Why the bug I wrote became a core gameplay mechanic?!
Chapter 504 - 487: The First Glimpse of Contradiction

Chapter 504: Chapter 487: The First Glimpse of Contradiction

Are fully automated production lines good? Of course, they are, but they come with certain prerequisite technologies and require a significant upfront investment and regular maintenance.

Efficiency is indeed high, but their applications are relatively limited.

What about oxen and horse workers? Although their efficiency is nowhere near that of production lines, they’re easy to get, cheap, and with a little training, they can be repurposed to make something else.

If we only look at the startup phase, Qiu Qinghong’s approach is actually quite reasonable.

First, frantically dig for fuel and stockpile supplies, ensuring everyone has food and warmth when the harsh cold hits, and then everyone works like oxen and horses.

When the technology tree has advanced to a certain extent, they’ll gradually replace silicon-based manual labor with more sophisticated automated machinery.

"Okay, then let’s start getting to work with this goal in mind!"

With the general direction set, Shen Guang was free to take action.

He snapped up several mining machines, each mining different resources, then laid out a few conveyor belts to transport the ore to the smelters or storage.

Then, he set up a batch of Primary Manufacturing Machines to build various useful parts and structures.

"Hmm? Why are these two lines clashing.

"Just fly a line."

Shen Guang simply built a bridge, allowing one conveyor belt to cross over the other from above.

Qiu Qinghong watched the construction plans unfold on his own screen, the corners of his mouth twitching slightly.

It was painful to watch.

Couldn’t this production line be planned to look better?

The layout of game production lines is particular, not just an issue of aesthetics, but also efficiency.

The speed at which conveyor belts transport materials has an upper limit, so the longer the conveyor belt, the slower the transportation speed.

Different production lines also need a variety of raw materials, in varying amounts. If you can’t properly plan the speeds of the conveyor belts, it’s easy to have bottlenecks, with materials piling up on one side while the other side waits for supplies.

Moreover, the clearer the production line is laid out, the easier it is to troubleshoot later on.

If everything is messy and building units are mixed up, just straightening out one production line source could exhaust someone.

These are hard-learned lessons.

But obviously, Shen Guang had no plan whatsoever; he just placed things here and there, and when needed, he’d just add a line haphazardly, completely lacking any sense of aesthetics.

Qiu Qinghong was getting a headache just looking at it.

It was like drawing a few erratic curves amidst the perfectly straight lines in front of someone with OCD.

It was torture.

Qiu Qinghong actually wanted to say, if I had known this, wouldn’t it have been better to have me as the Judging Governor?

I would have set everything up straight and proper.

But since Mr. Shen took the initiative to be the Judging Governor, there wasn’t much to be said.

After much internal struggle, Qiu Qinghong said, "Mr. Shen, the way this production line is laid out...

"It’s truly quite artistic!

"This boundless creativity is very innovative, yet practical and resource-efficient.

"With Mr. Shen here, we’re sure to easily reach our construction goals."

Shen Guang was skeptical, "Really? I just put things down randomly. It must be that great minds think alike then."

Qiu Qinghong nodded, "Yes, yes, great minds think alike."

The construction activities continued.

Qiu Qinghong realized that as a President, he could still have a bit of a say in the construction.

Simply put, it was remote command.

While he couldn’t get hands-on, he could give orders verbally or through typing.

The game itself has a chat system, with voice connection or direct text chat. Of course, you can also choose to block the other person’s speech.

In addition, the Presidential player can also place various marks on the map as prompts, which can’t be blocked.

So Qiu Qinghong tried to offer some guidance.

After all, he really couldn’t stand to watch such unplanned construction any longer.

"Mr. Shen, look, this area over here is rich with mining resources, both fuel for burning and ore for the silicon-based people to eat.

"We can plan this as the main residential area.

"On one hand, it can ensure maximum warming, and on the other hand, we can store sufficient food.

"As for iron ore and the factory area, it can be built further away.

"That way, even if extreme disasters strike, we can pull our people into shelters to maintain temperature and food.

"As for this area, I think it could be set aside for industrial upgrading.

"Ah, right, Mr. Shen, if these two areas are further apart, we should reserve space for industrial expansion in advance."

Qiu Qinghong offered his careful suggestions, but unexpectedly, it still caused Shen Guang’s annoyance.

"Alright, alright President Qiu, I have my own plan, just focus on your own job."

Qiu Qinghong replied helplessly, "Alright, Mr. Shen."

But in fact, this game is designed so that the workloads of the President and the Judging Governor are quite different.

The Judging Governor really doesn’t stop for a moment; there’s always something to do.

Whether it’s setting up production lines or dealing with emergency situations, operations are necessary.

But it’s different for the President. After the initial calculations and setting developmental goals, there’s little else to be done.

Except for the few operations that required the head of state’s involvement, there was nothing to do but watch the governors bustling about.

Yet the head of state couldn’t personally start another production line, and with nothing to occupy himself, wouldn’t he just end up crazily giving orders?

This was why Shen Guang, being the superior in real life, necessitated Qiu Qinghong to keep quiet.

If it were two players of equal status, a head of state player probably couldn’t restrain himself.

He’d definitely be marking up the map continuously, typing out strategic advice.

And the head of state player would have every right to feel indignant—after all, why shouldn’t they command?

Not to mention those head of state players who were naturally better at playing this kind of game, it’d be difficult to hold back from criticizing the governors for their subpar production lines.

But governors would surely resist: If you’re so capable, why don’t you do it?

At the beginning, you were the one who chose to be the head of state.

You just talk the talk, but I’m the one doing all the dirty work—why is that fair?

And so, conflicts inevitably arose.

Qiu Qinghong was already vaguely aware that if two players were playing this game, there would probably be much more intense arguments than what was currently happening.

But... what can be done about it? It seemed to be part of the core gameplay of the "Star Plan."

He had some reservations about the game, but seeing Shen Guang engrossed, he felt reluctant to bring it up.

Time ticked away.

Although the initial goal wasn’t met, the issue wasn’t that significant.

After all, when setting the goal, there were no reference data, so Qiu Qinghong had arbitrarily set one.

Although it wasn’t achieved, the silicon-based life on the comet seemed to be developing quite well.

Therefore, as a leader, Qiu Qinghong naturally chose not to "judge the governor," but to forgive the governor and continue development.

Suddenly, an employee in the conference room seemed to realize something and spoke up, "Hey, Mr. Shen, President Qiu, do you feel something is off?

"The pointer in the upper-right corner, has it risen?"

Qiu Qinghong and Shen Guang paused for a moment and looked at the indicator in the upper-right corner.

As technology unlocked, the information in the upper right corner also became increasingly complex.

However, most of it was mundane information, like the output and reserves of various resources, power generation, time, as well as environmental temperature and humidity data.

A lot of the data seemed useless because changes were imperceptible.

Take temperature, for instance; it became visible after unlocking the most basic technology, hovering around minus 50 degrees Celsius.

Initially, there were slight fluctuations, but then it entered a period of stability.

Qiu Qinghong checked the temperature data and noticed that compared to the beginning, there didn’t seem to be any significant changes.

"There doesn’t seem to be a significant rise, right?

"And besides, this temperature is the environmental one; when our factories burn fuel, it also raises the surrounding environmental temperature.

"After all, for the fight against the severe cold, we’ve prepared equipment specifically for heating."

However, he glanced at Wei Chengjie, who was smiling without commenting, and suddenly had a bad premonition.

"Could it be...

"Ah! Yes, of course!

"This temperature rise is actually abnormal!

"We’ve made a mistake, Mr. Shen; we’ve got it all wrong!"

Shen Guang was still confused, "What mistake did we make?"

President Qiu explained, "We’re not moving away from the star but toward it!"

Initially, Qiu Qinghong hadn’t thought much about it; he assumed that the temperature fluctuations were caused by industrial production.

But at that moment, he realized: Without the construction of large-scale heating equipment, how could the energy from the factory area maintain such high temperatures?

It was completely illogical!

This meant the comet wasn’t moving away from the star but was approaching it!

Shen Guang was still a bit lost, "But if we’re approaching the star, shouldn’t the temperature be rising rapidly?"

Qiu Qinghong shook his head, "Of course not, Mr. Shen!

"While it’s true that the closer we get to the star, the higher the temperature, don’t forget two things: First, we are now inside the nucleus of the comet, not on its surface, where the temperature environment is relatively more stable; second, the comet’s surface is covered with a lot of ice, dry ice, dust, methane, and such, with ice and dry ice being the most abundant.

"That’s why comets have tails.

"As they move towards the star, this ice sublimes, forming long tails, but it’s also because of their sublimation that some of the heat is carried off.

"So, the lack of significant temperature changes actually indicates we’re approaching the star..."

Shen Guang was speechless, "So does that mean we’ve completely messed up our tech tree? Instead of preparing for the cold, we should be preparing to deal with the heat??"

Qiu Qinghong nodded somewhat awkwardly, "Yes... I need to change the plan right away."

The situation suddenly became awkward.

The initial technology was all prepared for cold conditions, and now all of it was unusable.

Though some technologies could handle both extreme cold and heat, they required a lot of resources and couldn’t be developed quickly.

So now, to change direction, time suddenly felt pressing, and a noticeable shortage of various resources emerged.

Shen Guang sighed, "President Qiu, you’re the head of state; you can’t make this kind of mistake!

"If the direction is wrong, doesn’t it mean all our efforts so far were in vain?

"You said you had nothing much to do, and now even this has to be pointed out by someone else.

"If it weren’t for them, by the time we noticed a significant rise in temperature, it would have already been too late! Although it might already be too late now."

Qiu Qinghong nodded awkwardly, "Yes, Mr. Shen, it’s my fault..."

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