Feng Jun had also noticed that ever since Longmen Town started selling grain, the number of merchant caravans and various scavenger groups coming and going from Longmen Town had gradually increased.
A large portion of the increased population in Longmen Town came from these groups, but many survivor camps chose to wait and see, because for the leader of a survivor team, being governed in someone else's territory and being a king oneself were two different feelings.
Moreover, to facilitate transactions with Longmen Town, many survivors and scavenger groups simply moved to live near Longmen Town; after all, there were so many empty houses and vacant lots in the wasteland that no one would care if you built a building anywhere.
After discussing with Li Lu, Feng Jun first adjusted some of Longmen Town's rules, raising the price for entry and exit from 4 helium crystal points to 10 helium crystal points, but if you owned a house in Longmen Town or had family members serving in the army, it would be free.
House ownership was also modified again; previously, while housing prices in Longmen Town were relatively high, you could obtain your own tin house for 20 to 50 helium crystal points, but it would be reclaimed if you did not return within 30 days.
Now, Feng Jun doubled the selling price of houses within Longmen Town's walls, and the reason for deliberately raising prices was naturally for conscription.
If you joined the army, you could get a house for free, and it would be built with cement bricks and tiles; though simple, it was better than living in a broken house in the ruins or a tent and simple tin house pitched in the wilderness.
However, this was not enough, Li Lu thought for a moment and then said, "The original site of Longmen Town was a gathering place for refugees in the wilderness, and there are no relying terrains or buildings within a thousand meters around.
If a Zombie Tide rushes here, you will have no defensive positions.
I suggest you build defensive lines in advance; trenches and walls are your best choices at the moment.
At the same time, send soldiers to clear out the zombies and Mutated Creatures in nearby buildings, and incidentally force those hesitant survivors to join your team.
As for those who refuse to join, just expel them; if these people infiltrate, they will become unstable factors instead."
Feng Jun nodded in agreement and immediately called Song Peng to oversee the execution of this matter.
He had to be prepared before the Zombie Tide erupted.
After all this, Feng Jun suddenly remembered that he hadn't seen Old Eight, who usually followed Li Lu, today.
He remembered Old Eight had insisted on waiting by the door while Li Lu was recovering in the life pod, so he asked Li Lu, "Where is your Old Eight? Has he not been repaired yet?"
Li Lu pouted and said, "I repaired him a long time ago; I just wanted to give him a nicer appearance.
I also made one for you while I was at it; it's just waiting for you to activate it."
"You made one for me!" Feng Jun was overjoyed upon hearing this and excitedly stood up from the sofa.
"Where is it! Quickly take me to see it."
Feng Jun had personally witnessed Old Eight's flexibility and combat power; with his agile speed and jumping ability, he could even fight a Sawtooth zombie.
If he could build an army of such Mechanical Dogs, the next time he encountered a Sawtooth zombie, he could directly unleash the dogs to bite the zombies.
"You looked envious the last time you saw Old Eight, and then you asked me to make one for you; how could I not help my boss?" Li Lu looked at Feng Jun with a hint of teasing.
"Still calling me boss." Feng Jun stepped forward, put his arm around Li Lu, and whispered into her ear, "Shouldn't you call me 'Husband' instead?"
His response was Li Lu gently pushing him away with an elbow and walking out, with Feng Jun quickly following behind her.
Arriving at Longmen Town's weapon production workshop, this was where Feng Jun had recruited various engineers.
These engineers were using tools Feng Jun understood or didn't understand to manufacture various weapons, and some discarded Power Armor scattered in the ruins were also dragged back here for repair.
Here, a grizzled, robust old man could be seen welding a circuit tube with a laser pointer, and several others were dismantling scrapped firearms or polishing the outer shell of Power Armor with an angle grinder.
Although it was the Doomsday of the future, it gave Feng Jun a feeling of being in a handmade workshop in Pakistan, as if indigenous tribesmen were hand-crafting a terminator.
It looked both sci-fi and a little magical; if he hadn't seen it with his own eyes, it would be hard to imagine that it was already 2261, and Power Armor and laser guns were still being hand-made on Earth.
The war brought about a huge technological gap, and coupled with the government taking almost all technological elites when they left, although this world could still manufacture high-tech items like Power Armor and laser guns, it was all through repair and reprocessing.
Even vehicles like cars were rare; violence and barbarism filled the surviving human society.
Although the government had stockpiled a large number of pre-war talents in the Refuges, and many Refuges had gradually opened over the years, preserving the technological crystallization of pre-war humans, the Barbarians in the wasteland did not care what the Refuges contained.
Most of these gradually opening Refuges became targets for plunder by mobs and wasteland merchant groups, as highly skilled pre-war talents were objects of fierce competition among major forces.
In the innermost room, Feng Jun saw Old Eight and another Mechanical Dog undergoing debugging.
The newly assembled Mechanical Dog was taller than Old Eight and looked somewhat similar to a German Shepherd; a worker was performing the final assembly.
Seeing Feng Jun and Li Lu approach, the two workers immediately put down their work and greeted Feng Jun.
These two workers were engineers recruited by Song Peng, originally responsible for the manufacturing of mechanical exoskeletons.
Because Li Lu needed help manufacturing the new Mechanical Dog, they were called to assist.
At this moment, Old Eight was completely refreshed, his broken hind leg had been reattached, and various parts of his body were polished shiny.
Upon seeing Li Lu return, Old Eight immediately ran over, circling around Li Lu and Feng Jun affectionately.
Feng Jun reached out and stroked Old Eight's head, and Old Eight even stuck out his tongue and licked Feng Jun.
Feng Jun felt that Old Eight seemed more like a real dog than the last few times he had seen him.
"Old Eight seems more intelligent than before."
Li Lu stroked Old Eight's back, and Old Eight immediately sat down, his facial metal patterns shifting, as if he were a real dog enjoying his owner's caress.
"That's for sure; I added the latest bionic program to him, making his emotions closer to a real dog.
To better execute commands, his emotions and intelligence are closer to those of a military dog."
On the Doomsday timeline, the research and manufacturing of artificial intelligence had long been explicitly prohibited.
As early as 50 years before the outbreak of war, global governments unanimously passed a ban on the research and construction of advanced artificial intelligence and humanoid intelligent objects.
Doomsday scientists had already touched the threshold of advanced artificial intelligence before 2140, but it was subsequently explicitly prohibited.
Governments worldwide and most scientists believed that the human body was the best product of natural selection, and if overly advanced artificial intelligence was created, it would inevitably threaten human survival.
Therefore, only primary and intermediate artificial intelligence were allowed to exist in society, serving only as human aids and not participating in major human decisions.
Correspondingly, the manufacturing of 100% human-like robots was completely prohibited; that is, any robot manufactured, including humanoid robots, must be immediately identifiable as a robot, and robots with a 100% human appearance could not be created.
This law was enacted to ensure that humans could not be replaced by robots, and also to prevent the use of humanoid robots in illegal or gray industries, and more importantly, to ensure that ordinary people could find work in society.
Another reason was that scientists determined that if robots had the same appearance as men and women, they would not only snatch human jobs and disrupt social stability, but also cause some people to fall in love with the robot's false appearance, leading to forbidden human-robot relationships, thereby affecting human reproduction and evolution.
Moreover, in the military field, it was generally believed that a well-trained and well-equipped soldier was more reliable than a highly intelligent AI.
A machine might betray and defect due to a string of code, but a well-trained soldier who loved his country would absolutely not betray.
Under this social environment, although Doomsday's scientific technology continued to develop rapidly, the application of artificial intelligence and AI was locked within a framework.
Compared to humanoid intelligent robots, which easily touched red lines, electronic pets were safer and more popular.
This led to merchants being more enthusiastic about promoting various electronic pets and engineers and programmers being more enthusiastic about compiling animal-mimicking AIs in society before the war.
This is also why Li Lu chose to create a Mechanical Dog to accompany her on her journey in the Doomsday; of course, besides having existing AI programs for control, if you got tired, you could ride on the dog to rest for a while, and in the complex environment of city ruins, four-legged canines are more agile.
Since Li Lu said she made a Mechanical Dog for Feng Jun, the other dog was prepared for Feng Jun, but because it had just been manufactured and was still undergoing final debugging, the new Mechanical Dog still had several cables connected to a computer and was not running around like Old Eight.
Feng Jun circled the new Mechanical Dog; this newly manufactured Mechanical Dog looked sturdier, and when on all fours, it was a head taller than Old Eight, with an appearance closer to a German Shepherd, looking very mighty and majestic.
Li Lu also made some detailed refinements to its appearance, making it look more exquisite.
In fact, this was originally the gift she intended to give Feng Jun, after all, Feng Jun had saved her life.
After stroking it for a while, Feng Jun asked, "Can't I activate it yet?"
Li Lu walked to the computer, typed a few keys, and then said, "The code has been implanted; now it just needs to identify and record your information.
Stand opposite the dog's head and wait a moment."
Feng Jun stood in front of the Mechanical Dog as Li Lu instructed.
After a worker nearby pressed the start button, blue lights lit up in the Mechanical Dog's eyes, and then, like a dog that had just woken up, it sniffed around Feng Jun, constantly jumping around him, just like a real dog meeting its owner.
Li Lu explained, "This is recording your scent and biological information.
You can take this opportunity to give it a name."
Feng Jun thought for a moment and couldn't come up with a particularly good name, so he said, "The first one is called Old Eight, so this one will be Old Nine."
"By the way, can this type of Mechanical Dog be mass-produced, without needing too much combat power, and with fewer configurations?
As long as it's like a regular pet dog, it's fine." Feng Jun thought of the idea of bringing Mechanical Dogs to modern times to sell.
In the modern world, many people had started keeping pets, but raising dogs and cats in apartments had many inconveniences; raising dogs required walking them, and raising cats required buying cat litter.
Moreover, if a dog got sick, it needed injections and medicine, and disobedient pets could also be a major headache.