Chapter 12: The Era of Great Construction

Words : 1470 Updated : Sep 12th, 2025

This was truly an era of great construction. Xiao Yu’s small spacecraft would serve as the spark that ignited a wildfire, bringing the light of advanced technology to this corner of the solar system and ultimately illuminating the entire moon. The six robots began their work in earnest. Xiao Yu had a clear plan: to accelerate the mining progress. The limited number of robots was a major bottleneck. Therefore, the immediate priority was not to build a base but to construct more robots. To better adapt to Titan’s extreme conditions—temperatures as low as -150°C, unique terrain, and gravity only about one-sixth that of Earth’s—Xiao Yu redesigned a new type of robot. After gathering sufficient raw materials through mining and smelting equipment, he constructed the first Titan-specific mining and smelting robot. Turning iron ore into steel required large quantities of coal. As is well known, coal is fossilized plant material formed over millions of years in Earth’s unique environment. Xiao Yu had no expectation of finding coal on Titan. However, Xiao Yu had anticipated this challenge before leaving Earth. He had spent three months developing a new steelmaking process. By using adequate fuel and a combination of specialized separation and reduction techniques, he could produce high-quality steel, even surpassing the special steels used on Earth. The robots he designed utilized this advanced steelmaking process. Xiao Yu named the new model Saturn Type-1. These robots did not resemble traditional humanoid robots. Instead, they were built as metallic platforms supported by four wheels, equipped with mechanical arms and detection devices on one side of the platform. Their appearance resembled peculiar ducks. Despite their unconventional appearance, these robots were far more efficient on Titan’s unique terrain than the older models, performing several times better. Titan’s predominantly flat surface required only minimal hardening, sparing Xiao Yu the effort of building roads. This terrain perfectly suited the movement capabilities of the Saturn Type-1 robots. After the successful trials, Xiao Yu quickly constructed hundreds of these robots. Assigning them specialized tasks, he then developed the Saturn Type-2 robots. As the demands of the operation grew, Xiao Yu further designed five additional models, from Saturn Type-3 to Saturn Type-7. The original six robots were reassigned to perform internal operations aboard the spacecraft. Thus, seven types of robots worked tirelessly across the mining field. The robots Xiao Yu created were not truly intelligent robots. In fact, with his current level of technology, he was far from developing practical AI robots, let alone true artificial intelligence. Instead of installing central computers in each robot, Xiao Yu equipped them with a transmitter, a receiver, and various functional modules. The data collected by sensors installed on the robots was transmitted to the spacecraft, where Xiao Yu processed the information. Afterward, he sent the next set of instructions back to the robots, which carried out tasks using their functional modules. Given Xiao Yu’s immense computational power, simultaneously controlling hundreds—if not thousands—of robots posed no challenge. The advantage of this approach was that every robot could effectively share Xiao Yu’s intelligence, ensuring seamless coordination and near-flawless collaboration between individual units. It was a true extension of his will, like directing the movement of his own limbs. Xiao Yu controlled the robots with absolute precision, ensuring zero errors. Scenes like this became commonplace: A Saturn Type-6 robot collected a pile of hematite ore from the ground using its sorting mechanism and tilted its container to dump the ore. Just before the pile hit the ground, a Saturn Type-1 robot would roll into position, perfectly aligning itself to catch the falling ore with its body, ensuring not a single fragment was spilled onto the ground. This was the undeniable advantage of unparalleled computational power and precision. On the mining field, hundreds of robots worked tirelessly in perfect harmony, without the slightest error. Constructing these hundreds of robots had taken Xiao Yu a month, including several days of delays due to Titan’s frequent rain. Initially, Xiao Yu patiently waited for the methane rainwater to evaporate naturally. However, he soon realized how inefficient this was. With Titan’s practically unlimited methane resources and no shortage of oxygen, Xiao Yu developed a specialized robot model equipped with large flamethrowers. These robots deployed after every rainstorm, releasing flames exceeding a thousand degrees Celsius to instantly vaporize pools of liquid methane. During this month, Xiao Yu also completed the construction of six robot part production lines and an assembly workshop. With sufficient raw materials, these production lines could churn out up to 20 robots per day. By slightly modifying the assembly lines, they could also produce robots with more diverse functionalities. Once he had enough robots, Xiao Yu began the next phase of construction: building a steelmaking blast furnace. The furnace Xiao Yu intended to construct was nothing like those on Earth. Traditional blast furnaces required large quantities of coke, which was clearly absent on Titan. Xiao Yu’s furnace incorporated cutting-edge steelmaking techniques. His hard drive contained the complete schematics for constructing a modified blast furnace. This design required no coal, relying solely on sufficient energy to produce steel. To build the furnace, Xiao Yu even designed a new type of crane robot. These crane robots were massive, unlike the smaller Saturn Type-1 through Type-7 models. Constructing the first crane robot took Xiao Yu five full days and consumed thousands of tons of high-quality steel, as well as more than half a month of time. Once the foundation was laid and the necessary pipelines—such as the feed inlet, slag outlet, and air intake—were installed, Xiao Yu commenced the furnace’s construction. During the process, he encountered an unexpected challenge: finding suitable insulation materials was nearly impossible on Titan, at least in the areas Xiao Yu had surveyed. After much deliberation, Xiao Yu decided to forgo traditional insulation entirely and instead installed a wind-cooling system. Titan’s dense atmosphere, with temperatures around -150°C, provided a natural cooling medium. After running tests, Xiao Yu found the wind-cooling system to be remarkably effective and was delighted by the results. Large, polished steel plates were lifted by the crane robots and positioned roughly in place. A smaller robot was then hoisted to adjust the plates precisely and weld them into position. This process repeated plate by plate. Until the steelmaking furnace was completed, Xiao Yu relied on several specialized small machines brought from Earth to produce steel. Although he had modified these machines to function without coal, their output was limited. Facing the rapidly growing demand for steel, Xiao Yu’s small production capacity felt painfully inadequate. During this time, Xiao Yu found himself reliving the experience of waiting for grains of rice to cook in a pot. The enormous demand for steel was like a boiling cauldron, ready to churn out fragrant rice soup the moment grains were added. Yet, Xiao Yu’s meager steel output trickled in like an underperforming rice field, producing only a few grains at a time, leaving him increasingly anxious. After a full month of relentless effort, the towering blast furnace was finally completed. Standing 60 meters tall on Titan’s flat terrain, the colossal structure left Xiao Yu in awe. This furnace combined the functions of iron and steel production. Iron ore entered the furnace, was first reduced into pig iron, and then further processed into steel through subsequent procedures. In terms of output, Xiao Yu estimated that with sufficient raw materials, the furnace could produce up to 1,000 tons of standard steel per day. However, for the highest-quality steel Xiao Yu could manufacture, daily production would cap at around 10 tons. For building the base’s framework, large quantities of standard steel were required. Only the exterior of the base needed some chromium-nickel alloy steel to withstand Titan’s extreme cold. With the blast furnace operational, the construction of the base could finally begin. Xiao Yu decided not to build the base at the mining site. Instead, he chose a location approximately 5 kilometers away. Compared to the mining area, this location offered more suitable terrain and geology for constructing a large-scale base. First, he directed the flamethrower robots to clear an area roughly 1,000 meters in diameter, vaporizing all volatile materials. Next, engineering robots excavated countless intersecting trenches, laying the foundation. Then, other robots began producing large steel plates, transporting them to the site for welding. Indeed, Xiao Yu planned to construct a base made entirely of steel. Titan lacked the raw materials for traditional building materials such as cement or bricks, but it had an abundance of steel. With the completion of the first blast furnace, Xiao Yu’s steel production capacity increased dramatically. He initiated three parallel operations: running the robot production lines at full capacity, constructing a second blast furnace, and building the base simultaneously. The Shangdu Region, near Azure Lake, had become a hub of bustling activity.

Chapter 12: The Era of Great Construction

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