Technological advancement begins with devouring.

Jia Yi and 'Iceberg' did not linger. They each had a lot of things to do, and after putting down the goods, they left quickly.

Jiang Chen, however, did not leave. He remained on the high plateau of South America, personally guarding the base.

With 120 Boxer mechs guarding the area, the low-level monsters in the surrounding area didn't even have a chance to get close. They would be shot down from several kilometers away, not even giving Jiang Chen a chance to make a move.

SCV worked very efficiently; in just over two days, several large warehouses were completed, and all the supplies were moved into them.

A new factory was built shortly afterward, and a production line dedicated to the production of SCVs was quickly put into operation after a brief trial run.

With a large influx of raw materials, new SCVs rolled off the production line and joined the construction of the base.

Although there is only one production line, with enough raw materials, it can produce more than ten SCVs per day, which is quite efficient.

As the number of SCVs continued to increase, the rate of material consumption also skyrocketed, and the base gradually became more complete.

Warehouse, production area, living area...

After the exterior walls were completed, each area was quickly repaired, and the entire base was initially completed in just one month.

All the buildings are made of reinforced concrete, without much additional decoration, and they don't look very beautiful.

But it's sturdy and durable enough. The arrangement of the different functional areas is also reasonable enough, and that's sufficient.

The command center has not yet been built; only the corresponding space has been reserved.

In the dedicated living area, only a villa of relatively small size was built as Jiang Chen's residence, and it was also the only building in the entire base with some luxurious decorations.

After all, it's my own place to live, so I should try to make it as comfortable as possible within the limits of my means.

In the living room, Jiang Chen sat on the sofa, savoring the Islay whisky, a 'friendly gift' from the chairman of the HR Alliance, preserved since before the Great Nirvana era, while conversing with Jarvis through a large screen.

"Master, under the protection of the mech squad, the SCV has completed the initial exploration of the 'Mutong Iron Mine'."

As Jarvis's voice rang out, a scene appeared on the big screen: a massive mine that had been abandoned for countless years.

The three-meter-tall Boxer mech walked along the road on the side of the mine, looking like a tiny ant.

"This iron ore mine was initially mined before the Great Nirvana, but mining was forced to stop due to the outbreak of the Great Nirvana. There are currently 12 mining areas that have been opened up, of which the mining area closest to us covers an area of ​​more than 3,000 square kilometers and has iron ore reserves of more than 300 million tons. I suggest that we start mining from here, and there is no need to start construction in other areas for the time being." Jarvis made the suggestion while playing the footage taken during the exploration.

"Three hundred million tons of iron ore?" Jiang Chen's heart skipped a beat. He asked, "How much iron can be extracted? What about the other elements?"

Ore is ore, and it is not the same as refined metal.

"The iron ore here is of excellent quality, with an iron content exceeding 63%. Even with some losses during the refining process, each ton of iron ore can yield over 600 kilograms of iron. It also contains small amounts of manganese, chromium, copper, and aluminum. It's one of the highest-quality metal mining areas," Jarvis immediately said. "If we could control this mining area, along with another oil-producing region, we could meet the vast majority of our basic material needs. The remaining small amount of materials, consumed in very small quantities, can be obtained entirely through imports."

Jiang Chen nodded slightly.

According to the information Jarvis provided earlier, there is a small shale oil field on this plateau.

Although the reserves are not high and the shale oil is of relatively average quality, it is more than enough to meet the needs of the base.

As for resources such as rare earth elements, which are not produced on this plateau, the base's demand for these resources is not large and can be met entirely through imports.

The resources Jiang Chen brought back from his trip with his spatial ring would be enough for the base to use for a long time.

On the contrary, the consumption of various metal resources is astonishing once the base is operating at full capacity, requiring huge reserves.

With this in mind, Jiang Chen immediately ordered, "Send out a portion of the mech squads to protect the mining area, and deploy SCVs to mine at full capacity. Let's stockpile a batch of metal resources first. Whether it's base expansion, producing more mechs, or other equipment in the future, the demand for various metals will be huge."

"The extraction mission has been assigned, currently as the second priority. The first priority is the shale oil field exploration mission," Jarvis quickly confirmed. "The advance team is ready: five combat mech squads, ten SCV extraction squads, and fifty heavy transport vehicles are preparing to depart..."

With Jarvis's command, the base gates opened, and a convoy, escorted by mechs, slowly drove into the wilderness.

"Are we short of transport vehicles?" Jiang Chen suddenly thought of a question.

Jiang Chen brought only thirty heavy transport vehicles with him this time. Each vehicle has a maximum load capacity of 1,500 tons. These are among the most popular products in the HR Alliance and have undertaken many ground transportation tasks between base cities. They are also widely used in other fields.

A load capacity of 1,500 tons is already terrifying. One hundred vehicles could transport hundreds of thousands of tons of cargo at once.

However, these transport vehicles with such an astonishing carrying capacity are also incredibly large and take up a lot of space, so Jiang Chen only brought thirty of them.

Thirty trucks, transporting tens of thousands of tons of goods at a time, always felt insufficient to Jiang Chen compared to the base's production capacity and consumption.

After all, judging from the parameters of the SCV, the mining efficiency is terrifying after replacing the mineral mining module.

Moreover, as resources accumulate, the number of SCVs will further increase.

Jarvis immediately said, "Once we've gathered enough resources, we can produce our own transport vehicles. One hundred transport vehicles will be more than enough for the initial phase. If all else fails, the SCVs can be equipped with loading modules to take on some of the transport tasks."

In order to establish his own base, Jiang Chen exchanged a lot of blueprints from the system, and then made a complete plan under Jarvis's calculations and planning.

Besides resources, the most important thing brought this time was various kinds of machinery and equipment, including many processing instruments produced by Jarvis itself, in order to achieve 'self-sufficiency' as much as possible.

Building your own transport vehicles is not difficult, and the transport vehicles you build will definitely be better than those from the HR Alliance.

"That's settled then. Keep an eye on things for me, calculate the SCV mining efficiency, and then redo the production plan. Show it to me later." Jiang Chen trusted Jarvis quite a bit. After giving the order, he stopped interfering, turned off the large screen, and after enjoying the wine and food on the table, he started the system and immersed himself in the library.

Whether it's to level up or simply to exchange for more and stronger blueprints, accumulating knowledge is essential.

In the years since obtaining the system, Jiang Chen has developed a habit of spending a considerable amount of time in the library every day learning new knowledge, unless there is something particularly important.