The Creators: From Night City

Page 331

If you were to ask who has the best access to information in a highly isolated metropolitan area, the sex industry would undoubtedly be on the list.

More sophisticated sex dolls are generally equipped with behavioral systems that use matching algorithms to customize their service to guests, while also enhancing confidentiality and privacy.

The data stored in the system became Jiang Bing's best source for gathering intelligence on Tycho Brahe's colony.

This is also why he returned to his old profession.

He gently placed his hands on the temples of the black-haired man in front of him, and without the other party's knowledge, a large amount of data flowed out from the other party's system and gathered in Jiang Bing's mind.

"Blue algae feeder, police officer, vertical farm employee..." Jiang Bing painstakingly sifted through the data stored in the sex doll's behavioral system, hoping to find useful intelligence.

Finally, a 'maintenance engineer' named Justin caught his attention.

The behavioral system protects the privacy of the clients. Businesses advertise personalized sessions, where each client is matched with a unique personality. After the service, the data records of the sex partners are immediately formatted, and the sex partners, who are managed throughout the process, have no idea what happened during the process. The privacy protection is simply top-notch.

This leads some people to always spout nonsense when being 'served'.

Chapter 672 Lunar Pioneers

Of course, gathering intelligence was just a side effect; doing his old job to cultivate his character and listening to gossip was Jiang's real intention.

Justin was the engineer of Tycho Brahe's 'Haven I' mass projector, which means that Jiang Bing would be the engineer of 'Haven I' 7 hours later.

After a less-than-rigorous security check, he entered the mass projector wearing a bulky space maintenance suit to carry out routine inspections and maintenance.

This orbital accelerator is essentially a super-giant electromagnetic cannon, with a long barrel, complex wiring, and enormous energy consumption.

The Tycho Brahe colony had to build a nuclear power plant specifically for its use.

The mass projector's barrel is more like an ellipse in shape, with an astonishing length of four or five meters, and the pipe extends for tens of kilometers along the radial lines.

This makes the entire mass projector look like a super-large particle collider from a distance.

This kind of spectacular architecture is quite amazing to people who have never seen it before, but to Boss Jiang, who has just devoured three planetary-level mega-ring structures, it is as insignificant as looking at a stinking ditch in front of his door.

To minimize height loss at the end, the final section of the projector's track is built along Tycho Crater, with the end outlet angled towards the universe, resembling a skyward-shooting firework launcher.

Every few tens of meters, the tunnel walls are covered with precisely arranged electromagnetic coils. When in operation, these coils are energized in sequence to generate an electromagnetic field that propels objects forward at an accelerating speed.

The reason the track is designed to be so long is to gradually increase the acceleration load on the object, avoiding excessive instantaneous acceleration that could crush or damage the item.

This thing is, after all, a mass accelerator, not a real electromagnetic gun.

To be honest, it wasn't very technical. After Jiang Bing used his restless little hands to grope her all over, he lost interest in it.

It was utterly boring, utterly boring. Boss Jiang was so bored he was practically ready for a cigarette afterward.

However, aiming to ensure that no thief leaves empty-handed, he still unleashed a large amount of nano-elements, infiltrating the key structure of this giant instrument and secretly taking control of this spectacular structure.

Destruction is always easier than construction. With these lurking nano-elements, Jiang Bing only needs a thought to paralyze them for at least half a month if necessary.

This is enough time for many things to happen on the surface.

The second mass accelerator was also built in the same way by Jiang Bing, except that compared to 'Haven-1', 'Haven-2' was not just for cargo transport, but also for launching some spacecraft, making it a mixed passenger and cargo accelerator.

After the destruction was done, the next step was to carry out the creation work.

Establishing a semi-permanent base on the moon is an extremely complex and massive undertaking, requiring very stringent technological standards.

Of course, there are two other factors that are also very important.

Human and material resources.

In terms of resources, [Reverse Entropy], which uses advanced 'space transportation' methods, has a much greater advantage than the European Space Agency, which is still using mass projectors to launch containers into the sky. The Heimer supply chain is enough for Jiang Bing to build cities all over the moon, and he can even personally take charge when necessary.

He has never worried about this.

The constraint is on human resources—highly qualified personnel who, after professional training, can work in the space environment of the moon.

Mr. Jiang could personally take part in digging on the moon, but he would inevitably be unable to complete the construction of the entire underground base within the limited time. Moreover, for a 'high-level' technical talent like him, digging and building infrastructure would obviously be a waste of his talent; scientific research is his ultimate destiny.

So after completing the initial land reclamation work, Boss Jiang smoothly shifted his focus from digging soil to recruiting people.

The living conditions of the workers in Tycho Brahe's colony were far from good. They faced heavy workloads, immense pressure, and constant risks in space, not to mention the poor food.

The world is so difficult, yet they still choose to persevere, simply because under the management of the High Knights, there is absolutely no room for resignation.

Unlike Earth, the moon doesn't allow people to retreat to their rural hometowns and enjoy an idyllic pastoral life when they can't cope with the pressures of big cities.

The Tycho colony is located on the lunar surface, where daytime temperatures can reach as high as 127°C and nighttime temperatures can reach as high as -183°C, allowing everyone to experience the extreme contrast between fire and ice.

The laborers trapped in the colonies had nowhere to escape and could only be oppressed by the system and structure into hardworking worker ants, struggling to build the nest until their deaths.

However, the income from low-level jobs is only enough for ordinary people to keep them from starving. To make big money and achieve upward social mobility, one needs to put in much more effort and pay a higher price on the moon.

You either become a space pirate and gamble your life, or you choose a high-risk job, which also involves gambling your life.

But if you walk by the river often enough, you're bound to get your shoes wet.

Kelvin was such an unlucky guy.

He was a lunar pioneer whose job was to explore for resources on the lunar surface.

The job itself may sound ordinary, but the risks are much higher than those of other common professions.

The Moon has a surface area of ​​approximately 3790 million square kilometers. However, because the Moon does not have an atmosphere like Earth's, a large number of meteorites will directly impact the Moon's surface. Therefore, if you are active in the Moon, you could very likely be killed instantly by a meteorite (or a group of meteorites).

Aside from the possibility of total annihilation, pioneering in the desolate lunar wilderness far from human settlements also involves facing severe challenges such as cosmic radiation shocks, deadly lunar dust attacks, lunar rock collapses during exploration, or equipment damage leading to rapid freezing or oxygen deprivation.

However, Kelvin still chose this job without hesitation, simply because it offered a monthly salary of over 100,000.

He was desperately short of money; money was as vital to him as his ailing wife's life.

However, good luck doesn't last forever. A rare and violent moonquake caused a landslide in the canyon wall where the pioneering base was located, and the collapsed moon rocks destroyed the work team's oxygen production equipment and most of their vehicles.

Some of their companions outdoors had their masks crushed by the pressure and were then frozen solid by the low temperatures, while others died from oxygen deprivation caused by damage to their spacesuits.

Of course, some were directly buried by the collapsing lunar rocks.

Although the moon's gravity is only one-sixth that of Earth, it can still easily kill a person when hundreds of tons of lunar rocks are dumped down.

This canyon terrain, which once sheltered people from massive solar radiation and miniature meteorite showers, has now become a graveyard for them.

In the lunar sea, about 740 kilometers away from Tycho's colony, he had become a fish trapped in a puddle. As oxygen was consumed, the water in the puddle was slowly evaporating.

Kelvin will soon face his death.

Chapter 673 The Mysterious Moonquake

But he felt he could still salvage the situation, so he staggered out of the exploration site, which was mostly destroyed, and headed towards the pioneer settlement.

The basalt surface is very flat. If his lunar rover is not damaged by the lunar rocks, he will be able to return to the base before running out of oxygen by speeding along.

Unfortunately, this four-person lunar rover was the first to be buried by the collapsing lunar rocks, and it and its driver disappeared long ago under the rocks.

So the two-and-a-half-minute drive took him a full ten minutes, and he still hadn't seen the campsite.

Lunar maria are not oceans in the true sense, and the surface environment of the moon cannot allow for the existence of oceans.

In fact, quite the opposite, lunar maria are flat, dark-colored, vast basaltic plains on the Moon. They are mainly distributed in the low-to-mid latitude regions on the near side of the Moon, and their total area accounts for 25% of the Moon's total area.

'Sea of ​​Abundance' is the name of the lunar maria that Kelvin pioneered. It is an irregularly shaped lunar maria with a total area of ​​approximately 326,000 square kilometers (equivalent to the area of ​​Italy or the Philippines), which is quite large.

Even after spending nearly half a year, Kelvin's Pioneer 92 team only managed to explore less than 10% of the topography and resource distribution of the Petavis impact crater on the southern edge of the Sea of ​​Abundance.

They discovered a huge ilmenite deposit and two small cerium and lanthanum enrichment zones, both classified as Level II (shallow enrichment, physical + simple chemical treatment) in terms of mining difficulty. They were just waiting to return to the team for maintenance and collect their bonuses when this unexpected incident occurred.

The warning lights on the data panel were flashing intermittently, indicating that the oxygen level had fallen below the preset risk threshold.

"I should have disassembled Dona's oxygen tank; that would have allowed it to last twice as long," Kelvin thought regretfully.

There was no sound in the cold universe; he could only hear his own breathing, heartbeat, and the faint sounds of his spacesuit equipment through bone conduction.

His tongue began to sting slightly, like drinking soda, and his eyeballs felt slightly swollen.

Kelvin knew his time was running out.

So he stopped his futile run, leaned against the rock, and casually sat down on the hard basalt ground.

He secured the rescue beacon, which had been kept open since the accident began, to his front to prevent him from unconsciously twisting or damaging the independently functioning positioning device.

This will allow arriving rescuers to find his body more easily.

The vast starry sky swirled above his head, brilliant and dazzling.

Before his oxygen levels dropped to the point of dementia, Kelvin quickly began writing his will.

[To Polya:]

I never imagined I would be the one to pass away first. I imagine the torment of illness is far beyond what you will experience when you read this letter, but I still want to urge you to persevere and not give up.

Death is not the end, oblivion is. My departure is only temporary, and we will meet again in heaven.

……

Polya,

The nitrogen in our DNA, the calcium in our teeth, the iron in our blood… all come from collapsing stars. And death is merely a ritual of stardust returning to darkness.

I still live in this ever-flowing sea of ​​stars. If you miss me, look up at the countless stars in the sky...

Kelvin's will began to blur, and the lack of oxygen to his brain made his senses become confused. In a dizzying moment, he lay down and waited for the quiet and cold death to arrive.

But there's always a way out.

A phantom-like figure raced across the barren surface of the moon with an extremely graceful posture. The yellow-orange nanomechanical wings behind her reflected a dazzling light under the sunlight, and the tips of the wings were spraying out torrents of plasma, providing her with powerful acceleration as she moved forward in the vacuum.

Xun Chi hadn't run so freely in a long time, and now she had to race against time, as she was now fighting against death.

[Xunchi: Lily, I've spotted the target. The location signal is confirmed to be coming from him.]

The drone following behind Xunchi blinked its central camera, which resembled a single eye, and then suddenly rose higher, shooting out scanning microwaves in all directions from the air.

[Lily: Scan confirmed, there is only one human within a radius of several hundred meters.]

Kelvin's eyes were rolling back in his head, and his vision was like boiling paste, with all the colors constantly churning and distorting.

Suddenly, a pretty face forcefully entered his field of vision, and two steel wings radiated a dazzling light, occupying his entire mind.

"Angel! Have you come to take me to heaven?"

[Xunchi: Baihe, the target is already disoriented. Can you determine the specific cause?]

[Lily: It's obvious he's lacking oxygen.]

The drone projected a large amount of radiation, scanning Kelvin's spacesuit and body condition thoroughly.

[Xunchi: It has to be said, native humans are indeed fragile.]

A canister of compressed oxygen was swiftly unloaded from her back. As an Edos-type human, a space android meticulously designed by the Mother Domain, she naturally did not need to breathe, so this canister of air was specially prepared for the frail native humans.

In fact, she prepared more than one canister; she carried a total of sixteen canisters of compressed oxygen on the back of her armor, all in order to rescue more space disaster victims.

However, only one can was actually used.

[Lily: Xun Chi, I've marked the air pressurization vents on their spacesuit for you, so don't put them in the wrong place. But their spacesuit is really outdated; it doesn't have an automatic depressurization function, so we'll have to assemble and replace it manually.]

Following Baihe's instructions, Xun Chi turned the semi-conscious Kelvin over, twisted open the external interface of the equipment backpack on his back, and inserted the oxygen compressor tank into it.

[Lily: It's fortunate he ran into me; it might not have been so easy for anyone else.]

The nanomaterial interface automatically changes shape to seamlessly adapt to the other party's 'outdated' spacesuit.

[Xunchi: Lily, is this enough?]

[Lily: I've taken over the systems on his spacesuit; leave the rest to me.]

The drone remotely hacked into Kelvin's spacesuit system. The ICE protection system that the High Knight was so proud of, despite being several generations ahead in technology, was as vulnerable as a girlfriend lying in bed after taking a shower, hesitant to come.

[Xunchi: How's Eve doing?]

After the earthquake, the two immediately went out to check the situation. Xun was the fastest and was assigned to rescue the injured, while Eve headed towards the epicenter to investigate the cause of the earthquake.

[Eve: I've arrived at the epicenter of the moonquake. Just as Mr. Sabur said, the earthquake was man-made. I detected traces of an RDX (RDX) explosion at the scene.]

Chapter 674 The Garden of Eden

[Xunchi: Have you found the killer?]

Eve: The killers have left, but they didn't try to cover their tracks. I found the tire tracks left by their lunar rover.

[Xunchi: Judging from the direction, they should be heading towards the settlement of these pioneers.]