Chapter 63 The Menu of the Giant Beast and the Birth of the Heavy Truck "Mayor," this...
"Mayor," Ah Hu, who was in charge of taking care of the rock-walking lizards, rushed to find Lin Yue that day, his face full of anxiety. "Those...those two precious darlings haven't eaten properly for two days. They just lie there listlessly, and won't eat anything we feed them."
Lin Yue was lying on a huge stone slab, studying a bunch of scribbles that looked like ghost symbols, when he heard Ah Hu's howl, which sounded like a sob, and the charcoal stick in his hand snapped with a "crack".
"A hunger strike?!"
Lin Yue felt a chill and immediately followed Ah Hu to the makeshift animal pen.
The two enormous beasts, each the size of a small mountain, lay listlessly on the ground, oblivious to the luxurious meal of fresh moss and various kinds of fodder piled up beside them. Their once bright eyes were now cloudy and dull, and their breathing was heavy, giving them an appearance of loss of appetite and despair.
"What's going on?" Lin Yue's brows furrowed tightly.
Are you kidding me?! If anything really happens to these two precious kids, his boast about building the main wall around the town in two years will be completely exposed.
Old Barton, who was in charge of the livestock group, was also very anxious. He circled around the rock-walking lizard beast, offering it a handful of the freshest grass leaves and a bowl of cleaned stone-skin potatoes, but the two giant beasts only glanced at them lazily and didn't even bother to lift their eyelids.
"Sir, we've tried everything we could: tender grass, moss, potato peels... we almost let them gnaw on the precious wild vegetables I grew myself, but these two little devils just won't open their mouths."
Uncle Stone Fist also rushed over upon hearing the news. He circled the lizard beast twice, touched its rough skin with his blacksmith's big hands, and then snorted disdainfully: "A bunch of idiots! This thing is called a Rock-Walking Lizard Beast. You feed it grass every day, isn't that the same as forcing me to eat vegetarian food every day? If I were in your shoes, I would also go on a hunger strike."
Lin Yue was taken aback, then slapped his thigh: "That's right, how could I forget that? They might need to eat stones." He remembered the system's ridiculous prompt and Old Patton's previous assessment; these things need to eat minerals.
"But...but what kind of stone is edible?" Ah Hu looked completely bewildered. "We can't just let them gnaw on the iron ore we worked so hard to mine, can we?"
“They can’t even chew that thing,” Shi Quan rolled his eyes at him, then looked at Lin Yue, his eyes clearly saying, “Kid, it’s up to you.”
“That’s right,” Lin Yue analyzed from a more chemical perspective. “Their habit is called rock-walking, and their skin is like rock. This means that their native environment, or their food chain, must contain some kind of plant or mineral that is rich in special elements such as calcium, phosphorus, and iron. The ordinary grass we give them is like feeding them only rock-skin potatoes every day without any vegetables. Although it can keep them full, their bodies will definitely have problems in the long run.”
Lin Yue took a deep breath, realizing that he couldn't rely on himself to figure this out anymore. Although his system could identify the problem, it couldn't search out of thin air; he needed someone to conduct a large-scale, efficient preliminary screening first.
So he walked directly to the Silent Ones who were watching curiously from a short distance away and found Kaylan and Ella.
“Kaylan, Ella, we’re facing a major problem in our town.” Lin Yue pointed to the two non-violent, uncooperative lizard beasts and got straight to the point. “These two big guys are crucial for our future infrastructure development, but they’re picky eaters and are starving. I suspect they need to eat some special, mineral-rich plants or edible rocks. You Silent Ones are naturally knowledgeable about plants, could you lend a hand?”
Kaylan and Ella exchanged a glance, then nodded. Kaylan said, "Lord Lin, leave it to us."
So a dozen or so Silent Ones quietly and orderly dispersed into the mountains and cliffs surrounding Hope Town.
Xiao Fen, who usually loves to join in the fun, seemed rather uninterested this time. She strolled around the foot of the mountain with Lin Yue, occasionally raising her proud wolf head and letting out a disdainful "humph" or two in the direction where the Silent Ones were busy.
Lin Yue keenly noticed this detail. He squatted down and patted Xiao Fen's head: "What's wrong? Little one, don't you like the things they found?"
Xiao Fen licked Lin Yue's hand, then nudged a certain direction with her nose, making a "woof woof" sound in her throat. Lin Yue looked in the direction she indicated; it was the rock wall where the limestone mine had been discovered before, a steeper section.
As evening fell, when the Silent Ones returned with the various strangely shaped plants and mineral powders they had painstakingly found, Lin Yue also returned.
The two rock-walking lizards lazily raised their eyelids, sniffed each of the plants and minerals they brought back, and then lay back down with little interest. Only when they smelled one of the slightly salty gray lichens did they reluctantly stick out their tongues and lick it twice.
Disappointment was evident on the faces of all the silent ones.
Just then, Lin Yue stepped forward and took out two things from his pocket.
Similarly, it was under Xiao Fen's guidance that he painstakingly pried off the hard, stalactite-like gray lichen from a crevice in that steep limestone cliff.
Another was the root system of a shrub with an unusually developed root system that oozes a large amount of white sap when broken. This shrub happened to grow right next to the patch of lichen, as if it were a companion to it.
He held the two items to the lizard's mouth.
The two enormous beasts, who had previously seemed utterly despondent, suddenly had an incredulous gleam in their cloudy eyes when they smelled the unique aroma of the minerals and vegetation mixed together. They abruptly stood up, letting out a low, excited roar like muffled thunder, and then extended their long tongues to snatch the lichen and grass roots from Lin Yue's hand into their mouths.
"Crunch! Crunch!" They chewed it up in big bites.
System scan: [Stalactite lichen] detected, a rare rock-eating lichen. Rich in calcium, phosphorus, and various trace minerals…
System scan: Found [White Sorghum root]. The rootstock contains special enzymes that promote intestinal peristalsis in large organisms and break down rough fibers…
Lin Yue: "System, are you the treasure appraisal channel? In critical moments, we still have to rely on our little monsters."
System: [Remain silent.jpg]
The food crisis has been resolved.
Lin Yue immediately instructed the logistics team to mix these two magical plants with ground stone-skin potato flour and a small amount of precious snow salt, kneading them into specially made, hard lizard beast energy bars the size of washbasins. This stuff became the lizard beasts' irresistible top-tier snack.
Having solved the problem of feeding the lizard beasts, new challenges arose one after another.
Hope Town urgently needs a heavy-duty transport vehicle that can withstand enormous weight and fully utilize the strength of the lizard beasts.
Lin Yue spent several sleepless nights studying the stone slab, and finally, a sketch of an oversized four-wheeled flatbed truck with four huge wheels, a simple steering structure, and a specially reinforced chassis, based on a deep understanding of the existing materials, was freshly completed.
Lin Yue approached Shi Quan and requested the creation of an extremely sturdy and wear-resistant core component. Shi Quan glanced at the blueprints and scoffed, "Iron? Fine, but I don't have time to do this by myself. I need to oversee the blacksmith's production. Amu, Tie Niu, you guys come here."
Shi Quan acted as the chief engineer and quality inspector, guiding Tie Niu and others through thousands of repeated forgings and several precise quenchings, painstakingly creating two incredibly sturdy axles. They then used the hardest ironwood as the bearing housing, placing dozens of painstakingly polished, uniformly sized, smooth stone beads inside, thus creating a rudimentary ball bearing that greatly reduced friction.
Meanwhile, Kalan and his woodworking workshop were responsible for making the cart's body and the four enormous wheels. They selected the toughest and most durable ironwood, using a modified and ingenious interlocking mortise and tenon structure, along with reinforced iron parts newly forged by Stonefist, to create an exceptionally sturdy frame that resembled a land-based boat.
The massive wheels were constructed using multiple layers of wooden planks joined together and then tightly secured with wide iron hoops to ensure they could withstand the immense pressure from the ground and the cargo.
After more than ten days of intense production, countless failures and revisions, the first four-wheeled giant flatbed truck, which Lin Yue jokingly named "Hope No. 1," was finally officially born amidst cheers.
"Fernando's caravans prioritized long-distance ease of use and a degree of comfort, resulting in larger and lighter vehicles with limited load-bearing capacity. Our Hope One, on the other hand, is a thoroughbred heavy-duty industrial truck. Its chassis is lower and more stable, reinforced with double-layered iron birch; its axles and bearings are crafted using the finest iron and technology, specifically designed to carry extremely heavy cargo such as ore and bricks; while its wheels are not as refined as theirs, they are wider, thicker, and offer stronger grip. Most importantly, it possesses a rudimentary yet effective front-wheel steering system, making it more maneuverable than caravans in narrow mine tunnels and construction sites."
Lin Yue directed Amu and the others to demonstrate the Hope One's turning capabilities on the open ground. This starkly contrasted with the heavy, straight-lined wagons everyone had imagined, once again astonishing the crowd. The massive body, gleaming with the solid texture of metal and wood, the four enormous wheels taller than a person and adorned with iron hoops, and especially the specially made heavy-duty iron axle that gleamed darkly in the sunlight and the flexible bogies, all exuded a pure industrial power aesthetic that far surpassed that of caravan wagons.
“Ella, these two big guys seem to listen to you a lot. From now on, the task of driving and taking care of them will probably fall on your shoulders. Of course, the work points will be among the highest in the whole town.”
Ella smiled and nodded. She walked up to the two giant beasts, gently stroking their rough skin, and hummed an ancient, soothing lullaby. The two rock-walking lizards, which had been somewhat restless, actually became as docile as two big cats in her presence.
This scene amazed everyone and further enhanced the status of the Silent Ones in Hope Town.
Under Ella's gentle guidance, the two rock-walking lizards were fitted with sturdy harnesses made of multiple layers of animal hide and connected to Hope One.
The Rock-Walking Lizard strode forward with heavy steps, effortlessly pulling the Hope One, which was half-loaded with ore. The wheels rolled on, creating an impressive sight.
The commissioning of Hope No. 1 has opened up a major transportation artery from mines and forest farms to workshops.
Mountains of ore, seas of red bricks.
Huge stones and truckloads of red bricks and cement were transported to construction sites such as the city wall in a continuous and easy manner.
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