Base 011.

Shen Yue and Lei Jie, who returned from Shen City, finally took off the Nezha exoskeleton they've been wearing for almost half a month, and felt significantly lighter.

Over the past half month, this thing felt like it was embedded in their bodies, leaving them no room to breathe.

Even when they finally took it off, some marks made by the pressure of close-fitting components had deeply imprinted into their skin and wouldn't fade quickly.

Shen Yue moved his somewhat stiff joints, exhaled deeply, and said:

"This thing is too heavy... Although it has assistive power, the mechanical feedback is still very different from normal muscle activity logic."

"By the way, could you improve this a bit, at least make it more comfortable to wear?"

After hearing Shen Yue's words, Lei Jie shook his head helplessly and replied:

"In theory, this set of exoskeleton isn't designed for everyday wear."

"Its role is to provide special forces with necessary firepower support in extreme battlefield environments."

"Once the battle is over, either retreat or the large force will arrive."

"Who would wear this thing if there's a guarantee of safety?"

"It's just that our situation is special... To be honest, this is actually your problem."

"The reason we can't take off the exoskeleton in a safe area is fundamentally because of insufficient trust among the grassroots personnel in the team."

"Like those Holy Blood, even though we are in a semi-subordinate alliance relationship now, can you say there's no defense against them?"

"So, you have to get the ideological construction up and running as soon as possible. Once we don't have to wear the exoskeleton all the time, your job is done."

"Come on."

Shen Yue rolled his eyes with disdain.

"I'm responsible for internal ideological construction, the Holy Blood's issues essentially belong to external problems."

"This matter should be He Shuo's responsibility----but he's busy managing Jinling now, and clearly can't take care of things here."

"Let's wait a bit longer, we're not in that much of a rush."

"We want him to tackle the most urgent problems first."

"Understood."

Lei Jie nodded.

"Just venting a bit, did you take it seriously?"

"Sigh....."

Shen Yue sighed.

"Back in the day, we at least had someone to vent to."

"Now... to be honest, it's only others complaining about us..."

"Indeed....."

Lei Jie nodded in agreement, and the two walked into the shower room, did a simple rinse, and changed into the already cleaned clothes.

This was a rare moment of relaxation and clarity.

The two poured a glass of freshly squeezed tomato juice made from recent harvest and sat down at a small pavilion on the plaza outside the main corridor of the base, simultaneously exhaling deeply.

"You're managing things well at home."

Lei Jie said:

"The leisure and living areas are well set up, and the outer residential district is slowly taking on the true appearance of a residential area."

"Exactly."

Shen Yue nodded proudly and then said:

"Actually, it wasn't just my contribution----I only planned it together with Fu Xi."

"You remember the female comrade named Huang Fei, right? She mainly manages the farmland area and later participated in some residential area modifications."

"Regarding water usage and diversion, she has substantial expertise."

"Additionally, Jin Zan is a talented individual, his organizational abilities are strong, and communication isn't a problem either."

"As long as they've joined Jinling New City, the proactive motivation isn't bad, and they haven't reached the stage of forming jealousy or a 'you have, I don't' gap."

"As long as communication is in place, mobilization is easy."

"Our main focus is on industrial development; what you see in these living areas and facilities is honestly just flavoring."

"The purpose is simple, to let them see tangible benefits and truly feel the improvement in living standards."

"Nicely done."

Lei Jie gave Shen Yue a thumbs up and then asked:

"What's the situation on the mine side?"

Shen Yue casually transferred a report to Lei Jie's PDA and then answered:

"The expeditionary force has just cleared the surrounding monsters, Blood Skull, and various chaotic bandits; the environment in Tongling City has just stabilized."

"It's estimated to take another week or two for us to build the first mine, after which there'll be steady iron ore supply."

"The equipment is also mostly in place; currently, we can basically say we've reached the fundamental industrialization level of the steam age."

"Continuing forward, we'll start climbing the technology tree of the internal combustion era."

"This should be expedited."

Lei Jie said seriously:

"I really need internal combustion engines because bombers need them."

Shen Yue looked at Lei Jie, somewhat surprised, and asked:

"You really want to make piston bombers? Wouldn't the airships tested a few days ago be more useful?"

"Not necessarily."

Lei Jie shook his head and said:

"Airships' rapid deployment ability is too weak; they can be used as deterrent weapons in policing but are too slow for ground support."

"Piston bombers are a... compromise."

"They are more stable than the purely electric bombers we use now, and their bomb load and range can slightly improve."

"Of course, most importantly, the resistance to strikes is much stronger, and survival capacity will increase."

"Understood."

Shen Yue nodded.

"Thousands of threads and needles----take it slow."

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