Chapter 49: The Campground At The Huge Crater

Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio

As the jewelry shop had been set in the right direction, Chen Jin redirected his focus back to Haierfa. During the time that passed, significant changes had occurred at the campground. First, a house had been built in the center of the campground. It was constructed by welding steel plates together.

The metal house took up an area of about 80 square meters. There were a total of three stories. On the first story was the kitchen, dining room, and storeroom, where he kept all his tools and exploration equipment. A toilet was located just outside. On the second story was his living and sleeping quarters which were connected to the portal. He could return to his bedroom on Earth anytime. As for the third story, he could store the weapons, ammunition, jewels, and other treasures up there. They no longer had to be stacked in a towering pile without any form of shelter.

After the metal house was built, the living facilities at the campground were greatly improved. In addition, he built another metal house. The super calculator was kept inside this second metal house. He also built a few more garages.

More than 20 temporary amenities were constructed using the same steel plates. They had walls and roofs, and acted as a barricade from the sandstorms, providing shelter from the wind and rain. In the near future, the number of metal constructed amenities would definitely be increased to the hundreds.

In addition, the shipping squad had brought back a large amount of equipment and supplies from Fort Worth City. For example, the quantity of the capsule factories had increased to 11. Of those 11 capsule factories, seven were designed for general production and four were designed for custom production. More than 300 tons of raw materials needed for the printing process had been transported back.

Furthermore, the shipping squad had transported thousands of tons of scrap steel, tens of tons of electrical cables and copper wires, and tens of tons of miscellaneous units and parts related to electrical power facilities from the nearby City of Tereese.

Hence, sufficient raw materials for the creation of the second batch of 10 wind turbines had been gathered. The general capsule factory had already been put to work. After an estimated 10 days, the wind farm to the east of the huge crater would expand twice its size. It was estimated that the electrical power that the wind farm supplied would also double to 500 kilowatts and above.

The quantity of the robots had also been increased from 100 to 300. Labor became more abundant.

In addition, the large-sized vehicles like the rover, transport truck, and tow truck, were increased from one of each to a total of 20, meaning that transportation capability had been greatly increased.

Under the direction of the AI, Alice, the construction of various facilities at the campground was still speeding up. This helped Chen Jin save much of his mental energy. For many tasks, he only had to articulate his own requirements and the results that he wanted. Alice grasped his meaning easily and would quickly arrange for the robots to complete the tasks that he had set. After all, as an AI, Alice’s intellectual ability far surpassed those robots who only knew how to carry out inflexible tasks and commands. Moreover, Alice had the greatest interaction with humans as their city management system. Or it should be said that what she managed was the humans. How could she not understand the meanings that humans expressed and the tasks they ordered?

So, even if Chen Jin was not usually present at the campground, Alice could still follow his commands accordingly. She completed the construction work on various facilities at the campground efficiently and methodically. She could displace the use of humans. This was the significance of the existence of AIs. Therefore, under Alice’s scientific and logical planning, the construction speed of the campground’s facilities had clearly shifted to a higher gear.

One could see the fledgling stage of Chen Jin’s vision as it was slowly transformed into the image of his planned “Base of Operations.” Not bad! With a little bit more time, the “campground at the huge crater” could be upgraded to a small-scale “Base of Operations.”

Obviously, in comparison to the “camping ground,” a “Base of Operations” could be said to be a higher-quality upgrade. For example, the infrastructure was greatly improved. The number of supplies was greater and with more variety. The environment felt more comfortable, and the furnished facilities were better. More importantly, the ability to explore and remodel this planet would also be enhanced.

In the blueprint that he designed, his “Base of Operations” was like this: There would be more than 100 metal constructed amenities and residential facilities. They would then form a complex of buildings. The 100-plus capsule factories would form an industrial zone. The number of rovers, transportation trucks, and tow trucks would be increased to over 100. This would create a raiding squad of unbeatable force. He would also expand the scale of the wind farms such that the power supplied could reach 1,000 kilowatts or even more. The number of robots would be increased to over 500.

When all the above goals had been met, the upgrading of the campground would be complete!

Alice replied after a series of virtual calculations, “Master, it will take only about two and a half months to complete all the construction work. However, Master, you would need to provide some of the supplies.”

“No problem.” Chen nodded as his face filled with anticipation. Actually, in his imagination, the final state of his base of operations would be a mid-sized city. He had to at least fill up the crater under his feet with its diameter of 10 kilometers! By that time, this place would not be called a “Base of Operations,” but a “Crater Civilization.” A civilization that he had created out of a crater. But, that was still too far away. Chen Jin could only occasionally think about it in his heart.

Lastly, within this recent period, the robots had also gained some definite results from the exploration of the campground’s surrounding areas. It was because there was a flying car at the campground. It could rise thousands of meters into the air and fly at high altitudes. Its fastest flying speed was 800 kilometers, similar to its longest travel distance, also around 800 kilometers.

This had greatly increased the efficiency of exploration. The surrounding areas of the campground ranged at 400 kilometers while the travel ability of the flying car was 800 kilometers. Divided by two, it could certainly speed up the actualization of the exploration. According to the calculations of a circular area, the area of a range measuring 400 kilometers in circumference would be more than 500,000 square kilometers. It was equivalent to the area of a large province in his country.

With Haierfa’s previous level of prosperity, there should be at least a population of 30,000,000 or above living in such a huge area. 80% of the population would be living in cities. Hypothesizing that there was a population of 500,000 living in each city, in a range with its circumference measuring 400 kilometers, there should be at least 48 cities!

The robots operated Air No. 1 and Air No. 2, taking them out for an exploration trip. After they surveyed the grounds from the air and combed through the range measuring 400 kilometers in circumference, they actually only found a total of 23 cities. Of those, there were five cities in the north and 18 in the south. 19 were impacted by nuclear bombing. There were only four that were more or less undamaged.

There were also countless smaller cities, towns, and villages that were buried under thick layers of sand. The most that one could see of them were half of a roof or the spiral tip of a lightning protection device placed atop a clock-house. Perhaps, after more time had passed, the countless traces of human civilization would become cultural artifacts buried deeply underground. They would probably never see the light of day again.

In addition, the robots also found the existence of several mining sites, suburban chemical factories, oil refineries, and power plants. However, the majority were destroyed by conventional weapons. Only a few mining sites were worth a trip to explore.

In addition, Da Li said with regards to the possibility of survivors, “Master, We’ve discovered that there are more emergency shelters and cities to the south. The probability of the existence of survivors would be greater there! After the eruption of the destructive war, a nuclear winter happened, causing the temperature of the north to rapidly decrease. Only the low latitude areas in the south were suitable for humans to live in. Aerial dust was lesser. In our explorations, we’ve found wooded areas, grasslands, and animals in the coastal areas to the south. This clearly means that the land could already grow food! Since there is the existence of food, once the survivors get their hands on that food, they can live, multiply, and welcome the birth of a new civilization.” Da Li said agitatedly, “We should send out another squad to focus on finding the whereabouts of those survivors!”

However, Chen Jin sank into silent thoughts.

Food… Survivors…

With a lack of interest, he casually laughed, “Um… There’s no rush. For now, there’s no hurry to do this. We’ll certainly conduct a search. But for now, we are plenty busy and can’t afford to take out manpower for this. The survivors… We’ll find them later.”

Da Li was very astonished. “Is there anything more important than searching for your fellow humans? How will this planet be rebirthed without sufficient humans? Perhaps… This is the reason and significance behind the creation of the rebooted virus in my body?” Within Da Li’s eyes, its green colored gaze that was filled with hope and anticipation slowly dimmed. Humans were too complicated. It was unable to comprehend.

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