187: Chapter 187 The Low-Entropy Workshop's First Breach of Contract

Low Entropy Workshop, Jiangcheng Manufacturing Node, five hexapod robots stood side by side in the center of the assembly area.

Those were five dark gray bodies gleaming with a metallic cold light, their centers of gravity pressed very low, and their six mechanical legs stretching out to the sides were filled with a compact sense of power.

All exposed physical interfaces had been sealed, and the wire harnesses were neatly tucked into engineering plastic protective slots.

Between the metal anti-slip textures at the ends of the feet, there were still light gray mud stains left by the reliability test field.

On the sides of the bodies, several temporary identification labels with barcodes had not yet been torn off.

[PG-P01]

[PG-P02]

[PG-P03]

[PG-P04]

[PG-P05]

Over the past half month and more, these five workstations grew little by little from the empty epoxy resin ground into these five complete machines.

Now, the yellow warning boundary line on the ground remained clear, but the machines had already neatly stood outside the line.

On the large delivery progress display screen on the wall, all the green indicator lights lit up.

[Structural Assembly: Pass]

[Electrical Safety: Pass]

[Sealing Inspection: Pass]

[Continuous Load: Pass]

[Withdrawal State Machine: Pass]

[Mission Cabin Interface: Pass]

[Whole Machine Consistency: Pass]

The last item, whole machine consistency, was a threshold that Low Entropy Workshop had never truly crossed in the physical world previously when moving from a single prototype to multi-unit mass production.

Because there was only one G-01C in the past, all tolerances and minute jitters could be personally disassembled by Jiang Lin, adjusted with a wrench and an oscilloscope with his own hands, and then those tiny differences could be hidden into the underlying code of the next revision.

But now there were five.

They came from joint components rolling off the line in different batches, loaded with battery packs of different serial numbers, and personally assembled by assembly personnel at different workstations, yet in the end they had to complete nearly identical actions under the same harsh working conditions.

Accompanied by the low-pitched driving sound of the servo motor, unit 1 raised its front foot and steadily crossed a 20-centimeter-high concrete obstacle.

Unit 2 lowered its center of gravity at the exact same millimeter-level coordinate position.

unit 3 followed closely behind.

unit 4 and unit 5 passed through in turn.

Not a single one needed to trigger temporary correction compensation.

Not a single one paused for even half a second longer in front of the obstacle.

The five machines walked to the turnaround end of the testing area, simultaneously turned their chassis, and returned along the original path.

Their gaits were not fast, and their metal foot ends landed on the slightly scratched ground with a low and regular sound.

"Clack—Clack—Clack—"

These mechanical footsteps passed through the quiet assembly area one by one.

Xu Man stood outside the yellow boundary line with her arms crossed over her chest.

She had already watched the same operational test seventeen times.

This time, her gaze no longer fixed on any specific machine, but leveled at the relative spacing between the formations as the five machines moved.

unit 1 stopped, and the servos locked.

unit 2 stopped.

Then came unit 3, unit 4, and unit 5.

The five machines rearranged into a straight line without any deviation.

The dynamic error was far below the upper limit of the delivery standard.

Xu Man lowered her head, swiped the screen on the tablet, and completed the final quality sign-off.

[First Batch of Five Complete Machines Quality Clearance]

Confirmed.

Several engineering personnel who had stayed up for more than ten days in a row with bloodshot eyes just looked at each other across the workstations, and their tense shoulders visibly relaxed.

Chen Yan sat in front of the control terminal, his fingers tapping rapidly on the keyboard to package and archive the last set of operating data for the five machines.

"The last fifty-kilometer endurance records, all passed."

Xu Man looked at the screen and asked, "Was there any manual takeover or intervention midway?"

"Not even once."

"What about abnormal withdrawals?"

"It happened twice, both of which were underlying communication interruptions actively created by the test team for limit pressure testing. After losing signal, P02 and P05 completely withdrew to the last stable relay point according to preset logic, with extremely high path consistency."

Xu Man nodded slightly.

"Archive them."

Chen Yan pressed the Enter key.

Five huge data files were timestamped simultaneously and entered a read-only state.

The wide-angle camera above the assembly area was flashing a red light, pushing the footage in real time to Beijing R&D Center and Tsinghua University Building 17, Zijing.

On the other end of the screen, Jiang Lin sat at the desk in Room 402.

The five machines in the footage had stopped all movements and lay dormant quietly under the lights.

He opened the final deviation summary.

The assembly differences of these five machines were all concentrated within the normal manufacturing tolerance range, without any platform-layer defects that required him to re-intervene and modify.

In the past, lengthy tables like this had to be flipped page by page to the bottom by his own hands.

But now, he only needed to confirm whether those technical boundaries that must never be yielded were still firmly guarded.

He dragged the page directly to the last line.

[Platform Base Version: G01C _ PG _ BatchBaseline _ v1.0]

[Status: Delivery Permitted]

Jiang Lin moved the mouse and completed the electronic signature.

In the Jiangcheng control room, the delivery status indicator light subsequently turned green, symbolizing passage.

[PG-P01 to PG-P05: READY_FOR_DELIVERY]

Seven fifty-six in the morning.

There were less than three hours left before the transport vehicle arranged by the customer arrived at the manufacturing node.

According to plan, these five machines would be loaded into the truck compartment and head all the way north along the highway.

Two days later, the first round of customer acceptance would officially begin.

The remaining contract balance of 5.04 million yuan would be wired into the account of Low Entropy Workshop within three working days after the acceptance was completed, according to the agreed node.

For a hardware startup, this was very important.

Chen Zhi had prepared all the accompanying documents one night in advance.

Equipment hardware manifest.

Factory transfer serial number.

Factory software version.

Operator permission key.

Basic spare parts kit.

The delivery archives corresponding to each of the five machines were solemnly packed into five dark blue thickened file bags and neatly placed on the long table in the conference room.

She reached out and checked the anti-tampering seals at the openings of the file bags one by one.

Number one.

Number two.

Number three.

Number four.

Just as her hand landed on the frosted surface of the fifth file bag, the mobile phone on the table suddenly vibrated.

The harsh ringtone broke the brief silence of the conference room.

The incoming call screen did not display a name, only a string of official unit numbers automatically matched and tagged by the contact system.

[Provincial Emergency Equipment Coordination Contact]

Chen Zhi's fingers stiffened for a moment, and she looked up at Liang Zhixia not far away.

Liang Zhixia had already picked up her own phone.

The same number was calling both of them at the same time.

The relaxed air in the assembly area instantly tightened up again.

Liang Zhixia swiped to answer.

"Hello, this is Low Entropy Workshop."

The voice on the other end of the phone spoke at an extremely fast pace, mixed with some noisy current sounds in the background.

Liang Zhixia did not interrupt. Her expression turned solemn within a few seconds, only confirming two core issues during the other party's pause for breath.

"Specific location?"

"What capability is most urgently needed at the scene?"

A few seconds later, she hung up the phone and walked quickly toward the conference room console.

"Chen Yan, cut the disaster data sent by the provincial bureau directly into the main screen."

Chen Yan did not ask an extra question, immediately unplugged the external interface of the delivery data terminal, turned around, and switched to another physically isolated computer.

One minute later, an unedited live video appeared on the huge main screen of the conference room.

The footage obviously came from a reconnaissance drone hovering at low altitude.

The sky was so gloomy that it felt as if it were about to collapse.

The originally verdant mountain body had been soaked by days of heavy rain into a suffocating dark brown.

A large landslide body mixed with soil, rocks, and broken trees paved and crushed all the way from the mid-level of the mountain to the valley floor.

A cross-mountain highway was abruptly cut off by a mudslide.

At the foot of the mountain, only the horrifying upper half of the east entrance of Qingya Tunnel remained.

The originally intact and sturdy arched entrance was now mostly crushed by thousands of tons of landslide body, and exposed twisted steel bars and shattered concrete blocks protruded menacingly from the yellow mud.

The heavy rain was still falling, and rainwater continuously washed down along the unstable slope, kicking up small-scale mudslides.

Several heavy excavators parked outside the warning line in the distance were unable to push forward even half a meter because the geology was extremely unstable.

The video lens then turned to the other side.

A row of emergency rescue vehicles flashing red and blue warning lights parked at the relatively intact west entrance of the tunnel.

Fire, medical, traffic, and geological survey personnel wearing raincoats of various colors were urgently erecting temporary command tents in the mud.

On the right side of the screen, Chen Yan simultaneously accessed a brief disaster briefing.

[October 17, 04:26]

[Continuous heavy rain in Qingling County triggered a landslide]

[The east entrance of Qingya Tunnel was buried, and secondary structural damage is suspected in the middle section of the tunnel]

[Power supply, ventilation, and fixed communication facilities were all interrupted]

[Nineteen people have been confirmed to evacuate safely from the west side]

[The locations of seven people remain unconfirmed]

[Accumulated water, fallen components, and local lining misalignment appeared ahead of the west main tunnel]

[Geological radar monitoring shows that the mountain still has slow displacement]

Liang Zhixia called back and turned on the speakerphone.

The other party did not have a single extra pleasantry and went straight to the point.

"At 1,100 meters inward from the west side of the tunnel, trapped vehicles and some leftover items were detected, but due to internal cave-ins and accumulated water, coupled with the mountain still micro-moving, the heavy search and rescue team cannot continue to penetrate deeper."

The image on the main screen flickered and switched to a complex engineering structural diagram.

Qingya Tunnel had a total length of 3.8 kilometers.

On one side of the main tunnel, there was a narrow maintenance passage mainly used for inspection and drainage. The support structure of this passage was different, and it did not seem to have completely collapsed at present.

At least extending inward from the west entrance to the 900-meter position, the probe showed that intermittent living spaces were still retained.

"We need a set of equipment capable of autonomously passing through a large amount of rubble, accumulated water of unknown depth, and broken concrete steps to enter that maintenance passage."

"It would be best to simultaneously carry a thermal imager, a hazardous gas detection module, a high-sensitivity sound collector, and most importantly—communication relay equipment."

"If anyone is confirmed to be alive, drinking water, lighting equipment, and communication terminals must be sent in immediately."

The voice on the phone paused, revealing fatigue and hope.

"The Provincial Emergency Management Department kept your information at a previous robot exhibition. You have watched the test footage of the G-01 platform climbing rubble slopes and operating in underground enclosed environments. Do you have any machines right now that can set off immediately to launch a rescue?"

The conference room was pin-drop silent.

Through the transparent glass partition, the five dark gray machines still stood neatly in the center of the assembly area.

The status lights on the bodies maintained a steady green breathing frequency.

They had passed all harsh delivery tests.

Beside Chen Zhi, those five sets of accompanying documents had been sealed and bagged.

In less than three hours, the transport vehicle dispatched by the customer would park outside the factory door.

Liang Zhixia did not answer, but instead turned her head to look at the camera on the wall.

On the other end of the video conference, Jiang Lin quietly watched the footage of the disaster scene without immediately making a promise.

He was mobilizing the parameter boundaries of the platform in his mind.

"What are the dimensions of the narrowest part of the maintenance passage?"

The emergency contact quickly flipped through the drawings and replied, "The designed width is 1.4 meters and the height is 1.8 meters. But this is raw data, and the effective space caused by compression after the cave-in is currently uncertain."

"What about accumulated water on the ground?"

The emergency contact replied, "The deepest explored area is currently 45 centimeters. Due to the failure of the drainage system, continuing deeper eastward may result in higher water levels."

"What about hazardous gas monitoring?"

The emergency contact replied, "The fixed monitoring network inside the tunnel has completely failed. The portable equipment on-site has not found any abnormal concentrations at the west entrance for the time being, but the deep environment is in an unknown state."

Jiang Lin continued to ask, "How far do the machines need to travel inward?"

"The first search target is 1,400 meters, which is closest to the area of the last vehicle GPS positioning before the disaster. If road conditions and equipment conditions permit, the search needs to continue eastward."

"Last point, transportation time?"

"From your Jiangcheng Manufacturing Node to the disaster site, taking the emergency dedicated channel coordinated by the provincial department is expected to take five and a half hours. The transport vehicle and traffic police escort formation are already in place and can be dispatched to you at any time."

Jiang Lin's gaze fell on the five machines in the factory that had just completed sign-off.

The gloomy and damp-cold environment in the main tunnel was not completely the same as the Wasteland he deduced on the drawings.

The disaster scene in reality was full of randomness and would not leave them decades to slowly adapt.

There was no pre-loaded complete environmental map, and no high-bandwidth fixed communication relay station provided there.

Accumulated water, corrosive mud, broken and misaligned linings, and even secondary cave-ins that could happen at any time might change everything in an instant after the machines entered the passage.

However, these harsh hell-level working conditions were not things they had never faced before.

Starting from the very first line on the design drawings, the G-01C was not originally manufactured to walk with elegant gaits on flat, glamorous commercial exhibition stands.

In those wilderness tests unknown to the outside world, Jiang Lin had seen with his own eyes how they sank deep into soft red sand, how precision servo joints were jammed and overheated by sharp gravel, and how weak communication chains extinguished piece by piece deep underground like a candle in the wind.

He had also seen these gray lumps of iron dragging a dead mechanical leg and stubbornly walking back to the Outpost from a testing field dozens of kilometers away, relying on the very last bit of backup power.

These five mass-produced machines in reality had not experienced those cruel years.

But that didn't matter.

The struggles, lessons, and resistance in those cruel years had long been written line by line by Jiang Lin into their chassis structures, core state machines, and withdrawal judgment algorithms every time they encountered a dead end.

Jiang Lin raised his head and asked, "Who does the on-site command belong to?"

"It is subject to the unified dispatch of the Provincial Emergency Forward Joint Command."

"Alright, Low Entropy Workshop will provide special equipment and technical support, and all actions will be decided by the Joint Headquarters."

After saying this, Jiang Lin turned his head and said to Liang Zhixia, "The five units are ready to set off."

Chen Zhi stood beside the conference table, her gaze involuntarily falling upon the five file bags symbolizing the five million yuan in final payments.

Looking at Jiang Lin on the screen, Liang Zhixia hesitated for a moment before offering a reminder: "President Jiang, they are scheduled for official delivery at eleven o'clock."

"I know."

"The client has already arranged the shutdown window for the on-site utility tunnel, and the acceptance personnel are on their way right now."

"Then contact the client."

Liang Zhixia stared into his eyes on the screen: "Do you mean we should ask the client for the situation clearly first before making a decision?"

"No." Jiang Lin shook his head, his tone entirely unwavering, "Tell them that we are unilaterally applying to postpone the delivery. All contract breach liabilities and on-site shutdown costs resulting from the postponement will be fully borne by Low Entropy Workshop."

The conference room instantly fell silent.

Everyone knew clearly that this was by no means something that could be casually glossed over with a casual delay of a few days.

Once these five machines entered that level of disaster site, even if they miraculously returned completely intact in the end, they could not simply be washed of mud with a high-pressure water gun and shoved to the client according to the original plan as if nothing had happened.

They might suffer severe physical impacts in the landslide.

They might soak in muddy water up to half a meter deep for a long time.

Their core load-bearing structures might have endured extreme impact loads and metal fatigue in extreme terrain that exceeded the sensor sampling range or could not be fully evaluated afterward.

All waterproof seals, high-voltage battery packs, precision joint components, and fragile communication wiring harnesses would have to be sent back for a thorough disassembly, flaw detection, and overhaul.

What the client paid a huge price for was a brand-new, off-the-line official commercial product, not a few second-hand disaster relief devices that had just crawled back from a high-risk ghost gate.

In Chen Zhi's mind, like a supercomputer, the first tragic price behind Jiang Lin's words had already been calculated.

"If all five machines withdraw from the original delivery batch," Chen Zhi spoke, her voice somewhat dry, "the production plan for the second batch will need to be rescheduled, occupying new tooling resources and procurement quotas."

"With our current book cash flow, it's not impossible to forcibly maintain operations, but the pre-research funding originally reserved for the next-generation iterative version must be suspended immediately."

"Then suspend it." Jiang Lin did not hesitate.

Xu Man directly cut into the communication channel from the assembly area, with the low-frequency humming of machines on standby in the background. "When they return after the disaster area mission concludes, are all five machines to be processed directly according to the highest-risk-level factory return disassembly procedure?"

"Correct."

"Even if there are no abnormal alarms on the operation records read afterwards, they still need to be disassembled?"

"Yes, and they will not enter the original delivery batch either."

"Understood." Xu Man did not ask another half sentence.

Liang Zhixia lowered her head, took a deep breath, pulled out her address book, and dialed the dedicated line of the underground utility tunnel client's person in charge.

When the call connected, the howling wind noise and the sound of tires rolling over the high-speed road surface came through in the background.

The other party was evidently on the expressway rushing to Jiangcheng.

Liang Zhixia did not beat around the bush.

Using the most concise language, she gave a complete explanation to the other party regarding the disaster situation at Qingya Tunnel, the provincial department's emergency request, and the decision just made by Low Entropy Workshop.

The other end of the phone was silent for a few seconds.

This delivery was not as simple as just sending five machines to the warehouse to sign a signature.

In order to welcome this batch of equipment, the client's operating party had coordinated in advance to close the underground utility tunnel of the relevant section, arranged dedicated duty personnel, opened system data permissions, and even organized emergency support contingency plans.

Several departments had specially adjusted their shift schedules for the acceptance work of these two days.

Now declaring a postponement unilaterally meant that the resulting impact was a real cost spreading in a geometric progression.

"How long do you plan to postpone?" The other party finally spoke, their voice revealing neither joy nor anger.

"We are temporarily applying for a twelve-day postponement," Liang Zhixia replied, "Low Entropy Workshop will urgently reproduce five brand-new delivery units. All work-stoppage expenses generated by the original on-site arrangements will be fully borne by us."

"Those five that return from disaster relief, can't they just be cleaned up and handed over to us directly?"

"No." Jiang Lin directly took over the call channel, "After they finish participating in the rescue, they will directly withdraw from the commercial delivery batch."

"President Jiang?" The other side recognized Jiang Lin's voice.

"It's me."

"What if the machines didn't encounter any danger inside, or weren't even broken at all?"

"Even if they aren't broken, the most complete disassembly inspection must still be carried out."

"After disassembling and reassembling them once, confirming there are no problems, still they cannot continue to be delivered to us?"

"They cannot." Jiang Lin's gaze still lingered on the gruesome cave-in opening of Qingya Tunnel on the screen, "Any commercial client should not bear the uncontrollable equipment risks we bring about due to crossing-boundary decisions."

The other end of the phone fell into silence once more.

The vehicle seemed to have driven over a section of uneven road surface, and the vibration sound transmitted from the chassis rattled a few times in the earpiece.

"President Jiang, for this acceptance, we forcibly shut down the operation of an entire main utility tunnel section."

"The corresponding losses will be borne by Low Entropy Workshop." Jiang Lin replied.

"The senior technical personnel specially transferred over are already on the halfway road."

"The resulting labor costs can be calculated at the maximum cap according to the contract breach clauses."

"Do you have that much money on your books right now to compensate?"

Jiang Lin did not answer this question.

The other party also seemed not to expect him to be able to produce proof of cash flow at all.

After a long few seconds, a long exhaled breath of turbid air came from the earpiece.

"I also saw the report on Qingya Tunnel on my phone just now."

The other party's voice softened a little: "The maintenance tunnel structure of that place actually has some similarities with the design of our utility tunnel here."

"The two engineers rushing to Jiangcheng this time have tumbled and struggled in underground utility tunnel construction sites for more than ten years, and understand the structural stress of underground buildings better than ordinary people. If they are willing, I will have them follow your vehicles directly to Jiangcheng and go to the disaster area together to help take a look."

"Once at the site, everyone must obey the unified dispatch of the Joint Headquarters."

"That goes without saying."

"Regarding the breach confirmation document resulting from the postponement, Liang Zhixia will send it to your email later."

"Don't write twelve days; saving people is paramount." The other party's decision was also very straightforward, "As for the new delivery date, we will sit down and talk slowly after your machines and personnel set off safely."

The call ended.

The conference room was dead silent.

A few seconds later, Xu Man was the first to turn around and stride toward the assembly area.

"Engineering team, come over here, dismantle all the delivery task pods."

The assembly area, which had originally quieted down, instantly erupted with intense metallic clashing sounds like a reignited engine.

These five machines originally bore commercial modules specifically used for underground utility tunnel inspection.

Containing high-precision temperature and humidity sensors, hazardous gas sniffing probes, visible-light gimbals, thermal imagers, and basic wireless relay stations.

Most of those environmental perception capabilities were still applicable in the tunnel, but in a rescue site where every second counted, the machines needed more extreme task allocations.

Xu Man did not touch the chassis hardware, nor did she modify the solidified core control program.

She only had people pull over task pod prototypes that Low Entropy Workshop had built specifically for extreme emergency scenarios during the pre-research stage but had not yet mass-produced using a cart.

Lightweight supplies carrying pod.

Twenty-thousand-lumen high-intensity focused lighting group.

Anti-interference two-way voice communication terminal.

High-power independent communication relay beacon.

Gas detection module reinforced with external armor.

These modules exuding a strong experimental atmosphere had never formed a formal commercial product before.

Now, for the first time, they were solemnly placed next to these five precision machines.

Chen Yan's hands flew before the console, rewriting the task division matrix for the five units.

unit 1: Unload redundant loads, mount high-intensity focused lighting and environmental scanning modules, and act as the vanguard node to scout the way first.

unit 2: Responsible for carrying high-power relay chains, dropping them at fixed points where signal attenuation occurs, and building the lifeline.

unit 3: Core logistics, carrying drinking water, first-aid kit materials, and small portable communication terminals.

unit 4: Serving as a flank ranger, conducting grid-based supplementary searches from other possible side lines of the maintenance tunnel.

unit 5: Fully heavily armored on standby, staying near the cave entrance, ready at all times to replace damaged platforms ahead or undertake towing and clearance tasks using mechanical force.

The five machines were still independent individuals, only having acquired vastly different task attributes at the physical level.

What truly determined how they took their next step in the darkness would be the tactical deployment of the frontline Joint Headquarters and the on-the-spot decisions of the Low-Entropy technical support group.

Jiang Lin issued a bottom-line instruction to the control group through the microphone: "Remember, absolutely do not forcibly forfeit the machine's retreat capability just to push forward another hundred meters."

Chen Yan nodded heavily.

"If the relay chain is continuously lost by two levels or more deep inside, the foremost machine must immediately stop advancing, lock its tracks, and stand by in place."

"What if the rescue personnel of the on-site headquarters are eager to save people and strongly demand to forcibly continue?" Chen Yan asked.

"The final right of forcible overstepping action belongs to the headquarters," Jiang Lin said calmly, "but as the technology provider, Low-Entropy must clearly and unmistakably give a warning: once that physical communication bottom line is crossed, the machines will become blind and deaf, and we no longer guarantee that the machines can bring back the human life data from inside alive."

"Understood."

On the other side, Chen Zhi had already wiped away the slight sweat on her palms, quickly processing urgent insurance changes, special transportation filings, and asset status modifications on the keyboard.

On the long table, the five dark-blue delivery file bags that originally meant five million yuan in cash flow were put away by her one by one and locked into the safe.

In the system backend, the asset status of this batch of equipment was changed from pending delivery to—

[Temporary Emergency Deployment]

[Task Nature: Natural Disaster Emergency Rescue]

[Deploying Unit: Provincial Emergency Frontline Joint Headquarters]

[Commercial Delivery Qualification: Suspended]

Only twenty minutes ago, these rigorously tested machines were still the first batch of official commercial products in the true sense since the establishment of Low Entropy Workshop.

They related to that crucial five million and four thousand yuan final payment, to the payment credit with upstream suppliers next month, and even more to whether this company could continue to survive in the brutal market relying on its own products.

And now, all commercial grand blueprints and all statement profits were suppressed behind another line of heavy text.

[Locations of seven people still unconfirmed at the site]

At 9:28 a.m.

The piercing sound of police sirens came from far to near.

The emergency transport vehicles coordinated by the provincial department arrived at the manufacturing node ahead of the expected time.

The two large box-type transport trucks originally responsible for sending the robots to the northern utility tunnel client site had also driven into the front yard of the factory.

Learning of the temporary change, the driver didn't even turn off the engine, which emitted a low roar.

The huge rear door of the truck bed banged open.

In the assembly area, as instructions were issued, the five machines retracted their hydraulic joints one by one, lowered their fuselage heights, and entered a compact transport posture.

The heavy hydraulic tailboard slowly lowered to the ground.

unit 1 steadily stepped onto the metal plate with anti-slip patterns.

unit 2 closely followed behind.

In the hurried chaos of just over ten minutes, the brand-new commercial delivery seals on their bodies were torn clean off, and eye-catching red temporary logos were re-pasted on the side armor plates by staff using strong adhesive backings.

[Rescue Equipment]

When the last unit 5 heavily drove deep into the truck bed, Xu Man jumped onto the truck bed, picked up the special ratchet straps, and personally fastened the final mechanical fixing buckle to ensure the machines would not experience any displacement during bumps.

Just at this moment, the two senior engineers sent by the client also drove to the factory.

Without even entering the conference room, they directly unzipped their windproof jackets, completed the temporary accompanying personnel registration beside the truck, and put over the intercom communication terminals handed over by Low Entropy Workshop.

One of the engineers with somewhat graying hair walked to the back of the truck and heavily patted the cold outer wall of the truck bed.

"We endured half a month in the underground utility tunnel just hoping for them to arrive." He shook his head, his tone complicated, "I never expected that the first time following these iron guys out on a mission wouldn't be to our workstation."

Xu Man jumped down from the truck, patted the dust off her hands, and looked at him earnestly.

"When we return from the disaster area this time, I will rebuild five brand-new ones for you on the assembly line."

That engineer glanced at her, his gaze piercing through the threads of rain, looking toward the machines flashing with indicator lights deep inside the truck bed.

"Let's have them return safely first before talking about that."

At 9:47 a.m.

Two heavy transport trucks successively drove out of the manufacturing node gates of Low Entropy Workshop.

The new red line guided the fleet, speeding all the way toward the disaster-stricken west.

The sky outside Jiangcheng was terribly gloomy, and raindrops began to gather on the windshield.

In front of the expressway entrance, the emergency support vehicles waiting early instantly lit up their flashing red-and-blue warning lights, tearing through the congested traffic flow, and carrying these two transport trucks loaded with hope, roared into the temporarily cleared emergency-only lane.