79: Chapter 79 Strange Movements in the Fragmented World

Once the naming was complete, he began to work on collecting the energy crystals.

Mo Yufei first had Arou and the others disperse around the stone wall to keep watch, guarding against any remnants of the Blood Killing Hall or unknown exotic beasts.

Then, he looked at Walle and Eve and gave instructions in a deep voice: "Walle, stand by and wait to assist Da Pao and the others in opening up a tunnel. Eve, stay at the cave entrance, monitor the surrounding ecology and environmental changes, and issue warnings at any time."

After the instructions were issued, Da Pao and Er Pao immediately took their positions. Walle and Dali also turned their tracks and moved to the bottom of the stone wall to prepare for work. An excavation operation against the stone wall officially began.

The commander and staff immediately began to direct the operations in an orderly manner, and the orders were precisely transmitted through the robots' communication links.

Mo Yufei stood to the side, checking their plan via his wristband.

"Da Pao, take your position. Use low-power laser cutting mode to cut a working passage two meters wide and three meters high in the center of the stone wall. Do not use heavy artillery to avoid triggering a mountain collapse."

"Engineering robots Walle and Dali, stand by. Once the laser cutting is complete, immediately clear and transport all the rubble to open up a passage."

After receiving the instructions, Da Pao immediately moved to the designated position. The laser emitter on his shoulder slowly aimed at the center of the stone wall, and a pale blue high-energy laser shot out instantly.

There was no violent explosion, only a faint sizzling sound. The hard, blue-gray rock quickly melted and flaked off under the high-temperature laser, precisely cutting along the designated area.

Rock debris and melted stone slurry kept falling. In just a few minutes, a regular tunnel outline was cut into the stone wall. The edges of the cut rock blocks were smooth, forming a sharp contrast with the rough rock walls around them.

As soon as the laser stopped, the engineering robot Walle immediately went into action. Its heavy tracks rolled over the ground, driving steadily to the front of the stone wall, and its flexible mechanical arm quickly extended.

The thick gripping arm steadily clamped onto large pieces of rubble, moving them to an empty space to the side with ease. The bucket followed in sync, shoveling up all the fine stone debris, with an astonishingly high transport efficiency.

There was no hesitation at all; the robots worked in perfect coordination. The heavy artillery robot cut, the engineering robot cleared, and the cycle repeated, with a tunnel leading into the interior of the mountain extending forward at an extremely fast speed.

Not long after, the rock wall in front suddenly became thin. After the engineering robot moved the last piece of rubble, the view suddenly opened up. The end of the tunnel was actually an incredibly spacious hollow inside the mountain!

Mo Yufei, taking Xiao Hei with him, walked quickly into the tunnel. Passing through the newly opened passage and stepping into the mountain hollow, he was immediately stunned by the scene before him.

The interior of the hollow was vast, with strange-looking stalactites hanging upside down from the ceiling. The ground was flat, and most strikingly, countless energy crystals were embedded in the rock walls and the ground.

Crystals of all sizes were densely packed, and a pure, rich energy aura rushed toward him, dozens of times more intense than the raw crystal stones he had obtained before. The entire hollow was shrouded in the faint light of the crystals.

A spatial halo appeared around Mo Yufei, carrying a massive amount of energy crystals as they continuously poured into his space and the secret realm.

Mo Yufei completely ignored the darkness and loneliness inside the mountain hollow, only focusing on moving forward along the winding vein. Wherever his eyes reached, as long as there was the slightest flicker of energy, he would immediately activate his space.

"Move, move, move! Ownerless things belong to whoever gets them first! This is different from the things in the supermarket in the original world; those belonged to the Mall, but this is a gift from nature!"

Mo Yufei went all the way, whether they were embedded in the rock walls or buried deep in the crevices, along with the attached waste rock, all of it was collected into his space and transferred to the secret realm.

The system panel in his mind suddenly popped up a prompt: [Secret realm energy reserves are sufficient; the secret realm can be directly upgraded to Level 3.]

If it were someone else, they probably would have been impatient to start the upgrade and unlock the new features of the secret realm, but Mo Yufei suppressed this thought.

He knew clearly that this natural crystal vein was a rare opportunity, and upgrading the secret realm would require returning to it, so it was better to collect all the crystal ore in front of him first.

By saving up the secret realm's energy reserves to the extreme, the subsequent upgrades could be done in one go, saving the trouble of repeatedly collecting resources.

Holding onto this thought, Mo Yufei did not stop for a moment throughout the process. His space continued to operate, and even though his legs were slightly sore, he still did not stop the action of transferring the crystals.

Xiao Hei followed obediently by his side, occasionally helping to sniff out crystal ore hidden deep in the rock walls, while Da Bai guarded behind him, its sturdy body blocking any potentially falling rubble.

The androids and robots were deployed throughout the tunnel and the hollow, maintaining full vigilance and preventing any outside interference.

Time passed second by second, with a full hour of crazy mining.

The pale golden system prompt sounded urgently in his mind again: [System prompt: Secret realm energy reserves are excessively saturated; current energy can support the secret realm to be directly upgraded to Level 4!]

Hearing this prompt, a strong look of joy instantly erupted in Mo Yufei's eyes, and his movements paused as he quickly calculated in his heart.

He clearly remembered that back at the Federal base, he had spent 100 million credit coins to exchange for 16 tons of energy crystals, which was his entire initial fortune.

And just now, upon entering the mountain hollow, because the vein was densely distributed, he had collected 34 tons of crystals in a short time. Adding the original 16 tons, a total of 50 tons of crystals had triggered the prompt for the secret realm to upgrade to Level 3.

But in this short hour of continuous collection, the crystal reserves had skyrocketed, actually reaching the 5,000 tons needed for a Level 4 upgrade!

Such a huge difference in quantity made Mo Yufei's heart sink suddenly, and he secretly deduced: Level 3 requires 50 tons, Level 4 soars directly to 5,000 tons. Following this geometric progression, wouldn't it require a full 500,000 tons of energy crystals to upgrade the secret realm to Level 5?

This number seemed terrifying, but looking at the endless vein of ore before him, with its energy fluctuations undiminished, hope ignited in his heart again. As long as he kept collecting along this vein, it was not impossible to gather this amount.

He looked up towards the dark depths where the vein extended. He had already walked a very long distance along the vein and had long since deviated from the tunnel he had originally excavated. The surrounding rock walls were becoming increasingly hard, and the energy fluctuations of the crystals were becoming more and more intense; clearly, this was the core area of the vein.

Mo Yufei suppressed his calculations and was just about to activate his space again to continue frantically collecting ore, when the ground beneath his feet suddenly shook violently without warning!

"Boom—"

A muffled rumbling sound came from deep within the mountain. Rubble on the rock walls fell with a rustling sound, the stalactites overhead were swaying, the entire mountain hollow began to shake slightly, and the originally flat ground cracked with fine fissures.

The sudden vibration caused Mo Yufei's face to change drastically, and his first reaction was that the mine cave was going to collapse!

"Damn it! What's going on? Wasn't it just fine a moment ago?"

At this moment, Xiao Hei transmitted through its soul connection with Mo Yufei: "It's not just here, there are other places; the entire Fragment World is shaking!"