Translator: Henyee Translations Editor: Henyee Translations
After Director Li left, Lu Zhou took the elevator straight to the second basement floor of the main building at the Institute for Advanced Study. He walked through the hidden sample room and entered the secret third level basement.
This was his underground laboratory.
All of the system debris rewards were stored here, which was managed by Xiao Ai.
The moment he entered the laboratory, a quad-rotor drone with a display flew over.
Lu Zhou looked at Xiao Ai and asked, “How’s the crawler going?”
The so-called “crawler” obviously referred to the all-terrain remote-control exploration vehicle on Mars. This was one of his past system mission rewards.
Unlike the carbon nanofiber clothes, this gadget obviously contained much more sophisticated technology.
According to the manual, its communication radius was 3 astronomical units. Even if Mars and Earth were at their farthest relative position, the all-terrain crawler could still be controlled.
Lu Zhou was very interested in the communication technology contained in this gadget. He tried to disassemble this thing, but he couldn’t find a non-destructive disassembly method. The manual also clearly said it had a built-in self-destruction program, which could lead to unpredictable consequences.
This gadget was obviously similar to the nitrogen shield.
He could either shoot at it with the scanner gun, or just use it as it was.
Fortunately, unlike the nitrogen shield, this wasn’t a one-time-use device. According to the manual, this gadget could be charged with solar and geothermal energy. When its energy level was low, it would automatically enter its low-energy standby mode and wait for its battery to recharge.
Considering the fact that Lu Zhou already had a space station on the moon, his only choice was to put this crawler on Mars.
That way, not only could he survey resources for future colonists, but he could also explore the New Virginia site and see what happened there.
Xiao Ai: [It has successfully landed on Mars! We can begin at any time!]
Lu Zhou nodded and said, “Let’s begin now.”
Xiao Ai: [Yes, sir! (๑•̀ᄇ•́) و✧]
The control terminal of the “Crawler” all-terrain survey vehicle was a heavy notebook computer, which was also equipped with a signal transmitting and receiving device the size of a fridge. The signal transmitting and receiving device was installed by Lu Zhou beside the rooftop water tank. It was quite discreet.
However, even if someone felt like it was suspicious, they had no right to investigate.
This was because the Jinling Institute for Advanced Study played a crucial role in controllable fusion and aerospace research. Even the military research departments would have a hard time obtaining access to these buildings.
So far, the terminal of the crawler was connected and controlled by Xiao Ai.
Five minutes after Lu Zhou’s order, a black prism-shaped box on Mars made a gas-leak sound.
The shell of the box slowly opened. A remote-controlled vehicle that was less than a meter tall with angular edges appeared. It followed its preset instructions and began heading toward the New Virginia site.
On the other hand, Lu Zhou, who was in his underground laboratory, made a cup of coffee for himself. He then sat down at the experimental table and opened the survey vehicle control terminal.
He quietly waited for the communication delay. Finally, the signal traveled tens of millions of kilometers and a dialog box popped up on his screen.
[“Lightning” escape capsule activated!]
[“Crawler” activated!]
[Terminal successfully connected!]
A crystal clear video feed was shown on the screen. Lu Zhou drank his coffee as he watched the crawler drive through the harsh climate.
Due to the five minute long delay, it was obviously impossible for him to control this vehicle. However, this vehicle had some built-in intelligence, and using its preset instructions, it could complete its tasks without any human intervention.
The person sitting in front of the control terminal only had to look at the signals sent every minute or even ten minutes, and to look out for edge cases.
Actually, Xiao Ai could do this job for him. But Lu Zhou was curious. That life support system was the embodiment of North America’s state of the art biosphere technology. He wanted to see what it was like.
After a while, the outline of the life support system could be seen through the crawler camera feed.
Lu Zhou looked at the tragic “remains” of the biosphere. He thought back to the concept map published by Space-X and couldn’t help but feel bad for the Ares program.
After the escape capsule was launched, the entire life support system was abandoned. The remaining power was enough to sustain the life support system for a period of time, but it wouldn’t last long.
The escape capsule took away almost all of the remaining oxygen and methane. Not to mention the tail flame of the capsule damaged the shell of the life support system.
When the crawler drove through the gardening area, Lu Zhou could clearly observe through the camera that the vegetables had been destroyed by the escape capsule flames.
However, these were all just minor problems. After all, ever since the global sandstorm, the colonists had abandoned all of the crops.
The crawler drove up to the garage door, and it extended its arm and unlocked the garage door.
The crawler turned on its lights and went into the garage.
Lu Zhou looked at the life support system through the screen and couldn’t help but think.
His “Garden” research project was attacked by unknown forces. He had doubts it was the CIA, but there was no evidence. He never would have imagined that he would obtain new artificial biosphere technology this way.
Maybe this was the so-called karma.
Even though he didn’t believe in karma.
The crawler passed through the garage and went into the experimental area. Lu Zhou looked at the plastic bags and imagined what the last couple of weeks were like living here.
In order to conserve living resources and energy, the colonists moved into the same room. They stayed in the only room that had the communication terminal.
Lu Zhou couldn’t help but feel sympathetic.
He imagined the poor colonists arriving on Starlight and finding out that they could finally take a shower in Starlight’s guest cabin.
The crawler drove to the laboratory console. It extended its arm and inserted the arm into the console.
Soon, the screen lit up, showing a progress bar.
The progress bar was completed. The data was being transmitted to Lu Zhou, who was tens of millions of kilometers away.
Lu Zhou quickly looked through the files and had a serious look on his face.
He was even a little shocked.
“Interesting…”
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