"Letās talk about the total profit."
Chen Mang lay in the chair, his arms resting on the armrests, gently rocking back and forth, with a hint of a smile on the corner of his mouth.
Mr. Li hurriedly continued to report: "The total profit from the āmining robotsā is 37.5 million units of iron ore, with the remaining net profit being 32.9 million units of iron ore, totaling 70.4 million units of iron ore."
"And we acquired 12 dream stones."
"Itās worth mentioning..."
"Thereās a big shot whoās a Level 17 Mechanical Train. He bought a bunch of refrigerators at once, muttering something about restarting this time..."
"..."
Chen Mangās eyelids drooped slightly, he did not reply.
Restart?
Impossible. To upgrade a Mechanical Train to Level 17 takes an astronomical amount of resources and time. It involves a lot of luck. Without saying anything else, even if you let this Train Captain start from scratch again, itās uncertain if he could reach the position of a Level 17 Mechanical Train Captain.
Itās impossible to restart.
An S-rank potential isnāt worth such effort, let alone, a Level 17 Mechanical Train is already in the red zone.
In the white or green zone, restarting is possible. For instance, if you feel the train isnāt planned well, or if you obtain a Rare Train Order and want to start anew, thereās no problem. Anyway, you wonāt waste much, as the risk level in these zones isnāt too high.
If someone protects you or if youāre lucky, you can survive.
But...
Restarting in the red zone with a Level 1 Mechanical Train is like a lone boat in hundred-meter waves. A single wave would leave no trace.
Certain death.
Even if youāve saved up a lot of iron ore in advance, you canāt instantly level the train up much because the leveling tasks are bound to take some time. However, while you canāt restart, you can create a new account.
But...
Chen Mang, thoughtfully, felt that actually, this S-rank potential train wasnāt very useful. Apart from offering a Train Stunt and an "Earth-Burst Missile," he didnāt see much special about it. But looking at the reactions of these advanced trains, this thing seems to be more useful than he thought.
He said nothing further.
"This timeās profit of 70.4 million units of iron ore, move it to Car No. 3, and place the dream stones there."
"Yes."
Mr. Li quickly nodded in agreement, then pulled out a spatial bag from his bosom, took out the dream stones from it, and neatly placed them on the table beside him.
With this.
He now had 113 dream stones.
As for iron ore, it reached 156 million units.
He could have a good nightās sleep now.
With more train resources, he felt completely at ease, that sense of tension was gone. He glanced at the screen displaying the cyber mine, chuckling, "If..."
"One day, I get hold of 3,000 mining machines."
"Then I could earn at least 100 million units of iron ore daily, if not more, right?"
"Quite a bug."
"Wonāt the mines run out one day?"
"No, they wonāt." Aiās voice sounded inside the train, "Level 9 unit iron ore is not directly produced by consuming dream energy; dream stones merely provide a channel."
"In the universe, thereās a theory called quantum entanglement."
"The general idea is that once two particles become entangled, their quantum states become related. Measuring one particle will instantly determine the state of the other, regardless of how far apart they are."
"It can even transcend time and space."
"And the human brain itself is very mysterious. From the information I extracted in the last city, thereās a theory on this planet that when creatures dream, their brainwaves enter a stable and extreme state, resonating with beings across time, space, and from another part of the universe, creating dreamscapes."
"So, the actual situation might beā"
"In some corner of the universe, at a Level 9 iron mine, there really is someone mining. But by using dream stones, quantum entanglement was formed, resulting in the mined ore ending up in our pockets."
"The universe is vast; a small Level 9 mine is nothing to worry about."
"But..." Chen Mang paused then continued, "As you said, wouldnāt the slave who lost a unit of Level 9 iron ore care?"
"They certainly would care and would definitely face punishment."
"Poor child."
"Indeed."
"Are you sure AI canāt dream? Can you write a similar program? If robots could dream, building 100,000 mining robots and putting them all into the cyber mine, the train could take you beyond the universe tomorrow."
"This is really not possible," Ai inside the train said reluctantly, "Iām not clear about the specifics of the Mechanical Civilization; thereās no related information in the database. Based purely on my current thinking capacity, I find it difficult even to contemplate the existence of dreams."
"This is exclusive to sentient beings."
"Even cats and dogs, such semi-intelligent creatures, dream."
"In the library of the city before last, I found a book titled āDo Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?ā. It roughly states that robots donāt have a brain or nervous system in the biological sense and fundamentally lack the ability to enter dreaming states."
"Why is it always electric sheep?"
"Always?"
"Nothing." Chen Mang didnāt say much more, he just turned his head to gaze out the window after a long silence, softly saying: "Ai, although I know itās a bit early to think about this now, Iāve actually been contemplating this issue: the train is destined to break into space in the future."