“It’s still too heavy.”
Shane squatted beside the skeleton of the chicken coop, which was beginning to take shape. He tapped his finger against the insulation wall made of packed sand, soil, and wheat straw, which emitted a dull thud.
The coop before him had a base length of about 2.5 meters, a height of 2 meters, and a depth of roughly 3 meters. Although it wasn't fully assembled yet, Shane knew that once it was finished, it would be an unimaginably heavy colossus.
“Four...” Elon stood beside him, his brow also furrowed in a tight frown. “No, it might take at least eight skeletons to drag it. With this size and weight...”
“It’s a clear failure,” Shane finished the sentence for him, his gaze sweeping over the piles of materials nearby.
There was plenty of wheat straw left, and they had enough Red Willow and Suosuo branches. Their reserves of ectoplasmic crystals and Moon Sand were also sufficient. The only issue they couldn't bypass was the material for the insulation walls.
An insulation wall made of packed sand and soil had to be at least ten centimeters thick to be effective. Otherwise, once the daytime sun beat down on it, the inside of the coop would be no different from an oven.
But with increased thickness came increased weight, and the overall volume expanded accordingly.
“If only we could find a material that's both lightweight and heat-insulating. But what can we possibly expect from a godforsaken place like this?” Elon sighed from the side. Lacking a solution, Shane remained silent, staring at the dirt wall as his mind raced.
Back in his previous life, desert chicken coops were mostly built with galvanized light steel pipes as frames, thickened waterproof canvas or camouflage sunshade nets as roofs, and nylon or polyethylene bird nets as walls. They were lightweight, well-ventilated, and provided excellent insulation.
But how could such things exist in this world?
Just as the two of them were fretting over the coop's wall materials, the sandy ground beneath their feet suddenly trembled.
A few moments later, Sara’s figure emerged from the sand about a dozen paces away. She waved her giant pincers and raised her tail sting high in the air, as if greeting them.
Elon went up to meet her, starting to communicate with her with practiced ease.
Shane stood back and didn't move, but he noticed a sudden bulge on Sara’s back, which then began to move.
Five little earth stingers, each barely half a meter long, crawled down along the edges of Sara’s carapace.
Once they reached the ground, the five little earth stingers voluntarily lined up beside Sara. They stood in a neat, orderly row, their tail stings all pointing in the same direction with perfect precision.
Shane’s eyelid twitched. “What’s going on here?”
He walked forward. Elon turned around, a rather subtle expression on his face. “Sara says... she wants her children to find some work here with us.”
“What?”
“She says...” Elon looked a bit helpless as he repeated himself. “She says they’ve had a pretty good time here lately. They’ve been eating well and sleeping well, and she thinks we’re reliable enough. So, she was wondering if her children could do some work too, to earn some food.”
Shane raised an eyebrow. His gaze swept over the five neatly lined-up little earth stingers. He found it both hilarious and endearing, and he couldn't help but shake his head. “She certainly knows how to plan ahead.”
Sensing that Shane wasn’t particularly opposed to the idea, Sara immediately tapped her giant pincers against the ground in excitement. Beside her, the little earth stingers instantly wriggled their bodies and raised their tail stings high.
Elon glanced at Sara and continued translating for her. “She says that although the children are still young, they can already use the petrification ray. They can help patrol the vicinity of the oasis.”
It was meant to be a minor suggestion from Sara, but Shane froze in place upon hearing it.
His gaze fell back onto the five little earth stingers, specifically on their tail stings.
In an instant, a bold idea struck him. Shane immediately looked at Elon. “Tell me, if we use the petrification ray to turn bones into stone, will their weight change?”
Elon was stunned for a moment, but he quickly understood Shane’s meaning. If the petrification ray could petrify bones while keeping their original weight, then other items could likely be treated the same way.
“We can give it a try.” Elon’s interest was immediately piqued. He turned to Sara, gesturing rapidly to explain their intent.
Sara let out a short hiss, indicating her understanding. She then turned to look at the first little earth stinger on the right and gently tapped it with her tail.
The little earth stinger was clearly nervous. Its carapace trembled slightly as it took half a step forward, its tail sting rising shakily. A green light condensed at the tip of its sting, dispersed, and condensed again, unable to fire for a long time.
Shane didn’t rush it. He raised his hand to summon a humanoid skeleton and commanded it to stand about three meters away from the little earth stinger. To make things easier for the young creature, Shane even had the skeleton crouch down.
Elon crouched beside Sara as well, making sounds similar to hers, as if offering comfort and encouragement.
The little earth stinger finally plucked up its courage. With a sharp flick of its tail, a thin beam of green light shot out from the tip of its sting.
Zap!
The green light landed over a meter away from the skeleton, turning a small patch of sand into a grayish-white, hardened lump.
The little earth stinger’s body flinched, and it shrank back as if it were a child who had done something wrong.
Sara immediately tapped it gently with her giant pincers, emitting a series of low clicking sounds.
Shane remained expressionless and said nothing. He simply controlled the skeleton to take a step forward. Beside him, Elon spoke gently, “Try again. No rush.”
The little earth stinger shifted back and forth a couple of times before raising its tail sting once more. This time, the green light condensed at the tip for a bit longer, and the glow was slightly more stable.
Buzz!
The beam shot out again, and this time it hit the target.
However, it struck the skeleton’s forearm rather than its torso. Furthermore, the power of the beam was indeed much weaker than Sara’s; only the skeleton’s ulna and radius in its forearm were petrified, while the rest, including the hand and the humerus of the upper arm, remained unaffected.
The little earth stinger was clearly uneasy about its results, shrinking its body back once more.
But Shane’s eyes lit up. He quickly stepped forward, squatted down, and commanded the skeleton to detach its two petrified forearm bones and hand them to him.
The moment the bones touched his hand, Shane could feel that their surface was no longer slightly porous and smooth, but rather possessed a denser, stone-like texture. When he tapped them gently with his fingernail, they made a crisp, metallic ring.
And yet, the weight had not changed.
A smile tugged at the corner of Shane’s mouth. He called out to Elon, “Elon, catch!”
He tossed the bones to Elon, who caught them in one swift motion. After weighing them in his hand, Elon’s eyes also shone with excitement. “They’re light! It’s not the weight of actual stone. It works!”
Elon turned the two petrified bones over and over, examining them closely for a moment before looking up at Shane. His voice carried unmistakable excitement. “If we grind bones into powder, mix it with a small amount of ectoplasmic crystal powder, place it inside the sand-soil sandwich layer, and then have the petrification ray blast the surface, we can form an inner wall with micro-pores.”
“This way, it can absorb the heat conducted from the outside during the day, store it in the inner wall, and slowly release it at night.”
“Furthermore, both the weight and the wall thickness will be significantly reduced.”
Shane nodded. Elon’s idea aligned perfectly with his own.
The only drawback now was that the little earth stingers’ petrification range wasn’t large enough yet; they could only cover an area about the size of a washbasin at a time.
This meant the coop’s insulation walls couldn't be assembled as large, single pieces. Instead, they would have to be pieced together from smaller panels, which wasn't a major issue.
With that in mind, Shane’s gaze swept over the little earth stingers before finally landing on Sara. “The quality is fine. The little guys can start working here.”
“We’ll pay them piece-rate. Each completed petrified panel can be exchanged for a meal, and those who perform well will get extra treats.”
Elon couldn't help but find it hilarious. “Are you really planning to sign a contract with them?”
“It’s called establishing a long-term, stable partnership,” Shane replied, his expression unchanging. “Besides, since Sara brought her whole family here, we have to make them feel like there’s a bright future in working for me.”
Elon shook his head with a smile, but he turned around and used an emerald-green light to convey Shane’s message to Sara.
Sara raised her giant pincers high and clicked them together twice above her head, emitting a cheerful clicking sound.
The five little ones behind her also began to wriggle excitedly. The little earth stinger that had been the first to hit the target even spun around in place, nearly striking its companion with its tail sting.
Watching this lively scene, Shane suddenly felt that life at Silver Sand Lake was starting to feel more and more like a big family.
“Well then...”
He clapped his hands and turned toward the unfinished skeletons of the chicken coops. “The Silver Sand Lake Construction Petrification Squad is officially established today! Your first task is to turn all the bone plates we need for tomorrow into stone.”
Behind him, Elon was crouching in front of Sara’s family, seriously explaining the specific details of the contract. The five little earth stingers were lined up in a row like elementary school students listening to a lecture, their little tail stings standing straight up in unison.
With his back to them, the corner of Shane’s mouth curved upward.
He withdrew his gaze. Just as he was about to bend down and pick up a new bone, he suddenly caught a glimpse of a small area of sand near the bone wall shifting slightly before quickly settling back into stillness.
It happened so fast that Shane thought it was just an optical illusion caused by the desert’s heat waves.
Rate on N.U.
