In the Celestium mine,
One swing.
That was all it took.
Altea's pickaxe struck cleanly, and a chunk broke free as if the ore offered no resistance at all. No strain. No buildup. Just efficiency.
She chipped off four pieces in quick succession, movements smooth and practiced, before turning and heading straight for the converter. Moments later,
500 Eterna Energy.
I smiled. I felt not needed at all.
Seeing the unit’s mining capacity, I immediately built another habitation chamber and queued up another Newt unit.
The following day, the two of us accumulated 32,500 EE. Out of that, the unit alone contributed nearly 30,000 EE in a single day of optimal resource collection.
The difference was absurd.
With enough workers, the base could finally begin functioning properly.
Using the accumulated energy, I established the Research Facility.
The moment construction initialized, the Origin Tree reacted. Thick roots extended outward beneath the base floor, pulsing faintly with light before splitting the surrounding walls apart. A new chamber slowly formed from the expanding structure itself, as though the tree was growing the facility organically rather than constructing it.
The chamber was much wider than the habitation units, circular in design, with branching root-veins running along the walls like glowing conduits. Soft blue light pulsed through them in slow intervals, feeding energy into suspended consoles and crystalline terminals emerging from the floor. At the center stood a large research platform surrounded by floating holographic interfaces, while storage racks lined the outer walls for samples, minerals, and future systems development.
Ding!
[Research Facility Established!]
[New Construction Options Unlocked!]
Warning!
[System Energy Consumption Established!]
…
And after the facility was established, another notification sounded. Three more Newt units were waiting to be spawned.
This time, I divided the assignments properly.
Two to research the facility.
One additional worker for mining.
[Research Facility 2/5]
[Resource Facility 2/5]
This batch consisted of one male and two female units.
The research units wore long white research coats tailored with sleek futuristic seams, reinforced plating, and dark utility fasteners running along the torso and sleeves. Despite their clinical function, the uniforms carried a refined elegance that bordered on regal, blending scientific precision with the aesthetic grace of advanced civilization.
The male unit’s attire was more structured around the shoulders and chest, giving him a composed, professional appearance, while the female units carried a slightly slimmer silhouette that flowed more naturally with their movements. Subtle blue lines pulsed faintly across the fabric whenever the system interfaces were activated, hinting at embedded technology beneath the material itself.
“Phew…"
Once the unit classifications were complete, I used the remaining Eterna Energy to construct three additional habitation chambers and queue up three more Newt units.
After confirming the production queue, I turned my attention toward the newly unlocked facilities.
[Status Interface]
[Name: Atlas]
[Gene Tier: 1]
[Origin: Atlas]
[Genetic Abilities: Elven Language, Draconic Strength, Heat Resistance, Hardened Skin, Night Vision, Longevity, Draconic Wings, Nature Affinity, Eterna's Blessing]
━━━━━━━━━━━
[Forums]
Status: Online
[Global Chat]
Status: Connected
“Anyone reached orbital expansion yet?”
“Fucking, hell, I'm constantly getting harassed by natives!”
“Warning to players, don’t neglect food production.”
━━━━━━━━━━━
[Unit Interface]
Origin Unit
- Status : [In Production]
- Remaining Time : [3 Days Left]
━━━━━━━━━━━
Atlas Newt
- Cost : [500 EE]
- Current Count : [8]
Production Queue:
• [1 In Production - 3 Days Left]
• [3 In Production - 5 Days Left]
━━━━━━━━━━━
[Facilities Interface]
-> [Expansion Root Tunnel]
- Cost : [50 EE]
- Description : [Expands origin territory and unlocks additional construction space.]
- Status : [Available]
━━━━━━━━━━━
-> [Research Facility] [Unit Capacity: 2/5]
- Cost : [20,000 EE]
- Count : [1]
- Upkeep : [10 EE/day]
- Status : [Operational]
- Description : [Develops new technologies, genetic upgrades, and advanced blueprints.]
━━━━━━━━━━━
-> [Resource Facility] [Unit Capacity: 2/5]
- Cost : [20,000 EE]
- Starting Bonus : [1 Free]
- Count : [1]
- Upkeep : [10 EE/day]
- Status : [Operational]
- Description : [Refines and processes gathered resources for colony use.]
━━━━━━━━━━━
-> [Unit Facility]
- Cost : [20,000 EE]
- Starting Bonus : [1 Free]
- Count : [1]
- Upkeep : [10 EE/day]
- Status : [Operational]
- Description : [Produces biological worker units and manages production queues.]
━━━━━━━━━━━
-> [Factory Facility]
- Cost : [200,000 EE]
- Upkeep : [50 EE/day]
- Status : [Locked]
- Requirement : [Advanced Industrial Research]
- Description : [Mass-produces machinery, industrial equipment, and mechanized units.]
━━━━━━━━━━━
-> [Space Elevator]
- Cost : [500,000 EE]
- Upkeep : [50 EE/day]
- Status : [Locked]
- Requirement : [Orbital Engineering]
- Description : [Establishes direct transport access between surface and orbit.]
━━━━━━━━━━━
-> [Orbital Hub]
- Cost : [1,000,000 EE]
- Upkeep : [500 EE/day]
- Status : [Locked]
- Requirement : [Space Expansion Schematics]
- Description : [Orbital command center for fleet logistics and interstellar operations.]
━━━━━━━━━━━
-> [Storage Depot]
- Cost : [50,000 EE]
- Status : [Unavailable]
- Description : [Stores minerals, food supplies, and refined materials.]
━━━━━━━━━━━
[Life Support Modules]
Habitation Chamber
- Capacity : [1 Unit / Chamber]
- Cost : [5,000 EE]
- Starting Bonus : [5 Free]
- Current Count : [9]
- Upkeep : [5 EE/day]
- Description : [Provides shelter and environmental stabilization for colony units.]
━━━━━━━━━━━
Med Bay
- Cost : [15,000 EE]
- Upkeep : [5 EE/day]
- Description : [Medical treatment, recovery, and biological stabilization.]
━━━━━━━━━━━
Greenhouse Farm
- Cost : [10,000 EE]
Upkeep : [5 EE/day]
- Description : [Produces crops, oxygen, and renewable food resources.]
━━━━━━━━━━━
Animal Facility
- Cost : [10,000 EE]
- Upkeep : [5 EE/day]
- Description : [Breeds livestock and experimental biological organisms.]
━━━━━━━━━━━
Butcher House
- Cost : [10,000 EE]
- Upkeep : [5 EE/day]
- Description : [Processes livestock into consumable food and usable materials.]
━━━━━━━━━━━
Farm Mill
- Cost : [50,000 EE]
- Upkeep : [5 EE/day]
- Description : [Large-scale food refinement and nutrient processing.]
━━━━━━━━━━━
Restaurant & Grill
- Cost : [15,000 EE]
- Upkeep : [5 EE/day]
- Description : [Improves colony morale and unit satisfaction.]
━━━━━━━━━━━
Retail
- Cost : [50,000 EE]
- Upkeep : [5 EE/day] -
Description : [Commercial sector for trading goods and colony services.]
━━━━━━━━━━━
[Resource Interface]
-> Celestium Mine
- Active Nodes : [2/5]
- Extraction Status : [Operational]
- Description : [Like]
━━━━━━━━━━━
[Energy Economy]
-> Total Accumulated : [46,000 EE]
-> Total Expenses : [44,075 EE]
-> Remaining Eterna Energy : [1,925 EE]
-> Daily Upkeep Cost : [65 EE/day]
I nodded after reviewing the facilities. It was finally time to truly build the base for the coming days.
For now, I immediately placed the Research Facility into Auto-Research Mode. Once activated, the system linked directly to the orbital scan data, granting the research team a high degree of autonomy in planetary analysis and development.
The facility would independently catalog native lifeforms, identify viable animals for future livestock and breeding facilities, and analyze local vegetation for food production. With enough planetary data gathered, the system could gradually replace the tasteless starter rations with delicious food sources. In many civilizations that involve biological units, food quality was extremely important. It would significantly improve long-term unit satisfaction and overall efficiency.
Additionally, research would not only apply to food production, but to nearly every facility within the base. Improved mining efficiency, construction optimization, energy conversion, medical development, and countless other technologies would become available later as the base progressed.
Once the food production facilities were established, upgrading the habitation chambers into a proper habitation colony would become the next priority.
I also queued the Faster-Than-Light Technology Schematics.
If completed, it would unlock interplanetary expansion and access to the next closest planet beyond this world, paving the way for the next stage of gene progression.
After accounting for all construction and production costs, the system balance dropped sharply.
[Remaining Eterna Energy: 1,925 EE]
…
Which meant it was time to mine again.
...
Current Production: 60,000 EE / Day / 2 Resourcer Units
Additional Production: 2,500 EE / Day / 1 Origin Unit