After chatting for a while longer, Jiang Ye left the Ant Real Estate building.
He drove straight to Tian Rao's house.
Tian Rao had moved to a small villa in the city again, perhaps to be closer to her company. When Jiang Ye arrived at the gate, he hesitated at the facial recognition scanner, but as soon as he touched his face to it, the door opened.
The stairs were made of wood, and the creaking sound was exceptionally clear from inside the house.
"Tian Rao?" Jiang Ye called out.
There was no reply. Was she not home?
Jiang Ye took out his phone to call her. Immediately, he heard a sound from the room at the end of the hallway. Although it stopped after a single noise, it was definitely Tian Rao in there. He ran over, opened the door, and saw a small bedroom. A person was wrapped in a blanket, not even showing their head.
"Get up, get up, I have something to ask you," Jiang Ye knocked on the headboard with his knuckles. "Show me your face, aren't you suffocating wrapped in the blanket?"
"Why did you come so suddenly!" Tian Rao's voice was aggrieved. "No, I haven't put on makeup, I haven't washed my hair, you can't see me in this messy state."
"Then how about I wait in the living room first, and we can talk after you get up and do your makeup?" Jiang Ye suggested. "It feels too awkward with you wrapped up in the blanket like a worm."
"It will take over an hour," Tian Rao said softly. "Are you sure you want to wait?"
"That long?" Jiang Ye was surprised.
"Shower, shampoo, body lotion, mask, toner, essence, moisturizer, sunscreen, foundation, concealer, eyebrow powder, compact, eyeshadow, mascara, eyeliner, blush, lipstick..."
"Alright, alright!" Jiang Ye interrupted her. "Then stay in your bed. I actually came for just one thing. Did you transfer money to the captain of the police force?"
"Yes," the blanket rustled. "He said you wanted it, so I gave it to him."
"You believed him just because he said it was me?" Jiang Ye frowned.
"I had a little suspicion, but it wasn't a lot of money, so I gave it to him," Tian Rao extended a fair little hand from the quilt, holding up four fingers. "He asked for this amount."
"The money will be returned to you soon. Don't do anything foolish like this again. If anyone asks you for money in my name, tell me," Jiang Ye said. "If I need to ask you for money, I'll do it in person, never through someone else."
"So I was tricked?" the blanket rustled again.
"Yes, you were scammed," Jiang Ye said. "You only figured that out this late? You're a dummy."
Tian Rao let out a fake cry.
"I'm leaving, you can go back to sleep," Jiang Ye turned to leave.
"Hey, hey, hey, there are fruits in the living room, take two and eat them," Tian Rao still remembered to entertain her guest.
"Okay," Jiang Ye was speechless.
He drove back to the hot spring area.
On the way, Jiang Ye wasn't idle. He ordered five hundred remote control pods and requested they all be delivered to the naval port. Birong Star needed more troops, and it was time to let more officers gain some experience on Birong Star. After placing the order, Isabel sent a small "ok" emoji, meaning she had received the order and would deliver it when she had time.
Upon returning home, Jiang Ye brewed and drank a packet of Chinese medicine, then immediately entered a remote control pod.
It was raining on Birong Star, a downpour. Jiang Ye, wearing a mecha, walked out of the birthing pod. A few hundred meters away, a massive silver-gray building was being topped off. It was three stories high, but each story was at least six meters tall, quite magnificent. Rows of construction robots carried construction equipment back and forth on top, along with many welding robots. The sparks from the welding were extinguished by the rain as soon as they erupted.
The rainforest near the camp had been almost completely cleared, either by logging or by being burned in fierce battles. Only black wood residue remained on the ground, flowing like oil when washed by the rain.
Jiang Ye inspected the cryptobiosis insect farm. Many soldiers were pouring baskets of feces and rotten earthworm flesh into the breeding pools as food for the cryptobiosis insects. The peanut-sized cryptobiosis insect larvae had already begun to grow, their bodies expanding by about 20%, and their growth rate was quite fast.
Finally, Jiang Ye arrived at the rocket artillery vehicle manufacturing plant.
Two rocket artillery vehicles had already been produced and were parked brand new in a temporary garage.
"Team One, gather at the rocket artillery vehicle garage," Jiang Ye commanded via voice.
After waiting for a while, the soldiers of Team One assembled in formation, all swordsmen, with only the captain being a charging master.
"You will advance towards the northeast, driving these two vehicles. If you encounter difficult enemies like earth dragons, use rocket artillery to carpet bomb them," Jiang Ye said. "If you encounter any special terrain, resources, or creatures, record them and transmit them back to the camp's information database."
The soldiers set off immediately. The captain led a few soldiers to clear the path ahead, with the rocket artillery following at a distance, penetrating deep into the forest.
It was time for expansion. Military expenses could not be sustained for too long. They had to develop on this planet and find ways to profit.
Jiang Ye returned to the command center and checked the base construction price list.
Soon, his gaze settled.
[Self-Detonating Snake Manufacturing Plant: Self-detonating snakes come in three models: half-meter-long young snakes, two-meter-long adult snakes, and eight-meter-long pythons. They have explosive devices inside and can detonate upon encountering enemies, scattering metal scales to cause damage. Self-detonating snakes can be remotely controlled to advance or set to automatically search and advance. The activity range of each self-detonating snake is about 50 kilometers. However, they cannot reach steep terrain. This manufacturing plant can produce 600 self-detonating snakes per day.]
The price was not cheap. A self-detonating snake manufacturing plant required 400,000 merit points, which was 400 million.
However, Jiang Ye believed the price was worth it. Self-detonating snakes were flexible and small, and their power should not be too bad. Moreover, with hundreds of them produced per day, they could quickly clear threats in an area. Most importantly, for camp territory expansion, it was too troublesome to rely on soldiers to gradually occupy land. Self-detonating snakes were the ultimate tool for land occupation. If they wanted to occupy a piece of land, releasing dozens of self-detonating snakes would solve everything.
Jiang Ye ordered two self-detonating snake manufacturing plants in one go, exhausting all his accumulated merit points and even incurring a deficit.
As night fell, both self-detonating snake manufacturing plants were completed.
Jiang Ye went to the factory to observe the production of the first batch of self-detonating snakes.
Each manufacturing plant had three assembly lines, producing young snakes, adult snakes, and pythons respectively.
When the assembly lines started, there was only the sound of metal clashing, like many metal snakes wriggling forward, but it was actually the sound of scales being assembled. Soon, the first young snake was produced and lay shining at the end of the assembly line.
Jiang Ye reached out and picked one up. It was not activated yet, its body was contracted, stiff and straight. The edge of each scale was as sharp as a blade, and when it exploded, it would become countless flying knives. Jiang Ye pried open a scale and looked inside. Underneath each scale was a small steel ball, which would fly out like bullets when it exploded. The designer of these self-detonating snakes was truly incredibly malicious, as if they were afraid the enemy would have an easy time.
The snake's head had only one "eye," which was a pinhole camera. As long as the signal was not interfered with, the scene seen by the snake would be transmitted back to the camp.
The adult snakes and pythons were also produced quickly. Their structure was the same, the only difference being their size, which represented their forward speed and explosive power.
Jiang Ye could no longer wait. He grabbed over a dozen self-detonating snakes, threw them to the edge of the camp, and activated the cruise forward mode for all of them.