Big Data Cultivation

"A hundred million, is that for feeding cats?" Feng Jun sneered disdainfully, "If he... never mind, don’t mention such disappointing things."

"If what?" He Runxian seized the key point, "How much gold... what would you do to send people out?"

"I can’t be bothered to say, but you insist on asking," Feng Jun expressed helplessly, "I was thinking, if it were injured warriors, I’d consider it, but then I thought again, too many injured warriors, it’s not worth the trouble."

"Indeed, a man of character," He Runxian casually praised him. Presently, on Xingzheng Star, warriors could generally receive medical treatment; the trouble lay in the shortage of equipment and medicine. Nevertheless, he quickly asked again, "What about injured officers?"

"Officers are warriors too," Feng Jun answered mildly, not wanting to discuss the topic further, "Is there anything else?"

He Runxian wanted to confirm, "Would you also help transport Opening Bank’s goods?"

"Offering small assistance is no issue," Feng Jun sighed, "Given the rampant Insect Race, it’s best to give the Human Race some confidence."

Upon hearing the phrase "rampant Insect Race," He Runxian suddenly thought, "Can you guarantee the safety of transportation in this situation?"

"Just because others can’t doesn’t mean I can’t," Feng Jun replied proudly, "If I promise you, I can deliver."

"That’s excellent," He Runxian sighed in relief. In times of crisis, everyone hopes their partners are robust.

Then he hesitantly expressed, "Could we pay a deposit? It’s not about trust, mainly because the war has rekindled."

"No issue," Feng Jun responded crisply, "You can pay in full."

"Then full payment," He Runxian said without hesitation, "While the insects aren’t attacking."

That evening, it rained again at the production base, and Feng Jun placed down 2.4 million tons of energy stones.

Luckily, he had covered them with a shielding tarp beforehand; otherwise, it would have been impossible to hide from the nearby Insect Race’s senses.

Yet even so, when He Runxian arranged for people to transport them, the energy stone’s aura inevitably leaked a bit, still alerting the Insect Race.

Fortunately, the insects knew it was a Human Race planet; on a barren planet, they would have swarmed over, but now they’d only dispatch scout teams to investigate—after all, many Human Race weapons rely on energy stones for power.

The defense firepower of the base was activated again, with bright and sharp trajectories cutting through the heavy rain curtain.

Zuo Jing City’s army was alarmed; the City Defense Army even called specifically to ask if assistance was needed.

He Runxian casually said, "No problem, we can handle small probing attempts by the Insect Race for now; Zuo Jing City’s defense is more important... anyway, we don’t have military production tasks."

Even in such times, he couldn’t help but complain, showing deep resentment.

The City Defense Army certainly didn’t mind this remark—they were fighting a war and wouldn’t be bothered by such sarcasm.

However, this information reached the ears of a certain major in the intelligence department, who considered briefly and said, "Request focused satellite surveillance of Hesheng’s production base."

Shortly thereafter, someone below reported, "It’s raining at the production base, with no sign of stopping shortly."

"Raining again?" The major’s brows furrowed involuntarily, and he couldn’t help but mutter softly, "Is it a meteorological weapon?"

In the next moment, he spoke solemnly, "Send drones over to see what’s going on there."

During wartime, military drones flying anywhere is normal, and privacy concerns don’t apply.

However, Hesheng’s attitude wasn’t great; their high-powered searchlights, originally used to guard against the Insect Race at night, directly swept onto the drone, "Everything’s fine here; the Insect Race’s probing has been repelled."

The drone operator was a bit exasperated, shouting in the control room, "We’re gathering enemy intel, don’t shine the spotlight on us."

With technological advancement at this level, there are many ways to get images at night, but without a doubt, visibility remains crucial. No matter how many years pass, it remains so.

But the base personnel responded earnestly, "We aren’t targeting the drone, but preventing the Insect Race’s nighttime air raids."

This reason... actually doesn’t hold well. Although many Insect Races have night combat capabilities, Human Race’s night combat capabilities are also strong, arguably even superior to the Insect Race.

For example, some insects have dim-light night vision, some have infrared sensing, some have olfactory sensing, and even ultrasonic sensing, among other abilities.

But the Human Race... lacks none of such equipment; insects may possess one or two abilities, but humans can aggregate them all.

When it comes to night-time attacks, the Human Race might not have a great advantage, but in terms of defense, the Insect Race is somewhat lacking.

The controller couldn’t help but get angry, "If you’re defending, that’s one thing, but why are you interfering with our signals?"

The people at the base were still dutifully fulfilling their roles, "The Insect Race has the power of deception and confusion, so of course, we have to guard against impersonations."

The controller was so furious he nearly spat blood, "I order you to temporarily shut it off to facilitate our inspection of the area!"

"Sorry, that’s impossible!" The staff at the base flatly refused, "A drone, with no orders from the military and not even a proper ID, how can it just issue orders to us?"

The controller was so frustrated his liver almost exploded. Even though what they said made sense, the situation in Zuo Jing is not that complex right now.

He was about to say more when a burst of half-foot-long black needles flew from afar, directly shooting down the drone.

"Be careful, there’s a Hard Hair Worm!" The staff at the base immediately called out, "All units, attention, all units, attention, another Hard Hair Worm has appeared, search and destroy with full force!"

The Hard Hair Worm is from the Qi-Refining Period Insect Race. A few can advance to the Transcendence Phase in a worm state, but most will transform into Grey Scale Moths during their advancement. The stingers shot by these insects are poisonous. Though their combat strength is not strong against Human Warriors, the threat to civilians is horrendous.

The controller, seeing the other party had entered combat mode, had nothing to say. We might not usually see eye to eye, but interfering with someone else’s battle is just too unscrupulous.

Fortunately, the drone heading to the production base was not the only one. Despite being disrupted, it still managed to find anomalies in the stockpile—after all, Hesheng couldn’t possibly shoot down military drones, could they?

It was raining from the sky, making visibility poor, but the drone still noticed many vague shadows of goods in the stockpile. Hesheng had set up temporary tracks, and hundreds of forklifts were busily moving something.

Based on spectral analysis—though in such weather, getting reliable spectrum data is nearly impossible—even with guessing, it was estimated what was in the stockpile, "No way, if those are all energy stones, there must be a million tons!"

Strictly speaking, it was 2.4 million tons. No matter how He Runxian arranged to speed up the transport, by the time they were discovered, only half had been moved—this shipment was indeed too large.

After the colonel learned of the situation, he really wanted to send people to requisition this batch of energy stones, but sending troops from elsewhere was really dangerous.

He could also send some low-altitude mecha on the site to show the requisition documents, but... the consequences are unpredictable. At this critical juncture, there might be ambushes on the way for these mechas.

A million tons of energy stones are enough to drive anyone mad, and the possibility of Hesheng resisting desperately is not small—after all, during a chaotic battle, there are definitely many warriors who die from stray bullets or other accidents.

Does Hesheng have this strength? Maybe not before, but if broker organizations take action, any accident is normal.

Moreover, with the current fierce Insect Race attacks, if the military acts too recklessly, it may also affect the overall picture.

So in the end, the military didn’t issue a requisition order, but by the next morning, someone from the military contacted Hesheng to see if they could fulfill some military supply orders.

Of course, completing the order not only involves raw materials and production techniques, but the military also stated that while we’re purchasing, we also need to acquire an equivalent amount of energy stones—I don’t care where you get the energy stones, you just must have them ready.

The number of energy stones you have is the number of orders you can receive, it’s that simple.

This mode of operation feels much more comfortable than requisitioning. Tie-in sales, though not very common in highly civilized societies, is still totally acceptable when occasionally used during wartime.

The difference is usually in tie-in sales, the seller does the bundling, but this time it’s the buyer.

The military began to permit Hesheng to take orders, but He Runxian started hesitating, and discussed it with He Huiqing—earlier the war situation eased a bit, everyone had one mentality, but when the Insect Race attacks were desperate, he had another mentality.

Anyway, the "Insect Race’s final offensive" officially claimed, he didn’t believe it—it’s not that he lacks confidence in the Federation, but if he was wrong, the consequences are simply too grave, and he couldn’t take that risk.

He Runhua believed that handing over some energy stone mines was unavoidable, but they mustn’t hand over too much because defending the production base in the future will still depend on these energy stones, so... fifty thousand tons is a good figure.

However, He Huiqing firmly opposed it, believing this rare chance to enter the military supply field holds special significance for the entire He family and Hesheng; even if the entire production base is destroyed in this battle, it’s worth it.

Didn’t they just collect 2.4 million tons yesterday? Take an order worth two million tons, then.

Two million tons of energy stones, speaking of which is not much nor little, "One shot of the cannon costs thousands of gold," the consumption of materials in war is extremely terrifying.

But He Runxian argued back, "Uncle, you’ve lived fifty more years than me, don’t you know how important war reserves are? It’s a pity the He family can’t take the military supply order, but if the production base can be preserved, whether to take the order or not...

Didn’t Hesheng develop without military supply orders before?

(Updated, summon monthly tickets.)