For such an unsolicited deal, Su Wu naturally would not refuse. However, rice seeds are considered a luxury item with a minimum threshold in today's world. The asking price could not be low.
After tentatively offering a high price that was not accepted, Su Wu adjusted his price downwards and made an additional request. He wanted to exchange it for the design materials of the biplane helicopter that Sun Jiasheng and the others were using.
"You think too highly of us," Sun Jiasheng said, looking helpless.
"This is the latest generation of special helicopters from the federal capital, Paradise Mountain."
"There are only seven of them in Changming City."
"They have already been classified as strategic-level controlled items."
"Let alone design blueprints; if it weren't for the involvement of the super cities joining the alliance, even I would find it hard to get a chance to ride a biplane helicopter."
The biplane helicopter can reach a maximum speed of 500 kilometers per hour and has a payload capacity of over 20 tons. Its performance is on par with the world's best in its category. Additionally, it boasts excellent stability and defense, capable of navigating through extreme environments such as storms, heavy rain, and low temperatures. It is considered the safest aerial transport tool in a post-apocalyptic world.
"Then let's change the approach," Su Wu said. "I hope to allow our researchers to board for a comprehensive scan."
Realizing that his request was somewhat unrealistic, Su Wu had to settle for a compromise.
"How long do you need?" Sun Jiasheng still wore a troubled expression. After hesitating for a moment, he cautiously asked.
"If we turn off the shielding device and conduct close-range inspections inside, it would take about 18 hours."
Su Wu assessed the situation for a moment and provided a conservative estimate.
"That's acceptable. With my authority, delaying this time to return shouldn't be a problem. I can make the decision," Sun Jiasheng said, pondering for a moment and then letting out a sigh of relief.
However, when he looked back at Su Wu, there was a hint of surprise and confusion in his gaze. To dare to aim for research and imitation of a biplane helicopter, one of the planet's top creations, it was hard to say how high the other party's research capabilities were, but they certainly couldn't be too weak. At the very least, they were likely stronger than Changming City, probably ranking among the top two in the entire Eastern Continent.
Jianghe City had previously been an unknown remote city, with just a slightly larger population. Where had they recruited so many top researchers from? However, this matter posed no harm to him or Changming City. In fact, if Su Wu succeeded in imitation, Changming City might even have the opportunity to order a few, indirectly benefiting from it. There was no need to delve deeper.
After concluding the meeting with Sun Jiasheng, Su Wu found himself with a specially designed, compact tablet. Through this tablet, he could directly connect to satellites and log into the Southeast Alliance's exclusive encrypted communication channel. Of course, Su Wu could not yet truly enter that communication channel. He needed to wait until Changming City and several other super cities completed their negotiations and obtained their consent before he could gain access.
This process might take a few more days. Setting aside matters related to the Southeast Alliance, and with Sun Jiasheng's permission, Su Wu turned his attention entirely to analyzing the biplane helicopter. He instructed the robots to bring a large number of detection devices into the helicopter's interior. Then, using transport vehicles, he brought some large, heavy experimental equipment to the helicopter's surroundings, setting up a temporary professional laboratory on-site.
To improve the efficiency of the analysis, Su Wu also specifically freed up the 3D printer from the manufacturing center to gradually print the entire biplane helicopter at a 1:1 scale based on the progress of the analysis.
Under this all-out research effort, after more than ten hours, with two hours remaining until the agreed time, Su Wu completed all the analysis work and obtained a detailed set of structural data for the biplane helicopter. However, reaching this point did not mean Su Wu could truly replicate it. Its engine, radar, and other core components, as well as the materials used for the fuselage, were all things Su Wu had not mastered. Without these key materials, even if he forcibly used a 3D printer to manufacture it with perfect precision, it would merely be a high-fidelity toy, lacking significant practical value.
"Even if it's just some structural data, it's still a considerable gain," Su Wu thought. "I can try to apply it to courier-grade drones to increase their flight speed and payload. The rest can come slowly."
Su Wu felt no regret. He quietly included the plan for researching related materials into his daily tasks, intending to throw in a few points of Spirituality every day for a lottery draw, persisting for a year and a half to see if there would be results.
However, surprises often appear in unexpected places. That evening, after obtaining Su Wu's permission, Chen Yue invited her new friend Gu Manman to join them for dinner in the garden.
Upon close contact, Su Wu suddenly realized that this seemingly shy little girl had some extraordinary talent in the field of research. This talent was not in creativity. Based on the feedback from Su Wu's attempt to enhance her with Spirituality, her efficiency in utilizing Spirituality in any research aspect was only about 80%, far from the 100% efficiency of Su Wu and the Chen sisters. However, her luck was unusually strong. As a result, on the exclusive panel that appeared after Su Wu attempted to enhance her with Spirituality, a special sub-item was listed separately: Material Research Efficiency 80% + 1220%.
This percentage meant that in terms of luck-based material research, as long as she was given a bit of Spirituality, Gu Manman could yield over 13 times the results compared to Su Wu himself.
"You are Gu Manman. Are you interested in chemistry and material research?" Sitting on the camping lawn while the Chen sisters set up dinner, Su Wu looked at the little girl beside him with the same gaze he would give to a treasure.
"I... I like dancing," Gu Manman said, nearly crying under Su Wu's somewhat imposing gaze. She could only clutch her clothes and weakly remind him.
"No, what you like is research. From today on, you will stay here with me," Su Wu said, putting on a serious face and making a decision for her.
Poor Gu Manman did not dare to defy Su Wu's request. After dinner, with tears in her eyes, she called her mother and was then excitedly pulled by Chen Yue to the underground living area to arrange her future bedroom.
With Gu Manman's addition, after implanting a biological chip and undergoing a brief targeted learning, her thirteen times luck in research was fully unleashed. Just five days into leading the research, she successfully reverse-engineered all the unknown materials of the biplane helicopter.
At this point, Su Wu had the ability to manufacture the biplane helicopter. All that was left was the resources.
On November 29, the sky above the surface grew increasingly gloomy. The temperature had dropped to minus forty to fifty degrees, turning the entire surface into a frigid hell.
In the underground control center of the farmhouse, Su Wu stood beside a metal platform, gazing at the holographic projection of the city ruins above, his expression tinged with slight worry.
In recent days, Jianghe City had experienced three cold wave attacks. The most severe one had seen temperatures plummet to minus 172 degrees. At that time, over half of the engineering vehicles working in the city ruins had suffered major malfunctions and had to undergo large-scale repairs afterward. Fortunately, Su Wu had withdrawn all human workers back to the shelter. Otherwise, even with Exoskeleton Armor, the workers would not have been able to avoid casualties.
However, with bad news comes good news. The underground shelter of the farmhouse had successfully completed the expansion of the four main passages, each 3.25 kilometers long, over several days. They had also expanded a total of 7.2 million square meters of space from both sides of the passages.
Overall, this space, while only occupying less than one-fifth of the total space from the second ring near the core area to the outermost seventh ring of the underground seven layers, was still sufficient to accommodate over 100 aircraft carriers, equivalent to half the size of the Jingyuan shelter. If this space were entirely used for constructing standard dormitories, it could normally house over 5 million people, initially forming the outline of a super shelter.
Outside the shelter, on the snow-covered mountains and plains, three newly constructed massive Icebound-class Land Battleships were each leading 50 snow transport vehicles, shuttling between various shelters within the coverage area of twelve communication signal towers southeast of Jianghe City. They served as temporary armed forces to maintain order, preventing those shelters that had lost the federal government's control from descending into chaos and disregarding the lives of ordinary people. They also undertook the tasks of transporting refugees and occasionally trading supplies, visiting large shelters that still maintained basic order.
Certain shelter leaders, who were overly confident in their strength, had to wait for merchant convoys to arrive at their doors. Only after the massive Electromagnetic Cannon (Railgun) on the Icebound-class Land Battleship was aimed at them could they regain their sanity and calmly sit down to discuss trade matters with Su Wu.
In the entire southeastern region, nearly half a billion people were barely maintaining a fragile balance under the support of Su Wu's three merchant convoys, preventing any major riots from breaking out. Some people might be struggling to survive due to a lack of supplies, and some might have perished in the cold winds and snow, but there would be no large-scale massacres of ordinary people for amusement, nor would there be any tragedies of cannibalism.
Su Wu's will kept all those who wielded violence in this area cautious, not daring to cross the most basic bottom line he had drawn.
In addition to the three fully equipped merchant convoys and the vehicles operating between Jianghe City and Tumen City, there were also 20 snow transport vehicles operating outside the normal transport system. In a scattered manner, in groups of two or three, or three to five, they traveled to various large and small mines discovered in recent days, delivering various machinery, weapons, fuel, and survival supplies needed for mining. Occasionally, they would also bring back a batch of initially refined finished minerals on their return journey.
The footprints of these snow transport vehicles almost covered every city in the southeastern direction, from the upstream Tumen City to the midstream Shanghe City, and even to the cliffs near the seaside. Wherever there were mines marked by Su Wu, they would be seen.
Thanks to the efforts of these snow transport vehicles, Su Wu had successfully restarted over seventy different types of mines outside Jianghe City and established preliminary ore refining processing plants, simple runways for Azure Sky-Class Transport Drones to take off and land, and basic fortifications to defend against marauders.
As these mines began to produce continuously, a large amount of initially processed finished minerals gradually converged into Jianghe City via snow transport vehicles or Azure Sky-Class Transport Drones, allowing Su Wu to acquire some of the rare metals and raw materials he was lacking.
Su Wu also had the capability to slowly begin producing more snow transport vehicles and Azure Sky-Class Transport Drones, as well as the heavyweight Icebound-class Land Battleships, and he had just acquired a biplane helicopter.
As for the base vehicle that was initially responsible for expansion, it was now parked on the surface of the farmhouse, undergoing further modifications. With the emergence of the larger Icebound-class escort ships, the base vehicle's size seemed somewhat outdated, not doing justice to the many advanced technological components it was equipped with.
Su Wu thus planned to reforge it, retaining most of the components that had been enhanced with Survival Points while attempting to further enlarge its size and incorporate some newly researched technologies. The ultimate goal was to reset it into a true land aircraft carrier—a vehicle that was both a legion and a massive military and rapid mining base.
Due to the enormous amount of modification work, the base vehicle would be unable to be put back into use in the short term. However, given the current environment, Su Wu did not lack the transport power of the base vehicle. Building an Icebound-class Land Battleship would perfectly replace the base vehicle before its modification.
He had enough patience to wait for the base vehicle to be reborn.
--Support me in Patreon for more chapters 35+ chapters in there
patreon.com/LegendaryTL
Thanks!