The number of Queen Crabs remaining on the beach had sharply decreased, becoming sparse, with one every few meters.
It wasn't that Jiang Ye had caught too many and depleted them; the scale of nature was too grand for one person to change. The main reason was that most of the Queen Crabs had completed their spawning mission and returned to the sea.
Yawning a few times, Jiang Ye disembarked and walked along the rocky shore back to the base.
He suddenly noticed many soybean-sized balls scattered among the rocks.
Looking out, the entire beach was covered in these soybean-sized balls, with crevices packed full, as if a soybean rain had fallen overnight.
Undoubtedly, they were Queen Crab eggs. The beach had become a collective maternity ward for the crabs. Hundreds of thousands of mothers had come here to give birth overnight, deposited their young in the rock crevices, and left immediately.
"They really can breed!" Jiang Ye murmured in amazement.
He bent down, picked up ten crab eggs, and squeezed them in his hand. They were indeed as hard as soybeans and couldn't be crushed at all.
Returning to the base, he threw the crab eggs into the trading bay.
[Item: Fertilized Queen Crab Eggs]
[Item Description: In a very short time, these fertilized eggs will hatch into male Queen Crabs. After birth, the young crabs will eat their eggshells and then head for the sea. These eggs have no edible value and are mostly sold to farms for Queen Crab cultivation.]
[Estimated Value: 10 Yuan]
Jiang Ye shrugged. "Well, these crab babies are too cheap, only one yuan each."
He went up to the second floor of the base and collapsed onto the bed.
Less than three seconds later, faint snores could be heard.
He woke up to find it was already one in the afternoon.
The sun was blazing, and the sky was clear.
Jiang Ye got up, made a vegetable stew, and injected himself with a physical enhancement agent.
Staying up all night was indeed quite taxing on the body. Even with the enhancement agent, he still felt very tired.
Jiang Ye went outside and took a few breaths of fresh sea air, feeling a bit more invigorated.
Go out to sea! Earn money!
He was just a little bit away from upgrading his base to level 14. He had to upgrade today. Ever since he arrived at this beach, money had been flowing like water, but saving it was slow. It had been a long time since he had upgraded.
Jiang Ye boarded the fishing boat and entered the captain's room.
"Good afternoon! You're quite lazy today, coming so late," the artificial intelligence's voice chimed in.
"Shut up," Jiang Ye said irritably.
The artificial intelligence fell silent.
He clicked on the screen and set sail.
The fishing boat roared to life, cutting through the waves and charging towards the dark blue ocean.
He skillfully arrived at the gold mine location, put on his diving suit, and went underwater.
Jiang Ye discovered a disheartening fact: this gold mine was almost depleted.
Most of the ore had been collected, and the rest would be cleared today.
The smell of ore he could detect was also becoming weaker and weaker, so thin he could barely smell it.
The ore reserves of this gold mine were actually quite small. A mining company might not even bother to exploit it. The reason was simple: the profit from mining wasn't enough to cover the cost of setting up machinery and mobilizing manpower.
Jiang Ye, who had used explosives and spent all day collecting, had reached the bottom.
One hour, two hours, three hours...
Finally, Jiang Ye picked up the last piece of gold ore.
He straightened up on the seabed and looked around.
Only some extremely fine gold ore dust remained, the largest pieces being no bigger than a finger, not worth picking up at all.
Carrying the last half-sack of ore, he pulled on the rope and returned to the fishing boat.
He took off his flippers and mask, walked into the cargo hold, and dumped all the ore into the trading bay.
Returning to the captain's room, he clicked on the screen and sold it!
His personal assets finally settled at 12,075,000 yuan.
Enough to upgrade the base, with a balance of seventy-five thousand left over.
Jiang Ye yawned and set course back.
He didn't encounter any fish schools along the way, so he didn't cast his nets.
He docked at the pier and disembarked.
Jiang Ye walked back to the base, and the first thing he did was open the panel and tap on [Base Upgrade]!
[Congratulations! Your base level has been upgraded to Level 14!]
[New items added with this upgrade:]
[Base Defense +140%]
[Your base glass can now withstand ordinary mortar fire. As long as the doors and windows are closed, you are safe!]
[The Galactic Mall has added 4 new items.]
Jiang Ye nodded. He was quite satisfied with this upgrade. At least the base's defense was stronger, making him feel more secure when hiding. He wouldn't have to worry about wild beasts knocking on his windows at night.
He didn't believe there was any wild animal on this planet more ferocious than a mortar.
He casually checked the requirements for upgrading to a Level 15 base.
Jiang Ye's expression became very strange because the upgrade requirement was quite peculiar; he even thought he was seeing things.
[To upgrade the base to Level 15, you need to complete a Super Marathon.]
[Super Marathon: A marathon of 100 kilometers. Click on Base Upgrade, and the satellite will start monitoring your activity trajectory. You must travel 100 kilometers on foot within 12 hours. Kilometers can be accumulated by running back and forth. If you use any form of transportation, your running mileage will be voided, and you will have to start over.]
Jiang Ye's hair stood on end.
This was a pace that would exhaust a person to death!
Running 100 kilometers in 12 hours, wasn't this purely tormenting people?
What was the point?
"Are they crazy?"
After a brief moment of excitement, Jiang Ye understood why there was such a strange upgrade condition.
In fact, it was a means to test the physical fitness of the colony commander and the habitability of the planet.
The former was secondary; the latter was the primary purpose.
Running one hundred kilometers was an absolute limit for a human.
If the oxygen content was low, the terrain was poor, wild beasts were rampant, and food and sleep could not be guaranteed, it would be difficult to complete this task.
If it was completed, it would mean that the place where the colony commander was located was very suitable for human survival.
Jiang Ye couldn't help but guess if more colony commanders would be sent to this planet to strive in the future.
He closed the [Base Upgrade] option and opened the [Galactic Mall] to check the four newly unlocked items.
"Oh?"
Jiang Ye's eyes lit up. The four items this time were all ridiculously expensive, but very valuable!
They could even be described as awesome!
[Item: Resurrection Insurance]
[Item Description: Resurrection insurance service provided by Traumateam. Traumateam members are professionally trained in combat and emergency medical care, possess extensive experience, and have powerful spatial jump spacecraft capable of reaching almost any location in a short time to rescue clients. They will stop at nothing.]
[As long as you are wealthy enough and purchase this insurance, when you are on the verge of death, Traumateam will immediately whisk you away from the dangerous scene and provide comprehensive treatment, regardless of flying bullets, distance, or weather. After purchasing this insurance, you will receive a monitoring chip. Place the chip on your chest, and Traumateam can monitor your physical condition 24 hours a day.]
[Since its launch, this service has successfully saved over 4.6 billion lives, with a success rate of 93%.]
[Price: 10 Million Yuan]
Jiang Ye's eyes shone.
This was the most expensive insurance he had ever seen, but also the most awesome.
Other insurance policies paid out money after an accident.
However, sometimes, when a person was gone, compensation was of little use.
This Resurrection Insurance was different; a team would come to save you when you were close to death, practically a second life!