Farming With The In-game World - Chapter 50

Chapter 50: Chapter 50: I Have a Friend

After feeling proud of himself for some time, An Wen got back to work.

He wanted to build a warehouse at the side of the mountain mine to keep all of the stone material that he had excavated.

One should not question how the warehouse was able to store so much stone material, for it was simply in the settings of the game world.

In the end, however, before he could even finish building the warehouse, he had to reposition the air-powered excavation tools.

He did not have any other choice; in just 20 minutes, the tools had dug the mountain from the top all the way to the bottom. If he did not reposition them, they would start digging into the ground.

He spent half an hour doing so.

After he repositioned them, the air-powered tools continued digging.

That also meant that the time required for An Wen to reposition the tools was longer than the time it took for them to dig from the top to the bottom of the mountain.

“I’m the one lagging behind now.”

An Wen felt extremely helpless, but what could he do? Yuan Pan could not assist in repositioning the air-powered excavation tools either.

After repositioning the tools, An Wen continued building the warehouse.

After building the warehouse, he stashed the stone material inside, then repositioned the air-powered excavation tools. After repositioning the tools, he went to stash more of the stone material, then repositioned the tools again. After that, the cycle continued.

An Wen went back and forth numerous times between the mine and the warehouse.

He prepared a simple and casual dinner for himself – a few pieces of hardtack biscuits. Well, it was satisfactory as long as he was no longer hungry.

By the time it was 12 midnight, he had worked for slightly more than seven hours.

The result from his hard work was a mere 50-meter-wide opening dug from the top of the mountain mine.

Coupling that with the 2-meter gap between the floating cliff wall and the ground, it looked as if the front teeth of the mountain mine had been knocked off.

“Well…”

Indeed, it was an extremely refreshing and intriguing sight.

Although it appeared as if the mountain mine had not changed, the efficiency of the digging was actually already very high.

Making calculations, the excavated land area was 50 meters wide by 70 meters long, which was 3500 square meters.

Converting that to cubic meters by multiplying by a height of 60 meters, he had excavated a total of 210 thousand cubic meters of stone material.

However, the size excavated was completely insignificant when compared to the size of the entire mountain mine.

“This is an extremely awkward situation…”

Recalling the target for the day that he had so confidently set, An Wen’s lips slightly twitched.

Fortunately for him, only Yuan Pan had witnessed his goal; if it was someone else, he would have embarrassed himself immensely.

“This still won’t do, I need to change my approach.”

Looking at the mountain mine in front, An Wen felt that his current approach was not going to work out.

It was not that the air-powered excavation tools were not fast enough, but that he had employed the wrong method.

Repositioning the air-powered excavation tools required even more time than the operating time of the tools themselves. How was that supposed to work out?

An Wen was vexed and troubled.

After packing the equipment, he went to take a bath.

As he bathed, he thought about how he could increase the excavation speed.

“To perform open-top mining, I would need an empty space of at least 300 meters by 300 meters.”

“With a speed of 3500 square meters of land excavated per day for seven hours, I would need 25 days to create a space of 90 thousand square meters.”

An Wen shook his head. He was utterly dissatisfied with the speed of progress.

Even after thinking for a long while and finishing his bath, he still had not thought of any solution.

“How silly am I, to solve this problem, of course I must consult the professionals!”

Before he fell asleep, An Wen realized that he had been thinking uselessly all the while.

He knew nothing about mining.

In the end, he had thought too highly of himself and only managed to chip off the ‘front teeth’ of the mountain mine after one day.

“I’ll sleep first and consult a professional tomorrow.”

The following morning, after eating his breakfast, An Wen managed to contact a female senior through his connections. She was pursuing her postgraduate studies at Tong Ji University with a specialization in civil engineering.

Why did he find a senior from Tong Ji University, and not a senior from his alma mater, Zhen Dan University?

One should not ask such a question, for the answer was simply that wasn’t anyone to ask.

After adding the senior on WeChat, An Wen immediately transferred 10 thousand yuan over to her.

“Sorry to trouble you, Senior.”

Right off the bat, An Wen wielded his power of money. After all, what he was about to ask her already seemed silly to him.

By making use of money to lead the way, the senior would likely be more friendly and amiable towards him. She would also not think that he was messing around with her.

“You’re too kind, there’s no need to do that.”

She replied courteously and did not accept the money.

“No, I must. It is a form of respect towards knowledge and also a compensation for wasting Senior’s precious time.”

“(Smiling Emoji) You’re really good with your words. There must be many girls chasing after you, aren’t there?”

“No… Just a few hundred.”

After flattering each other for a short while, the senior accepted the money, and they started communicating through video on An Wen’s suggestion.

After all, it was quite a hassle to type long texts and it would also be unclear at times.

When the video call connected and the senior saw An Wen’s looks, her eyes lit up.

Well, as for the senior’s looks…

She was not ugly, but was only average-looking.

Nevertheless, that was not the main purpose of the call and they got down to business.

An Wen told the senior about the entire situation regarding the mountain mine, then asked her how he would be able to mine the ore the most efficiently.

“Oh… Open-pit mining is actually very simple. Based on what you have mentioned, you actually only need to create stepped walls, and you would be able to mine the ore perfectly. It isn’t very difficult to use this method.” The senior immediately replied.

An Wen pursed his lips. He already knew that he could use such a method, but the problem was that there were monsters beneath the land.

“No, I already know about creating stepped walls. Actually, the main problem is that the mountain is covered with rocks and I… my friend thinks they are an eyesore. Moreover, the miners that he employed suffer from claustrophobia, so they have to work under the sun.”

“This is also why I wanted to ask you about the fastest way to excavate the top of the mountain and mine the ore below.”

By the time An Wen finished speaking, the senior was looking at him extremely oddly.

The money that he gave her was truly ‘exerting’ its effects now.

If not for that 10 thousand yuan, she would certainly have thought that An Wen was making fun of or messing around with her.

Would an ordinary person ask such a silly question?

“… Cost is not a consideration, and you just want the fastest way to remove the rock on the mountain, right?”

Obviously, the senior was no longer as serious as she was previously, and there was even a hint of mockery in her tone.

“Yeah, cost is not a consideration.”

Seeing the change in the senior’s change in attitude, An Wen was extremely powerless.

After all, he could not tell her that he was mining in the other world where he would be attacked by monsters, could he?

“It’s very simple then. Do you know about this type of equipment? They are boring machines and would break through the rock of mountains extremely quickly.”

“You just need to buy several of these boring machines and you would be able to cut away the top of the mountain to perform open-pit mining.”

“Oh, if you are performing open-pit mining, you can also purchase a machine called a bucket-wheel excavator.”

“If you buy the best bucket-wheel excavator, you would be able to use it to excavate the mountain. It would be able to flatten an entire mountain in a day.”

Looking at the two pictures the senior sent him, An Wen was certainly interested in the large equipment.

“How much do they cost?” An Wen asked.

“… You’re really intending to buy them?” The senior was slightly bemused.

“No, it’s my friend who wants to buy it, not me. He has too much money.” An Wen immediately explained.

“I know, I know… The boring machine is cheap – a higher quality one costs seven to eight million yuan, while a lower quality one costs one to two million yuan.”

“As for the world’s biggest bucket-wheel excavator, also known as the Krupp Bagger 293, it’s construction cost is 700 million yuan.”

Seven hundred million yuan?

Excuse me, I’ll take my leave first.

Upon hearing the cost, An Wen was instantly bewildered. The cost of the excavator was completely beyond his imagination.

At that point, he did not continue asking about how to cut the mountain, as he had already thought of some ideas.

Most of the questions he asked subsequently were about how he should position the mining equipment after the mountain was cut open, and how he should start mining according to science.

The senior also did not continue ridiculing and mocking his questions. She provided An Wen with plans and ideas about open-pit mining from a professional standpoint.

In that aspect, she was indeed professional.

She told An Wen about waterproofing and preventing rock collapses, as well as about underground construction safety. She even told him about the general plans of digging into the ground after mining the mountain.

An Wen learned and benefited greatly.

To the senior, all of the knowledge she revealed seemed obvious and apparent, and the problems were certainly not challenging to solve.

To An Wen, however, it was very precious knowledge.

He would never have known about any of it if not for a professional like her telling him.

“If you have any other questions in the future, feel free to ask me, I will always be free and willing to help you.”

“Alright, thank you, Senior. I shall not bother you anymore, goodbye.”

Ending the video call, An Wen went to his computer.

He searched online for information about giant mining machinery.

After watching videos about various mining machines, An Wen was burning with excitement.

Indeed, men like it big.

After some time searching online, he closed his eyes and began thinking.

“I don’t have the bucket-wheel excavator and neither can I afford it. However, I can build an imitation of it.”

At that thought, An Wen traveled to the other world immediately.

Heading to the mixed-use complex, An Wen opened the Knowledge Tree Storage and Consolidation List, then tapped on the Sacred War Beast icon.

“I can’t build a bucket-wheel excavator that is 240 meters long, 49 meters wide, and 96 meters tall, but I can build the Sacred War Beast.”

“With the Sacred War Beast as the foundation, I can remove its head and extend its neck to use it as a supporting structure. I will then fit a round spinner equipped with 500 air-powered excavation tools at the front.”

“Although the end-product would still be unable to match the original bucket-wheel excavator in all aspects, it would be sufficient for my needs. Most importantly, I wouldn’t need to spend any money.”

For the first time, An Wen realized that he was truly poor.