I can upgrade the shelter-Chapter 592 - 490: Beneath the Mine

At the deepest point of the mine, only a few bulbs provided limited illumination.

Humid, muggy, suffocating, noisy, dim... all kinds of harsh adjectives flashed through Chen Xin’s mind.

Chen Xin wasn’t deliberately belittling it; it was truly this harsh, hundreds of meters underground.

Due to its deep underground location and the lack of air circulation, even before the disaster, the temperature here was somewhat higher than on the surface, and the deeper you go, the hotter it gets.

This is also why, in the past, in an era with low safety awareness among miners, they were more accustomed to working without clothes.

If it were traditional tools like pickaxes, it wouldn’t be too bad, mostly some clanking sounds, but most modern mines use pneumatic hammers, which are quite loud when working.

Working in such an environment, it’s easy to imagine how hard this work is.

However, for the miners working here, being able to have such a job makes them feel fortunate.

In the current climate, having a stable job and being able to obtain enough quota supplies each month to support a family is already something that makes people feel very happy.

Moreover, their working conditions have greatly improved.

The newly issued protective suits effectively isolate the humid and hot underground environment, and the exoskeleton makes work that would otherwise consume a lot of physical strength much easier. Overall, the miners are very satisfied with the current situation.

And for these reasons, even while doing the most dangerous and arduous work at the bottom of the mine, the workers are still diligently completing their tasks.

However, today, their work needs to pause for a moment.

Upon receiving the technician’s instructions, the workers gradually stopped their work, looking somewhat bewildered at the technician and Chen Xin, who was standing with him and obviously a prominent figure.

They didn’t quite understand why they had to suddenly stop.

"Engineer Zhao, what’s going on?" The foreman among the workers approached the technician to inquire about the situation: "Our current progress is critical; stopping work will delay our schedule!"

"Someone from above is here to test some equipment. Don’t worry about the delay in progress," the technician explained briefly to ensure it would not affect their work, then turned to Chen Xin and said, "The testing can now begin."

Chen Xin nodded, signaling for the researcher beside him to start the test.

The researcher received Chen Xin’s signal and then instructed the simplified mining-type Titan to step forward to begin the test.

Seeing the mining-type Titan appear, the workers were startled, obviously taken aback by its strange shape.

But the researcher didn’t seem concerned about what the workers were thinking, just directed the driver to move the Titan to the place where workers had been working, setting its four supporting legs stable against a rock wall.

Then, it raised the pneumatic hammer in its hand.

Seeing the bizarre, spider-like machine using a pneumatic hammer on the spot where they had been working earlier, some workers began to understand, guessing that this might be a machine for mining.

This made the workers who saw the mining-type Titan somewhat excited, clearly curious about this new machine, wondering if they could use such a new device and speculating on what each of its parts was for.

However, the foreman was not as curious as the workers. He frowned as he watched the machine working and approached the researcher in command of the test, saying, "You’re doing it wrong! The position of the pneumatic hammer matters. Hitting it like this is inefficient and will destroy the parts we have already worked on!"

"What did you say?" The researcher couldn’t hear the foreman clearly due to the pneumatic hammer’s noise.

The foreman could only loudly repeat himself, and this time not only the researcher but also the technician and Chen Xin who were nearby heard him.

After listening to the foreman, the researcher glanced at the driver’s operation of the mining-type Titan, noting that the hammer’s position was indeed different from where the workers had hammered before, hesitated, and then looked at Chen Xin to consult: "What should we do, Academician?"

Meanwhile, as the researcher consulted Chen Xin, the driver operating the mining-type Titan also noticed the commotion and stopped his actions.

In this situation, Chen Xin approached the foreman with interest, sizing him up before pointing to the mining-type Titan and asking, "You said it was hitting in the wrong place?"

"Yes, if you want the pneumatic hammer to break the rock, the location of the hole matters. If done well, the rock will crack by itself after the hole is made, but if not, it’s just a hole," the foreman earnestly nodded, undeterred by Chen Xin’s apparent status as an important figure.

Upon hearing the foreman’s confident answer, Chen Xin nodded slightly, glanced at the mining-type Titan, and then at the foreman. After thinking for a moment, he asked, "If you were to do it, could you do it better?"

"I could!" The foreman’s eyes brightened. He was confident in his work and expertise but hesitated anyway: "I just don’t know how to use that thing he’s operating."

"That’s okay. Let him teach you," replied Chen Xin, turning to the technician and asking, "Is it fine if I borrow one of your workers?"

"Of course, that’s fine, but are you sure you want him to do it? Isn’t that a piece of expensive experimental equipment? What if it gets damaged?" The technician, while maintaining the foreman, pointed out the potential issue despite agreeing to the request.

Chen Xin didn’t mind, asking the foreman, "Can you use the exoskeleton?"

"Yes! Even though it was only recently issued to us, we’ve all learned how to use it," the foreman replied confidently, touching the exoskeleton he was wearing.

Hearing this, Chen Xin made a decision: "Let the driver switch with him, teach him how to operate this simplified Titan, and then let him do the test."

He then added, seemingly to preempt any objection from the researcher, "It’s intended as a labor tool for these workers, so having them test it will provide the most direct results."

"Alright, Academician!" The researcher didn’t raise any objections, nodded promptly, and signaled the driver to exchange with the foreman.

The driver was a bit confused, but after the researcher explained for a moment, he didn’t stir any fuss. He was only a test driver for the Titan and not a professional miner, so it was normal for him to be less proficient in ore extraction than the foreman.

So he directly exchanged places with the foreman and enthusiastically guided him on how to operate the simplified mining-type Titan.