.
They built a high wall using reinforced concrete and barbed wire. They even had a "city guard" composed of thousands of armed personnel.
The leader of the "Steel City" was a factory director named Zhou Tieshan.
He was a man of strong will and decisiveness, and was highly respected.
When the "Shepherd Dog No. 15" task force broke through the outer defenses of the "Iron City" at the cost of two "Hunter" assault vehicles and more than a dozen wounded soldiers, and appeared before Zhou Tieshan, he did not immediately kneel down and submit like the other survivors.
“We have our own city, our own order. We don’t need anyone’s ‘saving’.”
Standing atop the high city wall, Zhou Tieshan held an old rifle and roared at the "Ice Wolf" tanks below, which resembled steel behemoths.
Behind him stood thousands of citizens, armed with homemade weapons and with resolute eyes.
The captain of Task Force 15 was an officer known for his fearlessness in battle, nicknamed "The Butcher."
He looked at the men standing guard on the city wall and a cruel smile appeared on his face.
He didn't waste any words; he simply issued a single order.
"'Thor,' prepare. Target: the city wall. Three rounds of rapid fire. Let them experience what the kingdom's 'goodwill' is all about."
Three minutes later, accompanied by a piercing shriek that tore through the sky, three shells from the "Thor-B" self-propelled howitzer, trailing long plumes of flame, accurately struck the proud city walls of the "Steel City" from tens of kilometers away.
"Boom! Boom! Boom!"
The earth shook violently.
The reinforced concrete walls, strong enough to withstand the impact of monsters weighing several tons, were instantly blasted to pieces in front of "Thor," like a castle built on a beach.
The massive shockwave sent the guards on the city wall flying, and Zhou Tieshan was also knocked to the ground by the blast, suffering a head injury and bleeding profusely.
He struggled to his feet, only to be met with a scene that horrified him.
The city walls are gone.
A huge gap, hundreds of meters wide, appeared before him.
Beyond the gap were twelve "Ice Wolf" main battle tanks, their dark cannons slowly rising and aimed at the city.
Despair instantly enveloped the entire "steel city".
Their pride in their military might was as fragile as a joke in the face of these alien-like troops.
"The education specialist may now begin your work." The butcher's voice, transmitted coldly through the loudspeaker, echoed throughout the city.
A giant holographic light screen unfolded above the "Steel City".
When the prosperity of the capital city of Chengtian was overshadowed by the grand spectacle of the military parade, especially the appearance of the "Xuanwu" tank formation that swept across the land like a mountain range, the residents of the "Steel City" were utterly devastated.
They finally realized that they were facing an existence that was not even in the same dimension.
Zhou Tieshan slumped to the ground, his rifle slipping from his hand and falling to the side. He stared at the young king on the screen, worshipped by thousands, his eyes filled with nothing but bitterness and awe.
In the end, all 37,000 residents of the "Steel City" chose to surrender.
They were relocated as a whole, and their technology and labor injected new and vigorous vitality into the kingdom's industrial development.
Zhou Tieshan, the former "city lord," became the director of a newly built special steel smelting plant under Wang Dachui's command after undergoing "ideological education" and thanks to his outstanding management skills.
Besides tough nuts to crack like the "Steel City," the search and rescue team also discovered many other types of survivors.
Deep in a vast swamp in the east lies a settlement known to the survivors as "The Hive".
This is the School of Life Sciences at a top university on Earth. The entire experimental building and hundreds of professors, researchers, and students were all transferred here.
They lack powerful military force, but they possess knowledge far exceeding that of ordinary people.
Using their expertise, they analyzed alien plants and fungi and cultivated high-yield crops that could adapt to the environment.
They modified the experimental equipment and produced simple antibiotics and drugs.
They even used gene-editing technology to domesticate several small swamp creatures as a source of protein.
When the "Shepherd Dog Twenty-One" task force found them, they were greeted not by guns and cannons, but by an "academic committee" composed of a dozen or so white-haired professors.
Leading the group is Chen Jingzhi, an internationally renowned biologist and academician.
“We have been observing you for a long time.” Professor Chen Jingzhi adjusted his glasses and looked calmly at the officer in front of him: “Judging from your equipment, operational patterns and logistical supplies, there must be a highly organized and industrialized civilized entity behind you.”
“We want to know how your leaders managed to do all this in such a short time? This does not conform to any known laws of sociological development.”
"Your development speed is really too fast."
Faced with these scholars whose thirst for knowledge was so strong that they were almost "reckless," the task force leader was at a loss for how to deal with them.
Ultimately, it was the accompanying education specialist who provided the answer.
Instead of playing a promotional video, he directly connected to the internal network of Chengtian Capital and delivered a remote "academic report" to these professors.
The speaker of the report was Su Wanqing.
She used the most concise and rational language to demonstrate the kingdom's technological level to these scholars.
From core energy technologies to breakthroughs in materials science, and then to the application of psychodynamics in industrial manufacturing…
Each presentation plunged the scholars in the "Hive" into an even deeper level of awe.
When Su Wanqing concluded, "All of this stems from our King, His Majesty Lin Feng. His wisdom transcends this era, even surpassing any civilization we know. You can understand him as the 'first driving force' of our civilization."
All the scholars fell silent.
They cannot comprehend the idealistic power of "telekinesis," but they can understand these tangible technological achievements.
They understood that the knowledge they were so proud of might really be insignificant in front of that man.
Ultimately, Professor Chen Jingzhi, representing more than 1,300 researchers at "Hive," proposed the only condition for joining.
"We hope to join your Academy of Sciences. We hope to witness and participate in this great process of civilization."
The request was readily granted.
The addition of these top scholars has brought about a qualitative leap in the kingdom's scientific research system.
In just a short period of time, the kingdom's population had exceeded 300,000.
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