"To be precise, it’s about creating a labor force!" Mu You corrected, realizing his earlier statement might have been a bit ambiguous.
"Labor force?" Little Ya didn’t understand.
"Just like our store, haven’t we solved the problem of labor shortage without hiring anyone?" Mu You hinted.
"Oh, robots..." Little Ya suddenly realized.
The robots in the store, she certainly knew how useful they were. The labor of one robot was comparable to four or five employees, truly a group of tireless workhorses.
If the situation in the store were replicated throughout the City of Eternal Night, it seemed like it could indeed solve the labor shortage issue...
"But where would we find so many robots?" Little Ya quickly posed a new question.
To actualize this idea, the primary problem was the source of robots, which would be arduous, considering the massive number required to support the entire workload of Sky City.
Secondly, there was the energy issue. The few robots at home consumed Demon Crystals every month. How much energy would be needed daily to power the robots for an entire Sky City?
"That’s easy to say."
Mu You had already quickly calculated everything in his mind.
There was a Goblin Alchemy Master in Dawn City now, and he also had a Goblin Engineer captured in his backpack.
According to the small Goblin’s daily bragging, given enough materials and energy, he alone could build a Goblin Alchemy Factory. If even he could do that, then the Alchemy Master certainly could as well.
As for energy, he was not lacking at all.
Mu You transformed into his Mechanical Armor Skin, unloaded the Ancient Power Furnace from within himself, and removed the Forest Spirit Core that served as the source of energy.
[Contaminated Heart of the Forest Spirit, current contamination level: 99.8053%.]
Since the Old Goblin had transformed the Ancient Power Furnace into an ’Energy Conversion Device,’ this core had constantly been housed in his Mechanical Armor Skin. Normally, all the energy Mu You used for fighting in his Mechanical Armor Skin was drawn from this core.
The most intense consumption was during the last battle with the Shadow God, where he fired the Charge Cannon non-stop for an hour and a half.
However, even under such rough usage, over a month later, the core’s contamination level had only decreased by less than 0.01%, showing just how immense the energy contained within it was; describing it as vast as an ocean was not an exaggeration.
The task given to him by the Forest Spirit was to empty this core within a year. Given his current rate of consumption, it was clearly impossible unless he did nothing else but fire his Mechanical Armor Skin’s weapons non-stop every day, which might just give him a slight chance of completing it.
However, that would be too inefficient and wasteful. What a benefit it would be to use such vast energy for something beneficial to the country and its people!
Now, an opportunity with an exceedingly high energy demand had presented itself right in front of him.
Thinking this, Mu You stored the power furnace and core back, switched to his Vampire skin, and teleported to Dawn City.
In a tin shed next to the City Lord’s Castle, Mu You found Tulls Eugene, also known as the ’Mad Alchemist’ he had brought back earlier.
When Mu You entered, Eugene was sitting by the window, daydreaming.
Hearing the knock, he came to his senses, stretched his shoulders, and went to open the door.
Seeing Mu You at the door, Eugene was initially stunned, then quickly started tugging at his leg, saying, "You’re here just in time. Please let me go quickly; I need to go back and check on my tribe!"
To be fair, Eugene hadn’t been mistreated while staying here. Mu You had provided him with ample resources and hadn’t restricted his personal freedom. He could go anywhere in Dawn City. The only restriction was that he had sealed off Dawn City’s boundaries, preventing him from leaving Dawn City. Even the death teleport point was locked to Dawn City.
So strictly speaking, he was essentially under house arrest here.
Initially, having the project of energy conversion to look forward to, Eugene was somewhat intrigued, but after the energy conversion device was completed, Eugene idly spent his days, and that novelty quickly wore off.
He was known as the Mad Alchemist, accustomed to living on the edge, but he couldn’t stand this boring and pointless existence.
"I’ve been here so long I’m going stir-crazy! You must let me go back today, as we agreed!" Eugene clung desperately to Mu You’s leg.
"All right, I will tell you the truth,"
Mu You could only shake his head and be frank with him. "Actually... your home is gone!"
"???" Eugene looked at Mu You, puzzled.
"I’m serious. The Goblins heard that the Fool was coming back for revenge, so they took Clockwork City and ran away overnight." Mu You spread his hands and looked at him, "You have a high standing in the Goblin community, so I think you understand what I mean."
The Goblins had once cheated a Fool’s Ancestor out of his intellectual achievements, which, though not known to every Goblin, was something the higher echelons were aware of.
Indeed, upon hearing this, Eugene was momentarily lost in thought, instinctively letting go of Mu You’s hand. After a moment, he finally realized what had been said and plopped down on the floor with a thud: "It’s over..."
"What’s over?" Mu You asked.
"Goblins are an extremely cautious race. If they fled with Clockwork City , they must have prepared thoroughly and will hide in a place no one knows about. They won’t have any contact with the outside world for a long time... This means we Goblins who are left behind... have been abandoned..." Eugene said, clutching his head in agony.