Technological advancement begins with devouring.

At the bottom of the massive mine pit, an SCV raised its mechanical arm and swung it towards the wall in front of it.

The drill bit at the tip of the robotic arm seemed to pierce into a pile of tofu, easily tearing the hard rock wall into pieces of ore of varying sizes.

Meanwhile, another SCV uses a drill bit to further crush the ore, and then uses an electromagnetic device on another robotic arm to perform preliminary screening, adsorbing ore powder with an iron content higher than a certain standard and sending it to the cargo hold of the transport vehicle.

With the four SCVs working together, it only took a few hours to load the heavy truck with a load capacity of 1,500 tons.

Four SCVs paired with one heavy-duty truck – this is the optimal configuration Jarvis confirmed after several tests.

The trucks returned to the base to unload, and then went back to the mining area, accumulating about a thousand tons of ore powder, which could be seamlessly transported back to the base.

Such a mining team can extract nearly 10,000 tons of iron ore in a single day.

After being sent back to the base, the materials are refined, cast, and then smelted with other materials to produce thousands of tons of alloy materials of different types.

There are as many as thirty such 'mining groups'.

This means that the daily output of alloy materials can reach a staggering figure of over 100,000 tons.

However, the vast majority of these alloys are used to produce [Boxer] combat mechs and bullets, or as building materials to establish a large number of fixed defensive lines in the outer area of ​​the base.

The monsters are not without intelligence. With the construction of the new base and the large-scale mining of ore, the monsters on the plateau have long realized that humans have invaded their territory.

Satellite reconnaissance photos show that monsters are gathering on this plateau, seemingly preparing to launch a large-scale attack.

This was not unexpected for Jiang Chen. Every base city that was established would experience a considerable beast tide.

Although Jiang Chen was not building a base city, but only a small-scale industrial base, it was still something the monsters were willing to tolerate.

Only by defeating the monsters through war can we truly establish ourselves here.

-

"Master, satellite surveillance has detected that monsters in the rainforest are also converging on our side."

Jarvis suddenly appeared and reported to Jiang Chen.

Upon hearing this news, Jiang Chen frowned slightly and asked, "The Amazon rainforest?"

"No, it's just ordinary rainforest on the plateau, in the eastern part of the plateau," Jarvis corrected, while pulling up a map that marked the location and direction of the herd.

"This direction... it'll come from the mine. Are there many of these beasts?" Jiang Chen asked with slight concern.

Jarvis immediately replied, "The satellite surveillance footage is not clear enough to get an accurate number, but based on the size of the hordes, these hordes combined are estimated to contain between 100,000 and 800,000 monsters, and there is a high possibility that there will be king-level monsters."

As for Lord-level monsters, Jarvis didn't mention them at all.

A beast tide of this scale would definitely contain more than just one or two lord-level monsters; it could potentially reach double digits.

“From 100,000 to 800,000, that’s quite a margin of error…” Jiang Chen frowned, then immediately added, “Never mind, it’s not your fault.”

If it were only a horde of 100,000 beasts, Jiang Chen wouldn't even need Jarvis to calculate; he was confident that his mech squad could defeat the horde outside the mining area, ensuring the base's development wouldn't be affected.

However, if the beast horde consists of 800,000 beasts, they will likely have to retreat back into their base and rely on their defensive systems to fight a 'defense war'.

After all, even including the emergency production after the relocation, Jiang Chen currently only has fifteen squads of combat mechs, less than two hundred units.

Moreover, most of the chips and other materials brought from the Jiangnan base city have already been consumed. It would be extremely difficult to produce these things ourselves.

Technically, there are no problems, but building a production line is much more complex than simple machining and assembly, and it takes a considerable amount of time.

With the powerful long-range firepower of the [Boxer] and the defensive lines around the base, Jiang Chen was not worried about the base being breached.

However, it would be quite troublesome to keep the herd of beasts out of the mining area.

"Master, should we ask other powerful individuals to come and help? At the current speed of our advance, the beast tide could erupt within forty-eight hours at the earliest," Jarvis asked.

According to human tradition, when a new base is established, if a large-scale beast tide is encountered, other powerful individuals can be invited to help in the battle through the War God Palace.

Most strong individuals who are confident in their abilities are also happy to participate.

On the one hand, it's for human survival, or rather, for fame.

On the other hand, inviting powerful individuals to participate in the war is not free; it requires a huge investment, even including a portion of the base city's 'shares' to be distributed among the participating powerful individuals based on their merits. The interests involved are enormous.

Of the 52 base cities of humanity, apart from the 29 base cities belonging to the five major powers, as well as the 'Hongning Base City' of the Limitless Martial Arts Academy and the 'Thunder God Base City' of the Thunder Martial Arts Academy, the remaining 21 base cities were all successfully established with the help of martial artists from around the world and the eight major forces.

In the years since the Great Nirvana, humanity has continuously attempted to build new base cities, but only the existing 52 base cities have survived the beast tides and been successfully established; the rest have been destroyed by the beast tides.

Jiang Chen didn't make a decision immediately, but instead asked, "How's the stuff I asked you to prepare coming along?"

“It’s been tested and is ready for battle at any time.” Jarvis reminded, “Master, even the [Hurricane] rockets are not enough to cause serious damage to planetary targets. At planetary speeds, these rockets without precision guidance cannot hit them. If a planetary monster appears, it will be very troublesome.”

"Planetary level monsters also depend on their planetary rank. There are no royal-level monsters in South America, at most king-level, with a maximum of planetary rank 5. I can still handle them." Jiang Chen waved his hand.

Although Jiang Chen wasn't particularly skilled in combat, he had still gone to the wilderness area several times to hone his combat abilities after reaching the planetary level, so he wasn't completely unable to unleash his full combat potential.

With the added advantage of superior level, Jiang Chen was confident he could handle a King-level monster that was at most a fifth-tier planetary rank.

While he couldn't guarantee killing the opponent, Jiang Chen was confident he could at least drive them away.

After a pause, Jiang Chen continued, "Make adjustments as soon as possible. We can use a small amount of ammunition for testing. We brought enough ammunition this time, so we can fire freely. As long as we can withstand this beast tide, it will be worth it even if we run out of ammunition!"

Jiang Chen had made thorough preparations for building this base that belonged to him.

Not only materials, but also a lot of readily available weapons and ammunition were prepared.

Tens of thousands of rockets may not be ideal against powerful high-level monsters, but they are definitely a powerful weapon against a large horde of low-level monsters!