"I have upper, middle, and lower strategies. Which one do you want to hear first?"
Xing immediately adopted a serious expression and pointed at Fu Zhu, saying, "Old bro, knowing you, let's just hear the upper strategy!"
Fu Zhu nodded. "Indeed. In that case, I'll start with the lower strategy."
"Old bro???"
Xing shot Fu Zhu an exasperated glare, crossing her arms and grumbling with a huff, "Now I finally get why people say you're a descendant of the dragon. I told you to jump straight to the upper strategy, are you deaf?!"
"Shut up. I went to the trouble of thinking these up. Wouldn't it be a waste not to say them?"
"But even if you say them, we're definitely not going to choose the middle or lower strategies, so we might as well save time and just hear the upper one!"
"You rotten little sister, can't you appreciate your old bro's efforts?"
Fu Zhu sighed dramatically. It was a tragedy that he had gone through all the trouble of thinking up various ideas to help, only for his rotten little sister to show not an ounce of gratitude. Even bad ideas were still ideas, you know.
"Fine, since you insist, I'll get straight to the upper strategy. The upper strategy is to use Redstone technology to help the Golden Automaton Lane merchant association overcome its predicament. When it comes to logistics... you could say that's Redstone technology's strong suit."
After revealing his upper strategy, Fu Zhu glanced at Sushang and the head of the merchant association. As expected, they still wore blank expressions.
But that couldn't be helped. After all, he was the only one who had mastered Redstone technology right now. That Herta woman might be able to figure out some of its principles in the future, but that was a long way off. Besides, given her personality, she'd probably take one look at the Golden Automaton Lane merchant association's troubles and turn away without a second thought.
"Just talking about it won't help you understand. Since you're a logistics association, do you have any goods you need transported? Bring them to me."
"Yes, sir, we do! I'll go get them right now!"
Although the person-in-charge didn't quite understand what "Redstone technology" was, she clearly understood Fu Zhu's intention in asking for cargo. He obviously wanted to give them a demonstration!
A moment later, the person-in-charge returned pushing a small cart. On the cart was a collection of common items: vases, letters, fresh produce, and so on. The person-in-charge had brought back a sample of all sorts of goods, just in case Fu Zhu needed something specific that she hadn't brought.
"This is... Sir Fu Zhu, right? I've brought various types of cargo. Please, feel free to choose."
"How thoughtful of you." Fu Zhu walked over and casually glanced at the items. "But the type of cargo doesn't matter to me. It's all the same, since this is just a demonstration."
After a quick look, Fu Zhu didn't bother looking further. Instead, he turned and placed his crafting table to the side.
The moment Xing saw Fu Zhu take out his crafting table again, she grew excited.
"Ooh! Is old bro making another marvelous tool?!"
This was the first time Bailu and Sushang had seen Fu Zhu set out a crafting table, and they couldn't understand why Xing got so excited just from seeing him produce such a large wooden block.
"Big Sis Xing, why are you so excited all of a sudden? Didn't Brother Fu Zhu just put out a big wooden block?"
Seeing Bailu ask about the crafting table, Xing told her with a very serious expression, "This is a top secret of the Fu family, it must not be leaked. But all you need to know is that this is a piece of high technology!"
"Ooh~ How amazing!"
Bailu and Sushang clapped their hands with expressions of awe, even though they didn't really understand.
Fu Zhu, who was in the middle of crafting powered rails, glanced at Xing behind him. Hearing her words, he couldn't help but mutter to himself.
"What high technology... If Herta heard that, she'd probably laugh her head off."
Ultimately, a crafting table wasn't some overly advanced technology. It was just exceptionally brilliant when it came to [combining materials].
Besides, operating it was incredibly simple, pretty much like 1+1=2. But as for why 1+1=2, that was a subject worthy of research.
Crafting powered rails was a very simple process, so simple that Fu Zhu didn't even need to rely on the JEI Item Management Mod to quickly produce a large batch.
However, he didn't need a large quantity this time; a dozen or so would be sufficient.
Once everything was ready, Fu Zhu took out a few helper blocks and placed them on the ground. Then, following the layout of the blocks, he laid down the powered rails, connecting them in a path of inclines and declines.
Seeing Fu Zhu laying the rails, Xing's expression turned thoughtful.
"Old bro, are you planning to build a machine that churns out rails, and then cover all of the association's logistics routes with them?"
The reason she thought of this was entirely because of the TNT duplicator Fu Zhu had built to destroy the Ambrosial Arbor. Since her old bro could even duplicate TNT, then simple rails must also be duplicable, right?
Coupled with the so-called endless energy source from her old bro's redstone block, Xing felt this was the best solution to the Golden Automaton Lane merchant association's logistics problem!
When Fu Zhu heard what Xing said, he immediately realized they were on the same wavelength, but he didn't agree with her idea.
"My dear little sister, I know what you're thinking. That method is indeed feasible, but you have to remember, my agreement with Scott was 'no holds barred.' Another way to interpret that is that I must succeed by any means necessary, while Scott will use any means necessary to make me fail."
"Using rails to cover all the logistics routes is indeed one solution, but it's not the optimal one."
Rails were far too easy to destroy, whether in MC or in reality. They could even be easily washed away by a stream of water.
If Scott were to discover this, the merchant association would have to dispatch a large amount of manpower and resources just to keep the railway operational. Repairing it section by section would be an incredibly troublesome matter.
Besides, he had no intention of doing something so troublesome. Although he was here to help, he also wanted to solve this little problem in the shortest time possible.
"Done. My proud creation, the rapid transit railway!"
Fu Zhu stood up and stepped aside, allowing everyone to see the closed-loop, circular railway with its varying heights that he had built behind him.
March 7th and the others all crowded around the circular railway to inspect it, but no matter which angle they looked from, they couldn't figure out its purpose.
March 7th stared at the rails on the ground with a frown. "Fu Zhu, these rails are all connected in a loop. How is it supposed to transport anything? Did you make a mistake?"
Fu Zhu, however, just grinned mysteriously as he took out two minecarts from his inventory and placed them on the unactivated powered rails. He then placed a chest in one of the minecarts and stuffed all the cargo that needed to be transported inside it.
Finally, he pointed at the remaining empty minecart and said with a smile,
"The proof is in the pudding. As for how this railway transports goods, does anyone want to give it a try?"