Translator: AnubisTL
At that moment, Li Hao stared in utter bewilderment at the awe-inspiring scene before him.
Ninety-six mechanical race slaves were screaming as they plummeted from a kilometer-high altitude, free-falling toward the ground.
Just before impact, they vanished instantly, reappearing at the same kilometer-high altitude to repeat the cycle.
The entire spectacle exuded an eerie, surreal quality.
Li Hao craned his neck, gazing upward at the spectacle. His neck began to ache slightly, but the scene defied all scientific logic.
"What do you think?" Scar Dog clapped his hands together with a satisfied grin. "Who says perpetual motion machines don't exist? If this isn't one, what is?"
"Too bad it's not on Blue Star. With a design like this, I'd at least get a Nobel Prize, right?"
Standing beside him, Li Hao instinctively countered, "This isn't a true perpetual motion machine, is it? Activating the phantom gate still requires a constant supply of energy blocks, doesn't it?"
"What do you know?" Scar Dog scoffed.
Scar Dog glanced sideways at Li Hao, sneering, "Do you even understand? The definition of a perpetual motion machine is that as long as the benefits outweigh the costs, the components can keep running indefinitely."
Li Hao paused, mentally reviewing his understanding of perpetual motion machines. He instinctively asked, "Who taught you to interpret it that way?"
"Brother Jiang did."
Scar Dog looked up at the perpetual motion machine he had built overhead, sighing, "Back on Blue Star, Brother Jiang said that perpetual motion machines had already been created, but people just hadn't realized it yet."
"Already been created?" Li Hao frowned slightly, then shook his head firmly. "There's no way a perpetual motion machine could exist on Blue Star. It violates the fundamental laws of physics!"
"Tsk."
Scar Dog lowered his gaze and turned to Li Hao with a grin. "Blue Star is overflowing with perpetual motion machines."
"They jack up housing prices, saddle you with a mortgage, and then keep your wages stagnant."
"If you can't repay the mortgage, you become a credit defaulter. To avoid that, you have to keep working to pay it off."
"And just like that, you've become a perpetual motion machine that never stops."
"Until you grow old and even pass it on to the next generation."
"It's like operating an excavator. You're constantly moving, aren't you? You're a perpetual motion machine yourself, yet you're still searching for one."
Li Hao paused, a flicker of confusion in his eyes. This was the first time he'd heard such an interpretation of perpetual motion.
After a long moment of bewilderment, he blurted out, "But the perpetual motion machines people imagine are meant to serve humanity."
"Exactly," Scar Dog nodded emphatically, pointing to the mechanical race slaves endlessly falling through the air. "What else do you think they're doing right now? Perpetual motion machines exist to serve humans, after all."
"That's perfectly natural."
"Alright," Scar Dog clapped Li Hao on the shoulder. "Stop thinking about all this. Get some rest. You must be exhausted after working so hard."
Scar Dog pulled three chairs from his coat and set them on the ground, taking the first seat himself.
Chen Jiang, also weary, rubbed his stiff neck and retrieved a captured recliner from his coat. He plopped down, tilted his head back, and gazed at the mechanical race slaves rising and falling endlessly, nodding in satisfaction.
"Hmm, this angle is much better."
"Mmm."
Scar Dog, standing nearby, gazed up at the mechanical race slaves rising and falling overhead, then suddenly fell into thought. "Brother Jiang, don't you feel like something's missing?"
"Missing?" Chen Jiang's eyes flickered with confusion.
"Lacking aesthetic appeal." Scar Dog shook his head, dissatisfied. "This scene looks too monotonous, completely devoid of beauty."
"We should tie long light strips to each of these slaves."
"That way, when the five groups descend from the sky, they'll resemble five pillars of light falling straight from the Milky Way."
"Especially at night, it would be even more spectacular."
"It seems we won't be short on energy blocks in the future, so theoretically, we could have these mechanical race slaves activate their light strips every evening and continuously rise and fall."
"This could become a landmark-level structure, right?"
"Like a three-dimensional, special-effects version of the Olympic rings—how magnificent would that be?"
"Mmm."
Chen Jiang rested his chin in one hand, pondering. "Not bad. This proposal has merit. The visual effect sounds quite impressive."
"Heh heh."
Encouraged by Brother Jiang's approval, Scar Dog grew even more animated. "Besides that, there are tons of other tricks we could try! Like dumping massive amounts of red-colored water into the phantom gate."
"That would create five crimson fountains raining down from the sky!"
"And, and..."
"..."
Watching Scar Dog ramble on endlessly, Li Hao sat helplessly in a nearby chair. He desperately wanted to join the conversation and fit in with this small group, but he couldn't keep up with Scar Dog's wild imagination. They were on completely different wavelengths.
For instance, Scar Dog was now suggesting chopping countless corpses into pieces, tossing them into the phantom gate, and creating five towering pillars of blood that would attract nearby mutated beasts.
Then they'd position turrets below to create an automated monster-farming machine that could grind XP even while they slept.
What could Li Hao even say to that?
He could only mutter, "Technology is the primary productive force," and silently give Scar Dog a thumbs-up.
Time flew by as Scar Dog continued his endless chatter.
At first, the mechanical race slaves had screamed incessantly in mid-air, some even vomiting. But now, they seemed to have mostly adjusted.
Though occasional screams still pierced the air, the improvement was undeniable.
Scar Dog glanced up at the slaves, checked the time, and nodded. "Time's about up. Thirty-four laps, a hundred thousand meters—they should be done."
He crushed a few more energy blocks, lowered the slaves to the ground, and then approached them like he was harvesting crops in QQ Farm.
Pressing his shotgun against each slave's forehead, he forced them to select energy blocks as their reward and claim all their daily earnings.
Soon, Scar Dog had collected all the day's rewards, his snow-white teeth gleaming with visible satisfaction as he grinned. "Brother Jiang, here it is!"
"Each slave earned us 181 energy blocks. With 96 slaves, that's a total of 17,376 energy blocks."
"We only spent 175 energy blocks today."
"That means we're making a net profit of 17,201 energy blocks every day!"
"Heh."
Scar Dog gazed at the mountain of energy blocks piled beside him, unable to contain his excitement. He grinned again. "This is no small sum. The Star Chain Project isn't just on the agenda anymore—it's practically within reach!"
(End of the Chapter)
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