Age of Cataclysm: I can light up the technology tree

"Hey wait!"

"I said Wang Man, what do you mean?"

Tang Hairong's face looked a little ugly, and there was a hint of gunpowder in his voice.

"What do I mean?" Wang Man snorted coldly, "You should know better than anyone else how much resources your mega-structure project consumes."

"Tell you the truth."

"Currently, less than 10% of the basic metal resources in the fleet's inventory are left. If this continues, all construction projects will have to stop in a short time!"

Wang Man's words shocked Tang Hairong!

"What?!"

Tang Hairong exclaimed in surprise.

"Why is the consumption rate so fast?!"

Seeing Tang Hairong's expression that didn't look fake, the anger on Wang Man's face gradually disappeared.

He sighed forcefully, shook his head and explained: "The starship factory consumes huge amounts of basic metal every day. As you know, all the starships in the fleet are waiting to be updated. You can imagine the speed of this consumption. "

As he spoke, he raised his head, glanced at Tang Hairong's uncertain expression, and said again: "In addition, on your side, the consumption of basic metals is second only to the starship factory."

"If the starship factory is really shut down due to basic metal inventory problems, I cannot bear this responsibility!"

Tang Hairong frowned and asked Wang Man with confusion: "What about your planetary resource exploration and mining project? Is there something wrong?"

In response to Tang Hairong's question, Wang Man rolled his eyes angrily.

"I said Lao Tang, are you pretending not to understand or do you really not understand?"

“Who doesn’t need time in mining, sorting, and smelting ore?”

"What's more, even some resource mining and smelting equipment needs to be manufactured on site."

"We only have so little computing power allocated to us. How can we keep up with such a terrifying rate of resource consumption!"

As he spoke, Wang Man changed the topic and pointed the finger at Tang Hairong again.

"I said, Lao Tang, what kind of mega-structure project you have is, is it important that the fleet can be updated?"

"or……"

Wang Man winked at Tang Hairong and said, "I owe you a favor, okay?"

"There's no way!" Tang Hairong's expression suddenly changed after hearing this, "Old Wang, let alone one favor, even ten favors, I can't stop this project."

"You should take advantage of this free time to think about how to quickly mine ore resources!"

Seeing Wang Man's expression that instantly collapsed, Tang Hairong smiled bitterly and shook his head: "Old Wang, to tell you the truth, Professor Lu personally ordered my project here."

"The importance is probably not much different from that of starship modification."

"What?!" Wang Man couldn't help being surprised and asked in a low voice, "What on earth are you building? Isn't the [Dyson Cloud] expansion project completed long ago?"

“Is it the second phase of the project [Dyson Ring]?”

"Does Professor Lu take such big steps?"

"What a mess..." Tang Hairong waved his hand angrily, correcting Wang Man's statement, "It's a giant space ring residential station."

"Space... ring... habitation station?"

Wang Man's eyes were full of confusion, and he said word by word: "What is this?"

"Isn't Kepler 452b designated as the residence of human civilization?"

"The surface gravity is 2.03g. What should newborns do?" Tang Hairong said bluntly, "The new generation that has not yet undergone the coming-of-age ceremony cannot withstand a gravity environment of 2g!"

"Then... isn't there a space nurturing center?" Wang Man's eyes became even more confused.

"The scale is too small, and the small internal space will have a bad impact on the mental health of the new generation." Tang Hairong spread his hands, "These are Professor Lu's original words. In order to solve the problem once and for all, we were ordered to design a ring-shaped living station. "

As he spoke, he stretched out his hand and dragged the holographic projection beside him, calling up a model data.

"The entire circular habitation station is located in the geostationary orbit of Kepler 452b and is more than 100 kilometers wide."

"It is equipped with artificial gravity devices and various latest technological products."

"The habitation station is connected to the ground via twelve giant space elevators."

"Old Wang, look at how big a project this is." Tang Hairong smiled bitterly, "The dosage of all basic metals is calculated strictly, and there is no waste."

"And...Professor Lu said that in order to ensure the future development of human civilization, the priority of the ring residential station project is second only to the starship replacement project."

The office suddenly fell silent.

It can be seen from Wang Man's constantly changing expression that his current mood may not be much better!

After a long time, a long sigh came from the speaker.

"Why……"

"Lao Tang, what do you think we should do?"

Tang Hairong was silent for a moment and whispered tentatively: "How about... you ask Professor Lu?"

…

【Earth】.

A small manned shuttle that came from afar drew a beautiful arc and docked quietly next to the huge Earth.

[Identity verification in progress...]

[Identity verification successful, welcome back, Academician Wang Man. 】

As this line of bright white text appeared in front of Wang Man, a gap slowly opened in the closed port door.

The gap was small, but large enough to allow a small shuttle to pass through.

Under the control of the onboard computer, the small shuttle smoothly passed through the port gate.

Outside the window, there was a directional holographic projection flashing green fluorescence.

The shuttle followed the holographic arrow and slowly drove into a small apron.

Looking at the familiar scene outside the porthole, Wang Man took a deep breath and calmed his anxious mood.

"Academician Wang Man, Professor Lu is waiting for you in the office."

Zero's electronic synthesized voice sounded inside the shuttle.

"Okay, I'll go right away."

While speaking, the hatch on the side of the shuttle opened automatically.

With the help of the auxiliary device, he carefully got out of the hatch and stepped on the solid deck of [Earth].

"Ding!"

"Electromagnetic adsorption has been successfully switched."

A slightly stiff electronic prompt sounded in the helmet.

Wang Man subconsciously turned his head to look at the slowly closing port gate, and his uneasiness became even stronger.

In fact, at the beginning, he rejected Tang Hairong's suggestion.

After all, there was a problem with the reserves of basic metal resources, and he, who was responsible for the exploration and mining of planetary resources, needed to bear a great responsibility.

But seeing the gap getting bigger and bigger, Wang Man, who couldn't think of any solution, could only follow Tang Hairong's advice and bite the bullet and return to the Earth.

"I hope..."

"Professor Lu, don't be too angry..."

Following the guidance of the holographic arrow, Wang Man walked on the hard and cold deck, thinking wildly in his mind.