Zhou Yi had released a recruitment notice through Red Kestrel to Chuneng City.

...

Position: Transportation Specialist

Salary: 10,000 Light Seeds/year

Requirements: Healthy, with relevant work experience, responsible for the pickup and delivery of company goods, able to transport passengers in the Dead Sea.

...

While waiting for applicants, Zhou Yi commissioned a task to Recursive City, requesting an investigation of the Dead Sea Area, a 2000-kilometer radius south of Wasteland Development Company, to search for a floating Dead Sea Alien.

This was also a suggestion by the Red Kestrel.

It had flown south several times but hadn't found anything.

If the floating Alien King Jacob mentioned truly existed, then the dedicated search and rescue teams should be well aware or perhaps have the latest intelligence. Delegating this task to Recursive City would be much more efficient.

However, the cost wasn't low; this search was quoted at 200 Light Seeds considering the distance and the winter conditions.

Zhou Yi was pretty straightforward with the payment, directly deducting it from the company's electronic account.

Soon after, the Chuneng City exchange market received numerous resumes from electromechanical lifeforms.

Zhou Yi flipped through the resumes.

"Large transport vehicle: Over 90 years of transportation and delivery experience, familiar with traffic regulations and road conditions near Chuneng City, able to withstand long-distance travel."

"Large passenger vehicle: Over 40 years of passenger transport experience, no bad driving records, no major accidents or traffic violations, with a strong sense of safety."

"Large transport ship: 24 years of experience transporting goods such as Light Soot, Light Amber, and precious metals, capable of independently completing unloading and port route planning."

...

Although there were a good number of applicants, they were uniformly transport vehicles and ships.

Zhou Yi was somewhat disappointed.

He had planned to secure an aircraft, which would be convenient and fast for travel, whether to the Dead Sea or over land.

"That will be difficult."

Red Kestrel informed him, "The number of electromechanical lifeforms is slowly declining year by year, and the Flying System is already very rare among electromechanical life. Models responsible for transportation are even more precious."

Zhou Yi thought about it and agreed.

Aircraft were already the least numerous amongst vehicles; naturally, there wouldn't be many electromechanical lifeforms of the Flying System.

He asked, "Is the decline in electromechanical lifeforms due to natural aging leading to death, or wars and environmental changes?"

"The main reason is natural aging."

Red Kestrel explained, "Electromechanical lifeforms have different structures, hence different lifecycles. However, generally speaking, as long as they can maintain the bare minimum regular checkups, part replacements, and upgrades, even considering the deaths caused by force majeure, the average lifespan is still over 300 years."

"Unfortunately, not all electromechanical lifeforms can perform regular maintenance and upgrades on themselves."

"The cost of replacing parts is a huge expense for most electromechanical lifeforms, let alone further upgrades. To maintain the life characteristics of electromechanical life, they can only remain in dormant or low-power static mode daily. Merely relying on absorbing Death Light from the land is not enough to cover the energy deficit."

"Once they operate normally and perform labor, they need to consume Energy Packs. Although Energy Packs are the cheapest supplies available, 10 Energy Packs cost 1 Light Seed, and they get used up very quickly."

Zhou Yi frowned as he listened, "According to that, the Agricultural Machinery Brothers Tie Ma and Tong Niu are earning 2 Light Seeds a month from me, just enough to buy Energy Packs, right? Isn't their salary a bit too low?"

That amount of salary barely satisfied the needs for maintenance, replacement, and upgrades.

"Yes."

The drone responded, "But if the price is too high, those in need won't be able to afford it."

"Even at the current labor service pricing, many cities are abandoning electromechanical lives like agricultural machinery for labor, opting for cheaper local manpower or animal power instead. Despite various issues like lower efficiency, the key point is affordability; it can be very cheap, and there's no need to be constrained by various regulations of electromechanical cities."

Zhou Yi felt a touch of surrealism.

In his time, inefficient human and animal labor was replaced by more efficient artificial intelligence. Yet, in the Wasteland Era, there was an absurd trend of technological regression.

No wonder the Agricultural Machinery Brothers always seemed tight on budget, delaying checkups after injuries.

Their physiological structures doomed them to be a high-cost group.

In other words, the main reason for electromechanical lifeforms' death was poverty.

Zhou Yi then said, "But I recall, the Agricultural Machinery Brothers seeking opportunities to showcase their skills should be helpful for their skill enhancement, right? After skill improvement, wouldn't it help alleviate their situation?"

He had trained in combat abilities attached to his class; as long as he entered the Dead Sea to fight, he could hone his skills.

For something like farming, they had to actually go out and farm to improve their skill levels, which was more cumbersome and difficult.

"Yes."

Red Kestrel expounded, "Take agricultural machinery as an example, if it can be promoted to a higher rank in 'farming reclamation' and 'farming', it will generate a higher added value, and may even breed extremely valuable quality crops. By further enhancing skills, coupled with sufficient experience in labor, one can achieve a leap in the professional hierarchy."

"Tie Ma and Tong Niu, they are the most basic 'agricultural machinery'. If they reach the pinnacle of their skills, they can apply for an updated identity and become 'agricultural machinery experts', and their salary will rise significantly."

"Many large cities that actually engage in long-term agricultural development will only recruit experts for guidance and planning. Ordinary agricultural machinery is not needed, because most of the labor force is provided by human and animal power."

"However, to become an expert requires long periods of extensive agricultural practice accumulation, which is quite difficult."

Now Zhou Yi completely understood.

It was actually about skilled professional titles. Only when one's professional title advanced could they cross the threshold and become high-level professionals.

Electromechanical life had perfectly inherited the hierarchical society of Old Humans.

"Most electromechanical lives are just ordinary laborers."

Red Kestrel emphasized, "Spare parts naturally age continuously, and the more they malfunction, the more likely they are to be downgraded, making it even harder to get quality labor opportunities."

"Losing the opportunity and ability to work, electromechanical lives also fall into a social sort of death. The death of their bodies will soon follow. The continuous decrease in the number of electromechanical lives is due to this reason, as they currently lack sufficient job positions and living space."

Zhou Yi thought of the Agricultural Machinery Brothers again.

It had been over a month since these two brothers had returned to Recursive City, and there had been no news of them; it was unclear if they managed to bypass the war zones along the way.

He hoped they were doing well.

"The situation for electromechanical lives with Flying Systems is different."

Red Kestrel brought the conversation back, "Especially for the larger individuals among them, they have innate advantages, allowing them to safely and quickly traverse the Dead Sea, and have always been the best choice for trade transportation and carrying passengers. Even though the unemployment rate for the electromechanical life community is increasing, it affects them very little."

"Most belonging to the Flying System are either long-term employed elites of various cities, like the medical rescue machine 'Cloud Track' previously dispatched to Chuneng City by Holy Mountain, or they have their own established businesses."

In short, this group belonged to the natural elites and were generally not found on the public talent market.

That was the situation.

Zhou Yi could only adjust his goals based on the actual circumstances.

That meant first getting a transport vessel.

However, when Zhou Yi clicked to view the details, he was stunned.

Those applying were not electromechanical lives themselves but transport vessels and vehicles owned by electromechanical lives.

The details described that they used a kind of advanced Tenon Connection service for remote synchronization, allowing them to control these transport vehicles for operations.

It was essentially using avatars to work from home remotely.

The biggest issue was that such operations were affected by the transmission environment. It was also noted that if force majeure factors affected the transmission synchronization, they would bear no responsibility, and it was suggested to purchase related insurance services... The key point was, almost all of the transport vessels used this avatar mode.

Zhou Yi rubbed his face with his hand.

Finding a suitable employee was really not easy.

Red Kestrel said about this, "If you're still looking for better, you'll have to post recruitment notices in the Five Great Centers, with Mirror City being the closest. However, the city is in a locked-down state during winter and will only reopen to outsiders once winter ends."

Zhou Yi thought it over.

Since there was no suitable option, he'd rather not look at all.

At this moment, Red Kestrel suggested, "Why not consider the Sheng Snakes?"

"Sheng Snakes?" Zhou Yi doubted he'd heard correctly.

Red Kestrel continued, "Although the Sheng Snake community is flesh and blood, they have a unique skill named 'Tenon Connection', which allows them to connect with each other, forming an extremely stable structure."

"They protect the injured, the young, and those in hibernation within the group, and use their own bodies to create a defensive structure. A sufficient number of Sheng Snakes can create a fortress, grouping together to fend off external offensives."

"Besides, they can come and go over the Dead Sea, moving quickly. Their transport of Floating Island has already proven they can exert great thrust to carry large, heavy items."

"Why not employ the entire Snake Island of Sheng Snakes, letting them coordinate as a group to become the company's Dead Sea transport specialists?"

Suddenly Zhou Yi had an epiphany.

He had always thought of electromechanical lives, while overlooking the even larger numbers of flesh-and-blood lives.

The crucial piece he needed had been within reach all along.

He had only one question, "Is this really feasible? I don't know much about Sheng Snakes."

"Under normal circumstances, it's impossible, because Sheng Snakes are highly aggressive and have strong social characteristics."

However, Red Kestrel noted, "But due to Da Vinci and Maria Hospital, the Sheng Snakes of Snake Island have also transported Floating Island for them, which is a successful case."

"Through Da Vinci, I believe there is some feasibility."

If that was the case, then it had to be tried.

Zhou Yi immediately hurried to Maria Hospital.