Chen Ming plopped down onto the spaceship's floor, tossing his helmet to one side.
He took deep breaths of the freshly replenished oxygen from the life support system.
Looking at the backpack in his hand and the few items inside, a smile couldn't help but spread across his face.
Chen Ming adjusted his breathing, stood up, and issued a command for the spaceship to move.
He then headed to the workstation, ready to start modifying the mining laser.
With different-sized lenses in each hand, the largest piece was still on the temporary storage space of the smelting furnace in front of him.
The low-frequency Zhou Bo generator found before leaving was also placed aside.
After confirming that the materials needed for the mining laser modification were sufficient and wouldn't affect the subsequent repair of the landing module, Chen Ming pressed the confirmation button.
A strong wave of fatigue instantly surged through Chen Ming's mind, yet.
The smallest model lens in his hand turned into pure, clear liquid, while the low-frequency Zhou Bo generator began to melt as well.
The two streams of liquid, along with other metal materials flowing out from the storage chamber, were absorbed into the Type II Mining Laser in the workshop.
All the liquids were quickly absorbed, and the Type II Mining Laser modification was complete.
The appearance didn't change much overall, except for an additional ring component on the edge of the emitter, known as the Laser Restraint Device.
Meanwhile, the panel of the mining laser device also underwent some changes.
[Type II Mining Laser·Modified]
[Manufacturer: Sinda Rockwell Mining Company]
[Strength: Level 3]
[Applicable Environment: Advanced Metal Ores]
[Modified Parts: Advanced Lens, Energy Gathering Ring, Wave Oscillation]
[Durability: 100%]
[Executable Actions: Replace/Modify]
The strength and applicable environment of the laser had reached a higher tier.
At this moment, under Chen Ming's earlier settings, the spaceship circled back to the living area of the Mining Space Station.
The tractor device retrieved the dark blue ore that was previously stuck in a building crevice of the living area.
Chen Ming, unsure if the enhanced mining laser's strength was sufficient, nervously activated the mining laser.
Compared to the previously brighter orange-yellow mining laser that was emitted, it successfully shattered the dark blue ore upon contact.
"Good."
Chen Ming couldn't help but mutter to himself, still nervously watching as the ore fragments were drawn into the furnace.
The entire process was like collecting ordinary asteroids; the furnace started heating up, and the dark blue ore slowly began to melt.
It was only at this point that Chen Ming fully relaxed.
Luckily, the furnace temperature was adequate; otherwise, he'd have to find a way to see if there were any furnace modification methods in the terminal's books.
The smelting speed for the dark blue ore was much slower than that of ordinary metal ores.
Nearly two hours later, a total of five smelted sky-blue metal ingots appeared in the furnace.
Anxious with anticipation, Chen Ming opened the workstation's panel.
In the items section, he saw the name of the metal.
"Sky Steel?"
Chen Ming's tone could barely contain his excitement.
He hadn't expected it to be such a valuable metallic material.
In Chen Ming's memory, he'd deliberately learned about this advanced material before.
It's essential for some key spaceship components, particularly those requiring very high structural strength, and is also a basic material for manufacturing spaceships.
More importantly, Sky Steel is a raw material for the Superspace Navigation System.
These few Sky Steel Ingots were enough to meet the manufacturing requirements for the Superspace Navigation System.
Although it would be difficult to gather other materials by the time he reached the Pirate Space Station, having these on hand made Chen Ming feel more at ease.
Even if he didn't need them to build the Superspace Navigation System in the end, he could still think of ways to sell them as rare metal resources at the Pirate Space Station.
Just as he initially planned, as the first startup fund for a fresh start.
Chen Ming's hand brushed over the Sky Steel Ingots, feeling their freshly cooled warmth, reminiscent of getting his favorite toy in childhood.
This special sense of satisfaction made Chen Ming very content.
Gradually, however, the excitement from the successful modification and collecting Sky Steel faded.
A profound exhaustion filled his mind.
The mental strain of modifying the equipment felt much greater than that of repair.
Chen Ming placed the sky-blue Sky Steel Ingots into the storage chamber and stood in the living chamber doorway; it was just about time for a rest.
However, just before entering, Chen Ming hesitated for a moment and then turned toward the captain's room.
He actively sought out an asteroid to test the upgraded mining laser's effectiveness on regular asteroids with ordinary metal ores.
Tract, secure.
Mining laser firing.
In less than three seconds, the asteroid was shattered by the Level 3 mining laser, and the ore fragments were drawn into the furnace for smelting.
This level of efficiency greatly satisfied Chen Ming.
Although the smelting time took up most of the mining process, the collection time was also not short.
Through accumulation, the time saved adds up significantly.
The faster the necessary materials are collected, the sooner he can set off toward the planet the spaceship orbits.
With confirmation of the mining laser's efficiency, Chen Ming's face again broke into a smile he could hardly suppress.
But soon, overwhelming fatigue emerged once more.
Chen Ming barely shook his head to maintain some clarity.
He then set up the instructions for the spaceship, allowing it to continue collecting some of the more common ores around the Space Station.
He quickly returned to the living chamber and lay down on the bed.
Before closing his eyes, Chen Ming opened the spaceship armor's panel and used it to repair the remaining damages on the armor.
The overall durability of around 70% instantly restored to 100%, refreshing the entire ship's appearance from the outside.
Then Chen Ming promptly passed out.
On the next day, Chen Ming groggily got up from bed.
His first task after waking up, just like the day before, was to head to the workstation to collect the minerals smelted overnight.
During his free time yesterday, Chen Ming had deliberately dismantled a rack from the storage chamber to set up a slope at the smelting furnace's ore outlet.
This setup allowed excess metal ingots to slide off the slope once the furnace filled up, creating more storage space for metal ingots on the side.
When Chen Ming approached the workstation, he saw that his arrangement had indeed been effective.
Although the slope had collapsed, the excess metal ingots blocked the ore outlet, halting the furnace's operation.
But the quantity of metal ingots piled up had increased by about 50% compared to the previous day.
Chen Ming made several trips back and forth to stash these metal ingots in the storage chamber.
Looking at the iron ingots that nearly filled the already used space of the storage chamber, Chen Ming couldn't shake the feeling that he would eventually have to discard some.
However, if luck was on his side today and efficiency was high enough, perhaps he could gather all the materials needed to repair the landing module.
Once the landing module's repairs were complete, there'd be no need to continue collecting iron.
And as the landing module's repairs neared completion, it was time to start considering what to do after the landing.