Humanity Is Gone, but I Have Billions of Clones

With abundant power and massive resources, the integrated food production base was now operational.

The agricultural AI Li Qingsong had trained, which he named "Shennong," had now taken over most of the work at the integrated food production base.

To help Shennong work more effectively, Li Qingsong had even built a top-of-the-line Supercomputing Base specifically for it.

Under the Shennong AI's management, this enormous food production base required only twenty thousand Clones to operate at full capacity.

Back when they were developing Ceres, it often required half the Clones to be dedicated to agricultural production just to supply food for the entire population.

The ratio of agricultural workers to non-agricultural workers once reached one-to-one, or even higher.

This was a clear sign of inefficiency.

Now, however, the ratio of agricultural workers to non-agricultural workers had skyrocketed to 1:750. This increase in efficiency couldn't just be called a surge; it was a quantum leap.

He watched the wheat beginning to sprout in the fields, the rice in the paddies, and the various vegetables, beans, fish, livestock, and fungi. Then he glanced at the food reserves in the Space-Air Carriers, which had dwindled to less than 10%. Li Qingsong finally breathed a sigh of relief.

At last, he no longer had to worry about running out of food and the Clones dying of starvation on a massive scale.

Food, power, and steel were now all accounted for.

Thus, with the combined efforts of 15 million Clones and the coordination of the Jade Emperor AI, industrial AIs, construction AIs, and numerous other intelligent programs, the total industrial scale of the Ganymede base was elevated to match that of Ceres and Enemy God Star combined in just three years.

But this was clearly far from Li Qingsong's limit.

His maximum consciousness link of over 10 million, the 15 million Clones, and the various industry-specific AIs—which had formed a preliminary system, achieved a degree of intelligence, and were still rapidly evolving—were collectively capable of supporting an industrial scale at least three times larger.

Back on Ceres, it wasn't that Li Qingsong lacked the ability to build larger bases; it was that the resources there were simply too scarce to support them.

'Now that I've come to the Inner Solar System, to Jupiter, what would be the point if I'm still constrained by resources?'

The development of Ganymede had now reached an advanced stage. Li Qingsong made a decisive move: he would begin expanding to the other moons.

The Space-Air Carriers and heavy freighters were finally put to use. Loaded to the brim with materials produced on Ganymede, they set out for the other three large moons and other high-priority satellites.

The total span of the Jupiter System—measured by the orbit of the most distant valuable moon—was roughly 3 million kilometers.

The Jupiter Ring also fell within this range.

Over a distance of 3 million kilometers, the communication delay was a mere 10 seconds. Combined with the now relatively mature industry-specific AIs, the Clones' construction capabilities would be reduced by 20% at most—well within an acceptable range.

And so, large-scale construction began simultaneously across eight moons—Io, Moon II, Ganymede, Moon IV, Moon V, Moon XIV, Moon XV, and Moon XVI—as well as in the Jupiter Ring and interstellar space.

It was then that Li Qingsong gradually became aware of a problem.

With large-scale construction underway on multiple moons, the Jupiter Ring, and various space stations, the demand for transportation between planetary surfaces and interstellar space was becoming immense.

Currently, his space-to-surface shuttles still relied on old-fashioned chemical fuel Thrust Devices.

The dual-stage compression Thrust Devices were too large and heavy, and could only be fitted on heavy freighters.

And Li Qingsong saw no possibility of equipping his shuttles and landing craft with dual-stage compression Thrust Devices anytime soon.

This meant the enormous demand for cargo had to be met by shuttles and landing craft making endless trips between the surface and orbit—a process that was incredibly inefficient and consumed vast resources.

Electromagnetic catapults were also ill-suited for the complex environment of the Jupiter System, and their overall efficiency was too low.

'Besides, they can only launch, not recover.'

The flow of materials had become yet another bottleneck stifling Li Qingsong's development.

"In that case... I'll solve this problem completely. Once and for all!"

Li Qingsong decided to develop space elevator technology!

A space elevator, in essence, is a cable built to directly connect the surface of a celestial body to space.

Every celestial body rotates, and as long as the cable is long enough, the velocity at its tip will eventually exceed the body's escape velocity.

Once it reaches escape velocity, the end of the cable will pull the entire structure taut, preventing it from ever falling back down.

It's just like an athlete swinging a hammer throw; the ball pulls the chain taut.

With this cable, Li Qingsong could transport cargo directly from a moon's surface into space as if riding an elevator. He could also bring cargo down from space to the surface.

Not only would this dramatically increase efficiency and speed, but it would also lower energy consumption and be far more convenient.

Furthermore, building space elevators on Jupiter's four major moons would be far less difficult than building one on Earth.

Their gravity is lower than Earth's, so the elevators wouldn't need to be as long, and the strength requirements for the cable would be less demanding.

So, Li Qingsong decided to build four space elevators.

That's right—four of them, not just one.

One for each of the four major moons!

The smaller moons wouldn't need one. They were so small that large vessels could land on and take off from their surfaces directly.

Having committed to tackling space elevator technology, Li Qingsong immediately shifted his focus to the materials science lab.

Even back on Ceres, Li Qingsong had never let up on his materials science research, so he already had a sufficient knowledge base.

Even if he hadn't decided to focus on space elevator technology, his natural technological progression would have led him to this point soon enough.

While continuing the vast construction efforts, Li Qingsong directed numerous Clones to work tirelessly in the labs.

In just two short years, inside a materials science lab, two massive machines hummed and rumbled, slowly drawing out a fine filament within a vacuum chamber.

The filament was incredibly fine, with a diameter of only about 50 micrometers. Even someone with perfect vision could only just barely see it under ideal conditions.

But this tiny filament was the product of Li Qingsong's combined technological might, created using his most advanced techniques.

A robotic arm brought out a thick, extremely tough steel plate and moved it toward the filament.

The next moment, the filament sliced the steel plate cleanly in two.

And under a microscope, the filament remained completely unscathed!

"Excellent. With this material, I can build the space elevators."

Li Qingsong's heart filled with delight.

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