Chapter 372: Too Expensive!

After pressing the button, a green light suddenly appeared from the surface of the button to sweep across his palm. Soon, a line of words appeared on the metal screen within the control centre.

[Identity confirmed. Occupation of mining area completed. After the occupation period reaches 48 hours, ownership will be confirmed.]

Next, a countdown appeared. The numbers on the countdown timer changed from 48 hours to 47 hours 59 minutes 59 seconds and continued decreasing…

The corners of Chen Xiaolian’s mouth curled up and traces of a smile could be seen on his face.

A map quickly appeared on the surface of the metal screen. Chen Xiaolian gave it a cursory inspection and was able to identify the map as the map of the mining site.

There were a total of 8 mines in this mining site. The huge underground cave acted as the centre, which spread outward like a spider web. Each connecting to a mineshaft that had iron tracks embedded upon them.

In addition, there were also two entry and exit passageways leading outside. One was the one he had used to enter earlier, the one with the iron tracks for transport purposes. The other one was the underground pier.

The metal screen was very big and it also acted as a touch screen. Chen Xiaolian stood before the metal screen and casually tapped one of the mines shown on the map. The map quickly disappeared only to be replaced with a set of surveillance videos monitoring every angle of a certain location. The place shown by the surveillance videos was that of the still mine, iron tracks and hopper car…

Chen Xiaolian figured that each of the mines must have monitoring equipment installed inside them.

Chen Xiaolian then proceeded to carefully inspect the other functions of the row of buttons.

The functions of the buttons were:

Start all operations. This button controlled whether the mining area was active or inactive.

The eight remaining buttons were for controlling the eight other mines respectively, starting them up or to shut them down. Depending on the circumstances, he could decide whether to start up one of the mines to begin operation or to have it closed.

The last button was for starting up and closing off the furnace within the central underground cave.

As for Chen Xiaolian, he was eager to find out what the furnace was for. Perhaps it would be more accurate to say, he was eager to find out what this C11 mine was.

Chen Xiaolian was quickly able to find a description for it from the control centre.

[C11, also known as Starstone. Origin: Unknown. Depending on the different level of concentration, it could be smelted to produce ‘Star Crystals’, also known as ‘Star Sand’. Uses: Super strong alloy element that could greatly enhance the strength and durability of the product alloy. By adding 15 grams of Star Sand into 1 kilogram of alloy, the strength and durability of the produced alloy would be increased by 180 % - 560 %. The difference would depend on the different degree of purity of the Star Sand used and also of the strength and durability of the material used for the alloy.]

Holy mother of God!

Chen Xiaolian was unable to stop himself from letting out a whistle.

The ability to enhance the strength and durability of alloy… additionally, the effects were so Heavenly defying!

This Star Sand was some high-quality stuff! No question about it!

Chen Xiaolian felt his heart throbbing with excitement.

However… while it would be understandable to have such a wondrous item appear within an instance dungeon…

But… but why would it appear within the real world?

Won’t this become a BUG that would utterly disrupt the balance of this world?

If this item were to fall into the hands of one of the international powers within this world, what then?

This was definitely something within the realm of black technology!

However, the following prompt made Chen Xiaolian sigh.

The price of using this mine was not cheap!

Firstly, there was no cost required when starting up the mining area.

However… if he wished to open one of the mines, he would have to pay the price!

Opening a mine for one month came at the cost of 100 points!

In order to open up all eight mines, he would need… 800 points per month! Per month!

That meant 9,600 points per year!

How many people could afford something like this?

And that was not the end of it!

The mining operation would require a ‘mining android’ created from the control centre.

A mining android had a one-time cost of 100 points and could continue operating for 2 years.

Even so, each mining android also require 1 point per day in order for it to operate. Every day!

It had the ability to collect up to 500 kilograms of the ore per day.

According to the available description, only 5 grams of Star Sand could be extracted out from 100 kilograms of the ore!

100 kilogram = 5 g!

Only eight mining androids could mine within each mine at the same time.

If each android was set to work to the maximum, each android could then extract out 25 grams of Star Sand per day.

By assigning the full eight androids to a mine, the mine could then produce 200 grams of Star Sand per day.

Since there were eight mines in total, the maximum amount that could be produced per day was… 1,600 grams!

The yield for one month… would be no more than 50,000 grams.

50,000 grams may not seem little…

However… Chen Xiaolian had seen the description of the Star Sand from earlier.

15 grams of Star Sand had to be mixed with 1 kilogram of the other alloy elements in order for it to be of use.

With a yield of 50,000 grams per month, it would appear that a great deal of alloy products could be created, right? It was enough for over 3 tonnes of alloy. (1 tonne = 1,000 kg (UK))

It could be used to create swords, axes, armour… certainly it would be sufficient for the creation of those cold weapons.

But…

Using this super-strong alloy to just make cold weapons, something must be wrong with the owner’s brains!

Chen Xiaolian’s first thought about this super-strong alloy… naturally, it would be to use it for technological equipment!

Combat aircrafts! Tanks! Even…

Mechs!

But, how much Star Sand was needed for a mech?

Even those light mechs would weigh about 10 tonnes each!

10 tonnes was roughly the equivalent to 10,000 kilograms! He would require 150 kilograms of Star Sand!

In order to come up with that amount, this mining site had to start up all eight mines, with eight androids running at full capacity in each of them, mining for at least… 3 months!

All for the sake of producing one enhanced mech, and a light one at that!

What about those real high-grade stuff?

As someone who spent a great deal of time on the computer, Chen Xiaolian naturally knew of those legendary top-tier mechs.

For example, that infamous ‘Strike Freedom’… how heavy was it again?

It had a full body weight of 80 tonnes!

Something like that would require 1,200 kg of Star Sand!

This mining site could only produce a maximum of 50 kg per month.

All the mines within this mining site had to be operational at full capacity for around 2 years!

That was how much was needed in order to enhance a real top-tier mech!

As for the cost…

Opening up all 8 mines meant consuming 9,600 points per year.

A total of 64 mining androids could be used. Each androids cost 100 points, a total of 6,400 points!

That alone would amount to 15,000 points!

Each android required 1 point per day in order to operate. With 64 androids, that meant 64 points per day.

Each year… let’s take 365 days for each year.

That would total up to 23,360 points!

23,360 + 15,000…

Son of a bitch!

The first year would devour over 38,000 points!

38,000 points!!!

How much points did Chen Xiaolian have?

How much could he acquire in each instance dungeon?

In order to use the Star Sand to enhance a real top-tier mech, like the one used by Roddy …

He would have to run this mining site for 2 years!

Two years!

The cost of running this mining site for two years would go up to over 70,000 points!

After making those calculations, cold sweat broke out throughout Chen Xiaolian.

Too bloody shocking!

Chen Xiaolian finally understood.

This mining site was not something that ordinary Awakened ones could play around with!

No, ordinary Awakened ones would not even have the qualifications to gaze upon it!

Ordinary Awakened Guilds could only look up at it.

Only those highly ranked guilds… such as those with qualifications for permanent residence within Zero City would have the qualifications to afford this mine!

“Too expensive! Too expensive! This is beyond the word expensive! This is the kind of expensive that causes misery!”

Chen Xiaolian cursed out while pulling a face, his eyes bloodshot.

It was certainly a good thing.

Just imagine, if he could enhance Roddy’s Mech with this Star Sand, how much stronger would he become?

Just thinking about it was horrifying!

It was not simply a matter of enhancing the Mech’s defensive capabilities. Rather, it was a comprehensive enhancement!

Take the Mech’s internal equipment and engines for example. If their materials were enhanced, how much of its output and speed would be increased?

By enhancing the defensive armour on the Mech, how much of its battle strength would be increased?

“It’s too expensive…” Chen Xiaolian clutched his head and sighed.

Una who was standing by the door simply watched as Chen Xiaolian suddenly became excited only to quickly become dejected. As he held his head and mumbled to himself like a mad man, this African woman’s expression seemingly turned odd.

After a while, Chen Xiaolian let out a sigh.

“Whatever, I’ll worry about it when the time comes. At any rate, it has fallen into my hands. I can’t just lose it for no reason!”

He clenched his fists tightly!

He checked the countdown for the occupation period and saw that there were still 47 hours left.

Chen Xiaolian thought about it carefully. “First, rest. Get myself back in good shape… who knows what will happen in the next two days.”

After saying that, he did not try to avoid Una as he retrieved some food. Then, he found a clean place to sit and began eating his fill.

Naturally, he did not forget about Una. After giving her some food and water, he summoned Garfield out to stay beside him.

After doing that, Chen Xiaolian found an area that was rather spacious. There, he retrieved a camping bed from his Storage Watch, set it up and went to sleep.

He needed to rest.

Heaven knows what the system will bring out to seize this mining site from him.

However, even in his sleep, he continued mumbling.

“Too expensive…”

…

After having eaten her fill, Una dared not move about as there were three Four-eyed War Cats keeping watch over her.

Una carefully stood up while observing the three beasts.

She realized that as long as she did not try to move too far away from this underground cave, the three monsters would ignore her. But, once she attempted to move further, for example, to the edge of one of the mines, one of the monsters would turn its head to stare at her and utter a threatening growl.

Frustrated, Una vehemently cursed Chen Xiaolian in silence. Seeing as she had no other choice, she forced herself to be patient, sit down and wait.

Chen Xiaolian slept for up to 20 hours!

Earlier, he had gone without sleep for a good three days. With this sleep, his state of mind was finally restored.

After waking up, Chen Xiaolian stretched himself. The first thing he did was to pick up his mobile phone and make a call to Father Qiao.

Naturally, the other party’s phone was still turned off.

Chen Xiaolian sneered before keeping the mobile phone.

There must be a deep connection between Father Qiao and this matter!

However, now that the mining site had fallen into Chen Xiaolian’s hands… he was not afraid of Father Qiao not coming to him!

Father Qiao must certainly know about this mining site!

After standing up, Chen Xiaolian could feel that his body was in tiptop shape. When he observed the holes leading to each mine, he became even more excited.

There were roughly another 26 more hours to go.

According to the explanation given by the system, once the occupation period of 48 hours was completed, this mining site would truly belong to him. Within one year’s time, no one else could seize it from him.

Chen Xiaolian got up and walked back and forth within the underground cave. In the end, he returned to the control room.

Several dots of light suddenly appeared on the map that was laid out on the surface of the wall of the control room.

That was the direction of the entrance.

Two red dots had appeared at the entrance!

Chen Xiaolian’s mind raced. Sure enough, it did not take long for a prompt to appear on the metal screen.

[Outsiders have entered the mining site. Identities unknown.]

Chen Xiaolian’s heart pounded and he tapped open the map of the entrance area. The images soon appeared on the monitoring screen.

Two fellows could be seen standing next to the hopper car at the entrance.

One of them was tall and lean while the other was of medium height.

Chen Xiaolian regarded the tall and lean figure and saw that he was wearing a protective suit beneath his trench coat. Chen Xiaolian thus began deducing the identities of the other party.

If they weren’t Players, then they were Awakened ones.

Considering the fact that this was not an instance dungeon but the real world, the latter was more likely.

Chen Xiaolian himself was hoping that it would be Awakened ones instead of Players.