The dawn was cold and silent, but the cave was alive.
While the seventeen former bandits slept, huddled together for warmth near the cave entrance, Jiang Chen stood before the glowing Spirit Vein. He had not slept. His new physiology required less rest, and his mind was racing with blueprints.
The Bio-Lab pod sat silent in the corner, a white monolith in the gloom. Now, it was time to build its twin.
"System," Jiang Chen whispered. "Initiate construction: Drone Fabricator (Class-1)."
[Insufficient Material.][Required: 200kg Refined Iron, 50kg Copper, 10kg Silicon.]
Jiang Chen looked at the pile of loot he had gathered. The bandits' sabers, the iron collars, the metal fittings from the carriage. It was enough for the iron. But copper and silicon?
He looked at the Spirit Vein. The crystals were embedded in rock.
"System, scan the host rock."
[Scanning...][Analysis: Quartzite (Silicon Dioxide) with trace Chalcopyrite (Copper) veins.]
"Perfect."
He woke Old Wu. The old man looked like he had aged ten years in two days.
"Your Highness?"
"Wake the men," Jiang Chen ordered. "I need them to break rocks. Not the crystal—the grey stone around it. Pile it here."
For three hours, the bandits grumbled as they smashed sledgehammers against the cave walls. They didn't understand. Why break the worthless stone and ignore the glowing treasure?
Jiang Chen didn't explain. He fed the rubble into the Matter Deconstructor.
Hummmm.
The machine chewed through the stone, separating atoms.
[Stockpile Updated: 15kg Silicon, 4kg Copper...]
"It's enough for the prototype," Jiang Chen muttered. "Fabricate."
Blue light wove together in the air. A small, boxy machine materialized on the cave floor. It wasn't a weapon; it looked like a 3D printer crossed with a crab. It had six articulated metal legs and a spinning drill for a mouth.
[Unit Complete: SCV-1 (Automated Mining Drone).][Cost: 350 EU.]
The drone twitched. Its single red optical sensor flared to life.
Whirrr.
It scuttled forward, metallic legs clicking on the stone. The bandits jumped back, some reaching for weapons they no longer had.
"What in the hells is that?!" a bandit screamed. "A metal spider!"
"It's a worker," Jiang Chen said. "And it doesn't sleep."
The drone marched to the Spirit Vein. Its drill spun up—a high-pitched whine that set teeth on edge. It bored into the crystal, harvesting shards with perfect precision, depositing them into an internal hopper. When full, it scurried back to the System interface and dumped the load.
[Resource Acquired: 5kg Spirit Crystal.][Converting...][+500 EU.]
Jiang Chen smiled. "Build another."
[Fabricating...]
Ten minutes later, a second drone joined the first. Twenty minutes later, there were three.
By noon, ten mechanical spiders were swarming the vein. The sound of their drilling was a constant, industrial drone. They moved with a hive-mind efficiency, stripping the vein faster than a hundred human miners ever could.
The bandits watched in horror and awe. They saw their utility vanishing. If these metal monsters could dig, what use was a bandit?
Jiang Chen turned to them. He saw the fear in their eyes. That was good.
"You are wondering," Jiang Chen said, his voice cutting through the mechanical noise, "why I kept you alive."
The bandits nodded slowly.
"These," Jiang Chen pointed to the drones, "are miners. They have no souls. They have no loyalty. They just work."
He walked closer to the men. He towered over them now, his enhanced muscles filling out his thermal suit.
"But a Kingdom needs more than miners. It needs a sword."
He kicked open a crate he had printed while they were breaking rocks. Inside lay 17 Rifles.
They were not the sleek, complex M16s or high-tech railguns. They were AK-47s (Type 56 variants). stamped steel, wood furniture, rugged, ugly, and reliable.
"This is the Type-56 Assault Rifle," Jiang Chen said. He picked one up and slapped a magazine in. Click-Clack. "It kills at 400 meters. It fires 600 rounds a minute. It does not care if you have a Spirit Root. It does not care if you are a peasant."
He tossed the rifle to the nearest bandit—a young man named Li. Li caught it, fumbling with the heavy weight.
"The spiders will mine," Jiang Chen declared. "You will learn to kill."
He looked at the drone swarm, which was now dumping thousands of EU into his account every hour.
[Current EU: 8,200 (Rising Rapidly).]
"Old Wu," Jiang Chen said. "We have infinite energy. Now, we secure the perimeter."
"System," he commanded silently. "Unlock Tier 1 Defense: The Tesla Coil."