Famine 150: Mine Complete

[LV1—Basic Mine]

The most basic type of mine, a small, hand-dug shaft common throughout Tianman Fudi.

The vertical depth is 13 meters, capable of large-scale extraction of [Crimson Crystal] and [Blue Crystal].

It uses traditional wooden and bamboo scaffolding for support. Though a primitive design, the mine walls are inlaid with crimson crystals, granting them excellent load-bearing capacity. Unlike those of other non-magical worlds, this greatly reduces the risk of mine disasters.

You have earned the trust of the Spirit of the Vein. The Vein Spirit will watch over you, guarding those entrusted with the [Destiny of Forging] and [Destiny of Breaking Ground] so that they may work happily and return home safely, day after day. Of course, this safety is provided only so long as you do not venture into areas of loose soil without guidance.

The entrance slopes down at a 30-degree angle, with rails and mine carts installed, requiring considerable interior space.

The initial mine has a square operating space of 15 meters per side; the direction of mining beyond this must be determined by you. Please perform your surveys and calculations before extending the mine.

Spaces you excavate will automatically be reinforced by the system with the same structural supports, minimizing collapse risk. Tracks for the mine carts are extended each night at midnight.

All other work—earth removal, ore sorting, and transport—is the players’ responsibility.

For every 100 grams of gems mined, you gain 100 units of mining experience.

[Lv1 Mine Estimated Output: 1000g/day (refined)]
[Current Mine Experience: 0/200,000]

The [Lava Land Upgrade System] has unlocked the [Mine Shop] for you.

Equipment once used by the people of Lava Land—such as [Gem Mine Crosspick], [Underground Water Drainage Pulley Set], etc.—has been unlocked for you…
Subdivision geological survey reports for the Gem Domain are as follows…
Mine structure suggestion reports as follows…
Raw stone forging manuals as follows…

Si Zhiyan: “…”

Si Zhiyan glanced from the infinite sweep of gemstones scattered over the Lava Land to the sheet of instructions in his hand.

As he scrolled on, reports just kept tumbling down, page after page after page, until they cluttered the floor around his feet—surveys, analyses, recommendations.

Si Zhiyan: “…………”

Si Zhiyan let out a long sigh.

At last he understood why Bian Xu had been so eager to slip him this [Lava Land Upgrade System].

The farm and the system could give him near cheat-level magic and construction speed, but they never altered the underlying material laws.

If the ore was underground, a mine still had to be dug to reach it.

And this [Lava Land Upgrade System]—able to see ore content with the naked eye, directly place mine entrances, skip the most arduous initial phase of prospecting and breaking ground; with the recognition of the [Spirit of the Vein] to minimize deadly accidents—enormously lightened the load.

These cheats were powerful enough already, but the exact location, direction, and size of the mine, as dictated by ore content and soil conditions, all fell to Si Zhiyan alone.

He curled his lips in a faint smile and murmured, “Thank you.”

“I won’t let you down.”

With that, he dismissed the screen, turned on his heel, and his coat hem drew an arc across the windswept Lava Land.

He might not know all, but certainly someone else would.

He posted a new hiring notice on the farm bulletin board.

A week later, Li Cui’e had found the right candidate.

Si Zhiyan pushed open his office door and paused for a moment.

There, in his reception room, sat a gorilla over two meters tall, its furry body hunched on the sofa, looking terribly awkward.

The black-furred giant, noticing him, hurriedly stood and bowed: “Hello, hello. My name is Lu Xingde.”

“Sir, you don’t remember? We met in the Abyss.”

Si Zhiyan honestly had no recollection. He smiled politely, without saying anything.

Lu Xingde, however, was hearty: “Ha ha, you’re a busy man—I could never forget you.”

“Maybe because my beastification was so severe; even when I became a blood, I never regained a normal human form. I was always stuck at the first stage of [Friend] assimilation, with deformed bones, tormented with constant pain until my spirit almost collapsed—I just couldn’t go on.”

Despite his full-furred face, the gorilla gave a big smile and said, “The morning you came, I’d already decided I’d end myself that night.”

“I wasn’t interested in anything, not even living. I’d written my note, gotten my knife ready. On a whim, I stopped by the demonstration you were holding, at the very back, just to kill some time before dying.”

He paused.

“But who’d have thought—you unveiled those sleep pods that could truly take away pain.”

As he spoke, Si Zhiyan finally realized why this man seemed so familiar.
He’d been the one who’d stepped on Hang Feng’s head—the bright-eyed blood player.

“I tried a sleep pod, got the first good rest I’d had in years, and you even fed me a barbecue feast.”
“Right then, I thought—well, maybe I can hang on after all.”

And who could have anticipated that the gentleman would soon lead them out of the [Friend] crisis, into such a good life.

“I’ve always wanted to say it, never thought I’d get the chance until now.”

He straightened up, almost comically earnest:

“—Thank you for saving my life, even if you didn’t know me at all.”

“…”

Si Zhiyan felt a surge of complicated emotion—he had nothing to say. At last, he only smiled gently: “All I remember is the buffet.”

Lu Xingde roared with laughter: “You tease me, sir!”

The gorilla clasped his hands respectfully.

“Right, that’s my personal business done. On to the main point.”

“I have a Certified Mining Engineer Grade 1 License, with over ten years of hands-on project experience. Li Cui’e already took me to the site, and I’ve brought a project proposal for you—please review it.”

“Leave the mine to me, sir.”

Si Zhiyan leafed through the documents.

This type of construction was technical—beyond what he personally could review—so he gave Lu Xingde free rein.

And there were more than just one or two professionals: the team included enough engineers to form a project group, and through experience and assessment, Lu Xingde had been appointed lead.
If he didn’t do well, someone else would let Si Zhiyan know.

Lu Xingde understood this too, and poured every effort into every detail.

They discussed a great deal and finalized the mine construction plan.

By the end, the sun was already setting.

Stretching, Si Zhiyan watched the gorilla fumble with his papers and, all at once, was struck by a question.

Why, after all, would anyone choose complete beastification?

Life wasn’t constant combat, and Lu Xingde proved himself a fine, detailed sort—he must have known just how greatly it impacted daily life.

And Lu Xingde’s lack of surprise at Si Zhiyan’s momentary hesitation, and his utter absence of offense, made one thing clear.
He was not forcing himself; he had long grown used to it. The fully beastified players bore much misunderstanding and discrimination within their community.

Lost in thought, Si Zhiyan finally voiced the question.

“Early missions were always dangerous. I was always injured, never had surplus points, my strength could never quite catch up. It took me years of hoarding points for a full beastification, so I could rely on agility to stay alive. Gorillas, among beast forms, are best: they’re spiritual beasts, far less disruptive to daily life than others.”

Lu Xingde offered a lopsided smile.

“We don’t have many choices, sir.”

“I just want to live.”

With that, they parted ways—Lu Xingde set off for home.

The very next day, mine construction began.

The gorilla held blueprints in his massive paws, directing personnel, assigning shifts, choosing location and orientation…
Without the convenience of a plug-and-play system, farm players measured the mine with their own steps, deciding everything by human means.

In the end, they would likely build something even better than Si Zhiyan envisioned.

And in a world without Heavenly Pulse or Vein Spirit to guide them, the engineers’ understanding of the mine might even outstrip that of the original Lava Landers.

Gem mines needed deep shafts, which all-too-easily hit groundwater. The Lava Landers could only remove seepage via slow pulleys, and cramped tunnels crippled mining speed;
But some players could sketch plans for diesel pumps, then cobble together high-efficiency machines from Main God Store parts.

The Lava folk labored by daylight and firelight, working sunrise to dusk;
Now, electric lamps stayed bright in the mines, dividing the workforce into four shifts of six hours—everyone stayed rested, and output never ceased.

Lava Land manuals claimed mining speed must ever be slow, proceeding steadily through gemless stone;
But with flooding solved, Si Zhiyan summoned Nidhoog. So long as rock preservation wasn’t a concern, what rocky barrier could withstand a dragon’s wings?

The Lava folk had used picks and hand filtering to sift gems from the muck;
Lu Xingde, by contrast, hired a team of super-powered animal-form warriors—moles, bears, and the like—to churn up the face in bulk, with specialists hauling the rubble out for further processing up top.

This clever idea ran into one snag:

The original framework wasn’t tall enough.
Interior space was too tight for the largest animal warriors.

Yet here the [Lava Land Upgrade System] saved the day.

The system’s inheritance included Lava Land blueprints. Delving into the manuals, one could see their wood-stone frameworks: how simple timber, combined with Crimson Crystal formations, could create reinforcements of astonishing strength. The structural loading problems that defeated ordinary materials, they had already solved.

After all, no one knows how to use these gems better than the Lava folk…

And so on, and so forth.

These things, supplied by the system, felt as if they belonged outside the system as well.

Just like in Imagination Town.

The [Imagination Brush] let Si Zhiyan build houses with ease,
But building the right houses in the right places, in the right numbers to improve daily life for all… that was a matter for professional heads. The system left those decisions to him.

Even the prefabs of the [Imagination Brush], those beautiful forms, the patterns and flow—all were designed by the High Priest.

Likewise, in [Lava Land: Upgradable Spaces], the reinforcement plans and excavation procedures were the hard-won fruit of generations of research among the Lava folk.

—Compared to a mere cheat code, the farm was a free world in miniature.

Si Zhiyan drew a finger gently along the handbooks’ projections, as if watching, across the centuries, the Lava folk and their minehounds, clutching blueprints and hammering together a shaft.

Each crisscrossing framework, every precision gem placement, every unique forging method… all bore the traces of their devoted lives.

In this free world, Si Zhiyan had inherited the wisdom of the ancients.

And he intended to build further atop their legacy.

Lu Xingde’s bellowed orders rang out, players bustled with energy. Si Zhiyan watched the birth of a mine that fused technology and divine technique, as if civilization’s dying star had passed its torch to his own hand.

Across a ruined world, across millennia, the builders of two civilizations met in silent concord.

…

Before long, the mine was ready for operation.

During the opening ceremony, countless players sweated, clapped, and cheered as cart after cart of glittering gems rolled up from the shaft, piling into small mountains.

Not just the miners, but all the farm’s players watched the gem mine with anticipation.

“These are all magic-infused gems!” Liang Qingshuang exclaimed, overjoyed. “Heavens, so many…”

Even Nie Du showed up.
At the mine’s edge, he watched load after load of magic ore, a tidal surge of emotion.

Gems—among all materials for high-end equipment, the most versatile, the strongest, and the rarest power cores.

Like Liang Qingshuang, anyone who had scraped together enough gems to line a dress after seven years of scavenging counted themselves lucky and among the chosen.

When Si Zhiyan broke up and auctioned his collection, it nearly started a stampede.

For none was this more important than for Nie Du.

The Bone Ferry had its own guards—Nie Du was always seeking ways to boost their combat power, to make every fight cost fewer lives.

Without a doubt, this outpouring of magical ores would transform the entire fighting community, raising everyone’s game with a single leap.

More than anyone, Nie Du knew what a miracle this was.

Until now, the players had spent seven years darting between apocalypses, scavenging cast-off relics or spending fortunes for high-end gear at the Main God Store.

The Lava Land mine was the very first gemstone mine built by players, controlled by players,
The very first in the Hunger Game to span worlds and cycles, reliably supplying player-forged arms.

Its arrival might well herald the dawn of a new era.

The very first day’s ore was exhausted—but this was not the end.

The craftspeople, long awaiting this moment, stepped up, each selecting a raw gem to start the first refining right at the site.

Magic-laden raw gems must be processed to unleash their enhancement potential. The refiners’ skill would directly amplify the effect.

Fortunately, the [Lava Land Upgrade System] included the Lava folk’s “Magic Stone Forging Manual”.
Si Zhiyan gathered the smiths—Wu Jing and the other blacksmiths, gem-cutters—and gave them the new machines and a quick trial run. With that, everyone got straight to work.

They couldn’t yet reach the pinnacle of refinement, but acceptable standard work was soon routine.

The displayed output for the Lv1 mine was 1,000 grams per day.
This was by no means a small amount—refined, it was enough to equip ten players with enhancement crystals per day.

But thanks to all their improvements, total yield might even surpass expectations.

Under everyone’s watchful eyes, the final artisan finished the last piece.

Si Zhiyan personally handled the tally, loading all the refined crimson crystals onto the scales and watching the numbers rise.

So long did he watch that everyone began to grow anxious—Lu Xingde, in particular, was shifting in his seat with unease.

At last, Si Zhiyan slowly straightened and announced:

“The total first-day refined crimson crystal output from the mine is—13,804 grams.”