Chen Mang took a deep breath, sitting at the control panel, gently massaging his temples without saying much, just feeling a bit tired. He had mentioned a few days ago how much iron ore could be consumed just by the slaves eating.
As a result, there were 800 more slaves.
And they all only enjoyed the lowest Level 3 slave treatment.
The daily food expenses had suddenly increased to 1460 units of iron ore. This pressure was not ordinary, and he understood why he had never seen a train with over a thousand slaves before.
Who the hell can afford this?
Every day they woke up and faced the consumption of nearly 2000 units of iron ore, just thinking about it gave him a headache.
This is not like crafting a component where the consumption is one-time; it’s a daily expense. If there’s no mining for a day, it’s a sheer loss. Without enough iron ore reserves, unable to find mines, these slaves would starve to death.
"Master Mang, should we lower the slaves’ treatment?"
"When there’s no ore to mine, give each person two pieces of bread a day? Like Master Kun used to?"
Chen Mang almost instantly shook his head to deny the proposal: "The reason our slaves on the Constant Star Train are far more efficient at mining compared to other trains is largely because we not only have good incentive measures but also keep them fed."
"If slaves aren’t full, how can they work?"
"Moreover, the first, second, third slave treatment has always been settled; changing it recklessly would be inappropriate."
"We’ll stick to this for now."
"Let’s see if we can find a Level 1 iron ore mine. As long as we find Pangolin at Kunlun Mountain and obtain the ’Drill’ blueprint, once we return to Tieling Wasteland, the underground iron ore will all be ours, and we won’t worry about running out of iron ore."
Old Pig slowly exited the train control room, carefully closing the door behind him with a barely noticeable sigh; being a Train Captain wasn’t easy, having to manage so many mouths upon waking every day.
Back in the pre-Doomsday times.
A company with a thousand employees would be a major local tax contributor and employment provider.
The Deputy Train Captain’s job is better.
Losing someone’s meal wouldn’t cost him his; he just needed to manage the people below him.
After three hours, Chen Mang finally found another Level 1 iron ore mine on the wasteland, but this time the Level 1 iron ore mine had an owner, with a train parked nearby.
The quick discovery of the iron ore was thanks to the "Resource Detection Radar" with a scope of ten thousand meters. Back when the range was only a thousand meters, finding iron ore was far more difficult.
As the Constant Star Train slowly parked next to the train.
In comparison, it looked like an adult bullying a child.
"Don’t be in a hurry to run, wait until your slaves come back from the mine before you leave."
As the Level 1 train began to accelerate to leave quickly, Chen Mang’s voice echoed from the train’s external sound system.
A bald middle-aged man stuck his head out from the sunroof of the train head, continuously clasping his hands together in gratitude, and surprisingly, the train stopped. After ten minutes, roughly sixty to seventy slaves ran out from the tunnel, swiftly boarding the train, which then whistled away quickly.
After that train left.
Over a thousand slaves holding pickaxes emerged from the train, lining up to enter the mine, while Biaozi and others maintained order holding Soaring Dragon Assault Rifles, with all the firepower accessories on the train aiming at the slaves, subtly threatening.
Perhaps they were indeed intimidated.
The new batch of slaves had been on the train for several days, with only a few troublemakers executed on the first day, no more had emerged afterwards, although their work efficiency was somewhat lacking.
This was a Level 1 iron ore mine halfway exploited.
By the time night fell, the iron ore had been completely extracted.
Revenues amounted to over 8000 units of iron ore, accounting for the day’s food consumption, resulted in a net income of 6500 units of iron ore.
Currently, the train now has 15,500 units of iron ore; manufacturing four Level 10 refrigerators demands 18,000 units of iron ore, still insufficient, continuing the search for ore is necessary.
In the still of the night.
All slaves had fallen asleep, yet Chen Mang still sat at the control panel, piloting the train constantly across the wasteland, in search of new iron ore mines.
"I really miss Doomsday Abyss..."
He gazed in a daze toward the stars on the horizon. In the days of Doomsday Abyss, he never worried about not having mines to excavate, only thought he had too few slaves to fully utilize, whereas now the problem was having enough slaves but insufficient mines to excavate, the daily cost of slave upkeep was substantial.
By the time Chen Mang, worn with dark circles under his eyes, endured until four in the morning, ultimately finding another unclaimed Level 1 iron ore mine, he couldn’t afford delaying the slaves’ rest and ordered everyone to rise immediately for mining overnight.
Chen Mang glanced at the bustling scene outside and tiredly climbed into bed; it was his turn to sleep.
Overtime with extra effort, the Level 1 unclaimed iron ore mine was finally completely mined, totaling 30,000 units of iron ore.
This ore was relatively abundant.
Adding to his existing iron ore, the train now contained 40,000 units of iron ore, without hesitation, four Level 10 refrigerators were crafted and placed in the goblin slave carriage 10.
Goblin slaves are small in stature, occupying less space, making placing four refrigerators more than adequate.
The oxygen might be slightly insufficient.
Open the refrigerator doors, breathe in as much as possible, just as long as they survive temporarily.
Meanwhile, the eight temporarily constructed carriages were entirely consumed by the "Earth Core Melting Furnace," recovering 400 units of iron ore.