Ding Yun had just set her short-term goal.
The communication chip on her wrist pinged, and her smart assistant informed her she was an hour late. If she arrived now, her tardiness would be treated as being three days' worth of wages deducted.
However, if she exceeded two hours without showing up, it would be classified as absenteeism, resulting in half a month's wages deducted.
Good heavens, the black-hearted boss never goes out of style!
She had been so happy when she set her goal that she almost forgot she was now a corporate slave, working three jobs a day for nineteen hours.
Back in the old society, people sold themselves into slavery.
They probably weren't exploited like this.
Normally, Ding Yun could just quit now without any issues. After all, with an entire planet of delicious food, why fear poverty or starvation? However, Ding Yun was genuinely curious why the energy ore here could only be mined manually.
The spirit stone mines in the cultivation world.
She had never heard of them requiring manual excavation.
Coupled with her desire to reclaim her unpaid wages, she thought for a moment, tidied herself up, and left the cave, heading towards the nearby mining vein.
That's right. To save money and commute time, the original owner hadn't rented a place to live. Instead, she had found a wild mountain cave not too far from the three workplaces she was employed at, and was temporarily residing there.
Although the Beastmen Planet was well-developed, it was limited to the exploitation of various resources. Urbanization and other aspects were far from comparable to the Imperial Star. There were many wild, deserted areas.
As long as one wasn't afraid of danger or death.
No one would care if you lived in the wilderness.
As for transportation, the original owner certainly didn't have any, relying purely on her two legs. After walking for about ten minutes, she arrived at her first energy mine.
She clocked in at the entrance management office.
The attendance result showed she was one hour and twelve minutes late, with three days' wages deducted. The management office then granted her entry.
Within the entire energy mine, apart from the workers who mined the ore, there were no management personnel. Attendance at the entrance management office was entirely handled by machines. The inspection for privately taking energy ore out upon entry and exit was also conducted by robots. Generally, as long as the robots didn't report any errors.
And no one was caught smuggling energy ore out, no management personnel would show up.
After all, mining areas weren't pleasant places. If one could enjoy themselves in the city and use robots for management, why bother doing it themselves? It wouldn't increase their salary or lead to promotion!
Upon entering the mining area, Ding Yun quickly picked up a few mining tools that were neither advanced nor too primitive and found a suitable cave to delve into.
Along the way, she deliberately bypassed the side tunnels from which she could hear mining sounds and headed straight into a silent side tunnel where there should be no other miners.
She then saw a small amount of exposed energy ore.
"This energy ore actually has radiation. No wonder it looks different from spirit stones. So it's not spirit stones after all. Besides, the mineral's magnetic field seems to be somewhat distorted, making many industrial equipment unusable.
So, it's not that these energy ores cannot be mined by machines, but rather the high attrition rate of machines during the mining process makes it not worth the effort.
The wages for beastmen on the Beastmen Planet are very cheap.
They are cheap labor.
That's why they deliberately say this and directly hire beastmen from the Beastmen Planet for manual mining. Oh, and in this way, the energy mine strictly adheres to an eight-hour workday and only signs five-year contracts with workers, refusing to renew after five years.
I guess they know that the energy ore has radiation, and working too many hours a day or for too many years could likely lead to noticeable radiation sickness, which is why they specifically set these rules.
No wonder the original owner's organs and cells were deteriorating.
It turns out to be caused by excessive radiation exposure every day.
The original owner never knew this information, so it was likely kept hidden. This is not just a black-hearted boss, it's outright disregard for human life. They neither warn nor inform, and don't even provide radiation suits!"
After sensing the problems with the small amount of energy ore in front of her, Ding Yun quickly understood the previously confusing points, identified the original owner's true cause of death, and in the next second, picked up a hoe and began mining.
She intended to mine some ore and conduct her own research.
To see what this thing actually was.
And if it had any practical use.
With the boost from her panda bloodline, Ding Yun's strength was considerable. Coupled with the fact that the mining tools were made of high-grade alloy, making them very sturdy and sharp, her mining efficiency was quite good. Before long, a pile of energy ore, large and small, had accumulated around her. Some were only slightly more crystalline and transparent than ordinary stones, while others were like jade and precious jewels, and some were filled with impurities and threads, indicating different qualities of the energy ore.
The more beautiful it looked, the higher the grade and the more energy it contained.
The uglier it was, the less energy it had.
After mining out various grades of energy ore, Ding Yun immediately stopped digging and collected some of each grade into her soul space. She used the instruments in her soul space for detailed analysis, while also using her mental power to guide out and analyze the energy within the energy ore.
With this dual approach, after some investigation.
The secret of the energy ore was basically unlocked.
In essence, its properties were the same as spirit stones; both were aggregates of high-level cosmic energy. However, the energy within the energy ore was more primitive and turbulent than spiritual energy, and the radiation was primarily cosmic radiation. Therefore, these energy ores might be the most primitive spirit stones.
If this planet had not been discovered and had developed according to the principles of natural evolution, it would have taken at least millions, or even tens of millions, of years to give birth to intelligent life. By then, the high radiation contained within these energy ores might have gradually disappeared over time, and the energy would have become gentler, evolving into spirit stones that Ding Yun was more familiar with.
But now, this planet, before it could even give birth to any intelligent life, or even have a large number of life forms, was discovered and conquered by humans.
It was not given enough time for the mineral veins to wear down the radiation.
So, the reality was that humanity, millions or even tens of millions of years ahead of schedule, had strangled a future cultivation civilization, interrupted the planet's self-evolution mid-way, and mined unripened spirit stone ores.
And such energy ores, which had not been tempered by time to become gentler and devoid of radiation, had to be converted and purified by high-tech instruments before they could be used. Directly absorbing the internal energy for cultivation was purely a path to death.
This technology was only possessed by the Imperial Star.
The Imperial Star sold them at extremely high prices. The energy stones that could directly enhance one's cultivation were likely converted and manufactured from these energy ores.