Chapter 238: Changes Brought by Mechs

Friday morning at six, a construction site on the East Fourth Ring of Yan Capital, which should have been bustling with people and clanging rebar, was now somewhat quiet.

In the command post at the edge of the site, twenty-three-year-old operator Xiao Wang yawned, his fingers sliding over the control panel.

Before him were twelve monitors showing real-time footage from every angle of the site.

"Unit Three, deliver the prefab wall panel to Area C, seventh floor." Xiao Wang said into the microphone.

Five hundred meters away, an eight-meter-tall Giant Spirit God engineering mech sprang into action.

It extended its mechanical arm and easily lifted a five-ton concrete wall panel from the material yard.

The mech turned and walked toward the building under construction.

Each step precisely avoided underground pipes and equipment, and it would detour around any temporarily stacked building materials.

Reaching the building's edge, the mech's rear thrusters ignited, launching it and the panel up to the seventh floor.

"Positioning accuracy within plus or minus three centimeters." Xiao Wang looked at the data. "We can dock."

The mech aligned the panel with its reserved slot and gave it a gentle push.

With a "click," the panel slid perfectly into place.

The whole process took two minutes and seventeen seconds.

In traditional construction, this would require a tower crane, four workers, and at least twenty minutes.

Foreman Lao Li walked over, holding a thermos, and shook his head at the monitor: "I've been in construction for thirty years and have never seen a building go up like this."

"Three days to thirty stories… back then it would have taken at least three months."

Xiao Wang grinned: "Worker Li, times have changed. You're no longer just a foreman—you're a commander, and these twelve mechs are your fleet."

Lao Li took a sip of tea and gave a wry smile: "Yeah, a commander. But my pay for commanding this fleet is still lower than what you earn piloting a mech."

"That's because you haven't taken the mech operator exam." Xiao Wang pulled up the training page.

"Dragon Chant and the Ministry of Housing and Urban-Rural Development jointly run a civilian engineering mech operator certification course, which starts again next month. Study for a month and your pay will at least double."

"I'm fifty-two already…"

"What's wrong with fifty-two? Our training program's oldest student last term was sixty, and now he's running mining mechs in the northwest, earning thirty-eight thousand a month."

Lao Li's eyes lit up: "Really?"

"Why would I lie to you?" Xiao Wang switched the display.

"Look, this was just released this morning: the national inventory of civilian engineering mechs has surpassed one million units as of yesterday."

On the screen, the number kept ticking: 1,000,372.

"These one million mechs are deployed in construction, mining, logistics, firefighting, and rescue…" Xiao Wang rattled off the list.

"Directly created jobs number three million—operators, maintenance staff, dispatchers, and trainers."

"Indirectly driven sectors are even more numerous—battery manufacturing, component production, software development…"

Lao Li stared at the figure, murmuring: "One million units… and it's only been a few years?"

"It's a tech explosion." Xiao Wang returned to work.

"Unit Three, fetch the next wall panel. Unit Four, you handle welding the east-side steel beams on the seventh floor."

On the short-video platform, the topic #Mecha Construction Team# has racked up over ten billion views.

In the hottest video, twelve mechs work in sync at sunset, set to epic background music—absolutely cool.

In the comments, someone remarked: "My grandfather's generation carried cement on shoulder poles, my father's drove mixers, and now I sit in an air‑conditioned room pressing buttons."

The reply was succinct: "That's progress."

At ten a. m., a large coal mine in Jin Province.

Three hundred meters underground, there is no sunlight—only mine lamps and the mechs' searchlights illuminate the tunnels.

But unlike a traditional mine, here there are no miners blackened with coal dust, no deafening blasts, and hardly any dust.

In the tunnels, six Miner‑2 model mechs are at work.

They stand three meters tall, walk on four legs, each with an independent suspension system, allowing them to tread rugged mine passages as if on flat ground.

The lead mech extends its drilling arm; the bit spins at three thousand revolutions per minute, piercing the rock strata.

Sensors analyze the rock composition in real time, automatically switching to cutting mode when a coal seam is detected.

"Work Area Three, coal seam thickness 4.2 meters, quality excellent." In the surface control center, Technician Lao Zhang stared at the data screen.

"Expected to be finished in two hours."

"Received." The mech operator replied over the comms.

"But Worker Zhang, the sulfur content in this coal seam is a bit high—should we adjust the washing parameters?"

"Already sent to the coal washing plant." Lao Zhang typed on the keyboard.

"Just focus on mining; quality monitoring is handled by AI."

This is a modernized mine, operating 24/7 without interruption.

Safety?

Each mech has triple positioning, two communication sets, and an emergency life‑support system.

In a collapse, the mech's hull can withstand a hundred‑ton impact, buying time for rescue.

Efficiency?

A traditional mine crew of fifty extracts two thousand tons of coal in an eight‑hour shift.

Now six mechs can mine twenty thousand tons per day.

"Lao Zhang, the production figures are out." The mine director entered the control center, his face flushed.

"This month our output is up over four hundred twenty percent compared with before, and we've had zero safety incidents."

"Zero accidents is to be expected—once you're piloting mechs, what accidents could there be?" Lao Zhang didn't even look up.

The mine director patted his shoulder: "Those old miners have all retrained as operators, and their wages have gone up."

"Yesterday Old Wangtou even told me, he's worked in the coal mine his whole life, never felt as steady as now."

"No need to worry about collapses inside, no need to worry about gas explosions, after work you come home still clean."

"Old Zhang finally lifted his head, laughed: 'Yeah, Old Wangtou is showing off now, every day he brags to his grandson that he's piloting a mech.'"

"Just as they were speaking, the alarm suddenly went off."

"Looking up, they saw it wasn't the mine's alarm, but the control center's big screen automatically switched to the news livestream."

'"Breaking news: A high-rise residential building in Pudong New Area, Shanghai, has caught fire; fire crews have already rushed to the scene..."'

"In the footage, the middle section of a thirty-story residential building was belching thick smoke, flames shooting out of the windows."

"But then, a scene that left everyone stunned appeared."

"Three red firefighting mechs came sprinting from the end of the street."

"Each mech is six meters tall, with a huge water tank on its back, and its arms are extensible high-pressure water cannons."

"They rushed straight to the base of the building."

"The mechanical arms extended, adhering to the wall."

"Then, like three giant steel spiders, they climbed vertically up the outer wall, at least three times faster than a fire ladder."

'"My god..." Mine Director Old Li stared, dumbfounded.'

"The mechs quickly reached the floor on fire."

"One mech smashed the window with its mechanical arm, another extended its high-pressure water gun inside, and the third set up a safety net below."

"To prevent anyone from jumping out and endangering themselves."

"A water column sprayed out, a precise mist-like jet that could extinguish the fire while reducing water damage."