2: Chapter 2 Intelligent Industrial Machine Tool

Hengyu Coal Mine was a small coal mine, but in Xinyang County, a traditional agricultural and pastoral county in the central region, it was a rare mineral resource. Having been mined for over a decade, it had contributed significantly to the local area, at least boosting the economy along the coal transport routes.

Cao Xiao got out of the car, but to his surprise, he didn't run into many people at the office. After asking the office clerk, Little Liu, he learned that everyone had gone down into the pit today. They had tried calling him at noon but got no answer. Mine Director Fang had taken everyone down right after an early lunch. Cao Xiao felt it was strange; Mine Director Fang had never been this proactive before. He usually didn't even show up for work once a month, spending his time on all sorts of shady dealings. Why had he suddenly gone down into the pit in the middle of the day?

He took the mining diagram and asked Little Liu about the locations of everyone's inspection tasks today. Sure enough, his inspection points had been left vacant for him. In the locker room, he changed into his miner's uniform, put on his safety helmet, grabbed a pickaxe, and headed down the shaft alone. He used to go down with the workers, but at this hour, he had to go by himself.

Familiar with the way, he arrived underground. Passing by several mining points, he unexpectedly encountered Mine Director Fang conducting an inspection with two colleagues. To call it an inspection was an overstatement; it was more like a casual look around and listening to the workers' opinions—essentially, just finding people to boast to.

Cao Xiao cursed his bad luck. However, he couldn't just ignore them. Mine Director Fang and the others were right on the only path to the mining point he needed to reach. There was no avoiding them, so he had to steel himself and offer a greeting.

"Hello, Mine Director Fang. Why are you down in the pit yourself? You could just direct us from above; these minor tasks should be left to us." Suppressing his nausea, Cao Xiao gave Mine Director Fang a resounding piece of flattery.

"Oh, it's Little Cao. Why are you only arriving now? Don't you know today is a key inspection day? Five hundred will be docked from your salary this month. Don't take leave without a reason next time. You're lucky it's me; other leaders wouldn't be so easy to talk to. Go get to work, and write a self-criticism when you get back today to hand in to me tomorrow." Mine Director Fang glanced back at Cao Xiao and spoke. Once he was finished, he ignored him and continued chatting with the workers, telling crude jokes with great enthusiasm.

Cao Xiao's nose nearly twisted with rage. He thought to himself that he was having a run of bad luck today, like being bitten by a dog as soon as he stepped out. He didn't reply and simply turned to walk further inside. It wasn't that Cao Xiao wanted to flatter him, but rather, based on years of experience summarized by his colleagues, these common flattering phrases had been printed out on paper. Over the years, Cao Xiao had learned them by heart.

It wasn't that all the colleagues were sycophants, but this Mine Director Fang's background was not simple. He was the cheap father-in-law of the major shareholder and general manager. This Mine Director Fang's name was Fang Xuehai, and he was only in his forties. He used to be an old hoodlum in the city. It wasn't until eight years ago, when Wang Yili, the general manager of Hengyu Coal Mine who was in his forties and had been a widower for many years, took a liking to his nineteen-year-old daughter, that he investigated Wang Yili's background and decisively married his daughter off to this man who was nearly ten years older than himself. It was said that he had forcibly broken up his daughter's relationship; she was dating the son of a local small hotel owner at the time, and they were already at the stage of discussing marriage, with him even having accepted the betrothal money.

Since then, he had started working at the coal mine, and relying on his daughter, he had clawed his way up to the position of manager. This man was temperamental and obsessed with prestige. Relying on the fact that his son-in-law was the general manager, he had always acted recklessly. His name was Xuehai, which meant 'Sea of Learning,' yet he didn't have a shred of relevant knowledge, nor did he study to improve. He lacked any management talent and was also very lecherous. Within six months of his arrival at Hengyu Coal Mine, there were no longer any female employees in the office. This caused a lot of dissatisfaction among Hengyu's other shareholders, but Wang Yili was helpless against him—after all, he was his father-in-law. Even after being spoken to a few times, he remained a rogue, and his wife at home was fierce, so he could only keep him around. Fortunately, Fang Xuehai was also negligent, working only fitfully. The work was managed by the deputy manager, so no major blunders had occurred yet.

The colleagues all avoided him; otherwise, the sheer amount of flattery required would be enough to make one sick. The experience Cao Xiao had gathered over his years at Hengyu Coal Mine was that flattering him didn't necessarily mean things would be fine, but if you ignored him, he would constantly look for trouble.

He spat a few times at the corner of the mine tunnel, his heart bleeding. Five hundred yuan—that was nearly half a month's living expenses! Over the years, the salary docked by this guy must have totaled over ten thousand. And that was even when he was being careful and getting docked on flimsy excuses. Normally, if other leaders caught you arriving late, leaving early, or skipping work, they would at most dock two hundred or give a verbal warning. This guy started at five hundred with no upper limit, and you even had to write a self-criticism. If I write it, how many words would you even recognize? Anyway, this coal mine is almost fully excavated. When the company dissolves, I'll definitely find a chance to secretly repay Fang Xuehai for his 'selfless care' over the years. No doubt many colleagues would have the same idea by then.

As he walked, he tapped around with his pickaxe to vent his frustration. It took about ten minutes to reach the nearest mining point he needed to inspect.

Once it was work time, Cao Xiao did not slack off. He wasn't a buffoon like Fang Xuehai. Over the years, he had never neglected his professional knowledge courses. He practiced in the coal mine and took time to summarize and learn. After several years, Cao Xiao's professional knowledge level was not necessarily lower than those engineers engaged in exploration work. He was very short of money and had no other way to earn it, so he could only improve his knowledge in the hope of finding a higher-paying job in the future.

An hour later, he had already inspected three mining points, with only one left. These four mining points had been abandoned for several years and were almost completely depleted. The purpose of the inspection was to check if the safety of these places had changed and if they still had any mining value.

Unfortunately, having been abandoned for years without maintenance, these old-fashioned tunnels, which were the first to be mined, were supported by timber. Most of it had rotted and lay scattered on the ground. It was a best-case scenario that the tunnel hadn't collapsed directly. Moreover, even the coal gangue on the walls had been dug out, exposing rock and soil.

He continued toward the next collection point. The tunnel along the way was filled with rotten wood and a layer of stagnant water. Upon arrival, he found that while rock was exposed in some places, one wall of the mine had not been fully excavated. Large areas of coal remained in some parts. Cao Xiao walked over and slowly observed the coal distribution. Based on his professional knowledge, he determined this was a turning point in the seam. Although the seam was shrinking, it clearly hadn't reached the limit of extraction and still possessed great mining value. But why hadn't the experts back then discovered this, or did they think the value wasn't worth the effort at the time? Filled with doubt, Cao Xiao carefully tapped the wall with his pickaxe. From time to time, he knocked off a piece of ore, held it in his hand, and pulled out a magnifying glass to study it closely under his headlamp. Normally, safety regulations prohibited such tapping in underground tunnels, as it could easily spark a gas fire or explosion, or cause resonance that might trigger a cave-in—especially in an old tunnel like this where gas levels could be very high due to lack of maintenance. However, out of curiosity, Cao Xiao ignored these risks. At this moment, he didn't see himself as a coal mine employee, but as a professional surveyor. He discovered that the quality of the coal had not decreased and the seam was not fragmented, which meant that mining could continue in this direction. If it were anyone else, they would surely be rushing out happily to claim credit from the leaders, but Cao Xiao was focused intently on studying the seam.

He hit a piece of coal protruding from the seam. It was firmly attached to the wall, so he unconsciously increased his strength. Unexpectedly, instead of the sound of a strike, a different sound reached his ears—the sound of a hollow space. Was there a void behind this wall?

He struck a few more times with more force. Judging by the sound, there was indeed a significant cavity behind it, though whether it was a fault or a cave, he couldn't tell. After a few more strikes, the piece of coal finally fell off, but Cao Xiao didn't care about it anymore.

At this moment, Cao Xiao was almost scared out of his wits. A sharp cracking sound came from where he had been striking, and then a crack began to spread outward from that center point. After being stunned for two seconds, Cao Xiao reacted, dropped his pickaxe, turned, and ran. Although he didn't know if he could escape in time, he had to seize every second and run desperately toward the exit.

Before he could even run into the main tunnel, he heard a crash of collapsing material behind him, but it stopped in less than two seconds, followed by total silence. Cao Xiao looked back in confusion. Only the original spot now showed a large, pitch-black hole; it hadn't triggered a chain collapse, though a few pieces of timber from the tunnel ceiling had fallen. Still shaken, Cao Xiao slumped onto the water-covered ground. The joy of surviving a disaster brought tears to his eyes. Those who have never worked in an underground mine cannot understand that kind of despair when the world seems to be caving in. He had too many attachments; he didn't want to die. His life hadn't been exciting enough yet; he hadn't married or had children to carry on the family line. His younger siblings were still small and couldn't bear such a heavy burden, and his parents couldn't take any more hardship. He also wanted to see He Yueyou one more time and had to find a chance to confess to her, even if nothing came of it, just to leave no regrets.

He made a decision in his heart: once this month was over, he would resign and find another job. No matter how hard or tiring it was, he could no longer put himself in such danger. At this moment, his outlook on life was changing, and his character became firmer and stronger because of this incident.

He stood up, let out a sigh of relief, adjusted the lamp on his head, and walked toward the exposed hole. Stepping over the pile of fallen coal, he carefully observed the ground. Fortunately, there were no pits, only some downward depressions. Seeing no danger, Cao Xiao went back to find his pickaxe and then entered the hole.

Once inside, he discovered that the floor was made of coal. it was somewhat smooth and had no stagnant water, but this level of smoothness was strange—it looked as if it had been polished by a machine or by hand.

He looked around and found that this was just a cylindrical space about twenty meters in diameter and of unknown height. The reason the height was unknown was that although the headlamp could reach the top, the distance was too far to estimate accurately. It was safe to say the height of this space was no less than fifty meters. It was empty inside, and the walls were also smooth.

Suddenly, Cao Xiao's eyes narrowed, and a look of shock appeared on his face as if he had seen something incredible.

It was indeed incredible, because in the very center of this circular space, he saw a silver-white cube, about ten centimeters on each side, like a Rubik's cube. It was like seeing a modern high-tech mobile phone inside a sealed thousand-year-old tomb.

This space had only the one entrance he had just come through; the other sides and the top were sealed. No one but himself had ever been here. So where did this perfectly regular object come from? No matter how miraculous nature could be, it wouldn't go to this extent; at least, humanity had never discovered such a regular natural object until now. Furthermore, the patterns on it were clearly the work of an intelligent being, which was somewhat terrifying.

Cao Xiao thought he might as well take it and look at it later; even if he couldn't figure it out, he could take it back for further study. He really didn't want to stay here any longer; the tunnel was already unstable and could collapse at any time.

He walked over carefully and approached slowly. Nothing unusual happened during the process. Crouching on the ground, he examined it closely with his headlamp and found that it was composed of a metal he didn't recognize. Given his profession, it would be a joke if he didn't know the characteristics of every metal, yet he couldn't tell if this was a single metal or an alloy. Cao Xiao also couldn't understand what the patterns on it were meant to express.

Since he couldn't figure it out, he prepared to pick it up. As soon as his hand touched the cube, the object suddenly stuck to his hand. Simultaneously, information was transmitted into his mind, like an electronically synthesized female voice, though his ears heard no sound at all.

"Ding, carbon-based intelligent life detected."

"Usage standards met, binding program initiated."

"Soul binding successful, independent gene binding successful."

At the same time, Cao Xiao felt a sharp pain in his hand as a small needle emerged from the metal surface of the cube and pricked his palm.

"Welcome to the 49th generation Intelligent Industrial Mother Machine, independently developed by Yamarda Company of the Dayu Universal Federation."