Chapter 23: Troubles
Although he had made up his mind to tackle the problem, it was clearly not something that could be achieved in a short period.
Tom could only patiently accumulate knowledge bit by bit and research little by little.
Even though the number of Clones he could control had reached its limit, Tom still did not stop cultivating new Clones.
Currently, the work schedule arranged by Tom was 16 consecutive hours of work per day, which included bathroom breaks, meals, and temporary rests. The remaining eight hours were for sleeping.
He did not need Tom to control them while they were sleeping.
A total of 21,000 Clones were divided into three shifts by Tom. At any given moment, only 14,000 Clones were working simultaneously, while 7,000 Clones were always sleeping in the collective dormitory.
These 7,000 control slots were a waste for Tom, which he could not tolerate.
To fill these 7,000 vacant control slots, and considering that the Clones used to fill these slots also needed to sleep and could not work for 8 hours a day, Tom planned to cultivate an additional 14,000 Clones.
This way, although some Clones would not work for the maximum duration, it would ensure that 21,000 Clones were working at all times.
The idle work hours could be distributed among the other Clones, allowing each Clone a bit more rest time, which not only improved fault tolerance and reduced scheduling difficulty but also slowed down their physical aging.
Thus, Tom would have a total of 35,000 Clones under his command.
After several years, this goal was successfully achieved.
The Loshen Star base was now truly prosperous.
In the newly built large collective dormitories, over ten thousand beds were fully occupied every day.
Dozens of large planting, breeding, aquaculture, mushroom, and fruit cultivation bases produced massive amounts of food daily, transported by train to the central kitchen, where hundreds of Clones acting as chefs processed them into finished products, which were then distributed to every factory, canteen, and base, and handed to each Clone.
Hundreds of different factories roared with activity every day, producing with great enthusiasm. Under Tom’s unified planning, they were organically integrated, ensuring that there was no overproduction in one area while another suffered from insufficient capacity.
At every moment, large numbers of Clones would wake up, then neatly leave their dormitories, put on their equipment, and head to different posts according to Tom’s unified plan.
At every moment, large numbers of Clones would also finish their day’s work, take various means of transportation back to the collective dormitory, and without any delay, fall into a deep sleep.
Under Tom’s unified control, each of these Clones was "all-capable."
Every Clone mastered every skill required by the base.
Perhaps yesterday a Clone was cooking food in the kitchen, today he was driving a train, tomorrow he might go to the foundry to operate machinery, the day after he would be at the planting base to harvest wheat, and the day after that, he would be in a chemical or metal laboratory conducting experiments, observing material properties, optimizing mechanical structures, and promoting overall technological progress.
What work each Clone did upon waking up each day depended entirely on Tom’s plan for the day and the needs of the base.
Under these circumstances, the work efficiency of the entire base, with tens of thousands of Clones, was almost maximized.
Tom’s overall technical level, though slowly, steadily improved under these conditions.
Even after shift optimization, Tom’s Clone control quantity had reached its limit.
If he cultivated more Clones, they would truly have nothing to do and could only lie in bed all day like vegetative people.
But Tom still did not stop cultivating.
The number of Clones continued to increase at a rate of 4,000 per year. By now, the total number of Clones under Tom’s command had even exceeded 100,000, reaching 101,600.
However, at the same time, the number of Clones controlled by Tom for work remained at only 21,000.
"If I can’t control them temporarily, then I’ll store them. Maybe someday I’ll have a breakthrough in biotechnology, and my control ability will skyrocket. At that time, I can directly put these Clones into use, avoiding the need for slow cultivation."
Tom thought to himself.
But just letting these Clones lie in bed all day wouldn’t work either.
Lying for too long would not only cause bedsores and various illnesses but also muscle atrophy.
Helpless, Tom had no choice but to greatly reduce the working hours of individual Clones, trying to rotate their control so that each Clone could work for a period each day, just for exercise.
In this situation, the working hours of a single Clone unprecedentedly dropped to less than 6 hours per day, and as the number of Clones continued to increase, it further decreased to only 4 hours.
The rest of the time, they were either sleeping or lying idly in bed.
This, in turn, brought immense pressure on logistics.
Even lying still, they still needed to eat, drink, breathe, and use the restroom.
Helpless, Tom had to construct several more huge agricultural bases, directly increasing the quarterly wheat yield to 14,000 tons, which finally met the current demand.
"Now the number of Clones has increased to 150,000... no more than that.
If there were more, the 21,000 Clones I can control might as well do nothing but raise pigs and farm in the agricultural bases."
Tom reluctantly stopped the operation of the Clone factory.
Looking at the newly built collective dormitory building, Tom sighed.
Such a collective dormitory building had ten floors, each with 100 rooms, and each room contained five bunk beds, each divided into three layers, sleeping 15 people.
One floor housed 1,500 people, and one building housed 15,000 people.
Tom built a full 9 buildings, but they were all still fully occupied.
"I never thought I’d have a day when I’d be troubled by too many Clones. This is truly..."
Looking at the biological laboratory, Tom felt even more annoyed.
A breakthrough in biotechnology was still a long way off.
There was no way around it; if the overall technological level couldn’t be raised, simply developing biotechnology would yield diminishing returns.
Just as Tom was about to honestly continue developing basic technology, a Clone located at Iron Ore Base No. 45, connected to his mind, suddenly lost contact.
"What’s going on?"
Tom immediately manipulated a nearby Clone to look up and observe the situation there.
The next moment, Tom gasped.
"What in the world is that..."