226: Chapter 226 The Lost Land 3

According to Yanjing time, it was already past nine in the evening when Chu Ge and the others finished their meeting.

Commander Wang did not dare to be careless; after organizing the materials, he returned to the Flight Control Center, as he needed to contact Elder Long and the others immediately.

Chu Ge hadn't slept for nearly 40 hours. After returning to his quarters, he hurriedly washed up and collapsed onto his bed...

The next day, Chu Ge woke up early and rushed to the Flight Control Center.

Commander Wang hadn't arrived yet, and not knowing what time he had gone to sleep last night, Chu Ge decided not to disturb him.

He stood in front of the porthole, watching the construction teams outside; right beneath his eyes, nearly 20 pieces of construction machinery were busy at work...

In the distance, there were so many that Chu Ge couldn't even count them; the Lunar Base project was getting bigger and bigger.

"General Chu, how long have you been here? How did you sleep last night?"

"What did Elder Long and the others say?"

Chu Ge didn't have time to chit-chat with Commander Wang right now, so he went straight to the point.

"It's up to you to decide!"

"Huh?" Chu Ge didn't react for a moment.

"The military has given you full authorization. General Chu, you can decide whether to continue based on the progress of the on-site exploration."

"However, the military also raised a few requirements, or rather, suggestions."

"First is definitely to pay attention to safety, especially the vertical shaft. If both equipment and personnel are to go down to the bottom, the rock walls of the vertical shaft must be reinforced."

"Second, carry sufficient heavy weaponry, just in case!"

"Third, if not necessary, General Chu, you should remain on the surface of the moon to command."

Commander Wang repeated Elder Long's words to Chu Ge as if reading out an order, and Chu Ge mulled them over.

"The third point is definitely a suggestion, not an order," Chu Ge thought to himself.

"Alright then, I'll go make the arrangements. The number of engineering personnel and guards this time will definitely increase significantly. Rest assured, there won't be any problems."

After Chu Ge finished speaking, he turned to leave, but Commander Wang called him back.

"General Chu, Elder Long's meaning is for you to carefully consider the third point. He knows your temper, so he didn't issue a hard order directly."

"Scientific exploration is not about acting recklessly. The Lunar Base has only just taken shape..."

"Rest assured, there are so many of our people in the exploration area; I won't make a joke of their lives."

Chu Ge said to Commander Wang solemnly.

Seeing how serious Chu Ge was, Commander Wang didn't continue, but instead extended his right hand. After the two shook hands firmly, Chu Ge turned and left.

Below the aerospace carrier, when Chu Ge came down, the exploration convoy was already prepared.

Chu Ge looked at the convoy that stretched as far as the eye could see, and a surge of ambition filled his heart.

He boarded the tracked exploration vehicle and immediately ordered the convoy to set off.

The exploration convoy this time was heavily equipped with heavy drilling equipment and transport vehicles loaded with reinforcement construction materials.

With heavy vehicles, the convoy's speed couldn't be fast. After about an hour and a half, the convoy finally arrived at yesterday's exploration area.

Captain Wang and the others began to direct the vehicles into the site.

Fortunately, this anomalous area was large enough; even with nearly 60 large vehicles spread out inside, it was still quite spacious.

The widening and reinforcement work of the deep shaft was handled by professional construction teams, so Chu Ge didn't participate.

After seeing Captain Wang and the others working in an orderly manner, Chu Ge walked over to Soul Blade.

"Soul Blade, was there anything unusual in this area last night?"

["During the exploration, the signal was interrupted from time to time. Does that count as unusual?"]

Soul Blade could even ask rhetorical questions now...

"Should, I suppose it counts. Did you patrol the area around here again?"

["101 laps."]

Chu Ge was shocked; it turned out this guy didn't crash last night; it just spent the whole night circling around here.

"But why 101 laps? Is there any significance to that?"

Chu Ge asked, a bit puzzled.

["None. I just estimated the time of your arrival today, then set a cruising speed, activated the detection radar, and then I went into standby. To translate it into your words: I went to sleep."]

Chu Ge stared at Soul Blade for a long time as if looking at a monster; he suspected that this guy had increased its own intelligence.

"It's a good thing your energy system comes from nuclear energy; ordinary battery packs couldn't withstand you draining them like this."

"Circling so many times was to investigate the source of the interference, right?"

["Yes, my flight trajectory and detection data have both been saved."]

["Based on the interference patterns, I can roughly calculate the location of the interference source. Just now, after repeated calculations, they all converged on a single point."]

"Where?" Chu Ge didn't expect Soul Blade to have found the interference source. When he got back, he would have to give it two extra... two liters of engine oil.

["Using the center of the exploration shaft as a reference point, it's 2400 meters away at the 2 o'clock position facing the sun."]

Soul Blade accurately provided the location coordinates.

Chu Ge looked at the vertical shaft under construction, looked up at the sun's position, and then turned toward the 2 o'clock direction.

This direction, wasn't it the general direction of that light source from yesterday?

2400 meters? Chu Ge recalled the size of the light source captured by the camera.

"Damn, if that's the case, this thing is not small at all."

Chu Ge suddenly let out a curse.

He left Soul Blade behind and hurried over to the vertical shaft.

"Captain Wang, stop for a moment. I need to reassign the tasks."

Chu Ge said to Captain Wang.

"Just reinforce the top part. Set up the hanging ladder. I'll take a team down first. After we go down, the engineering team can continue construction."

"Yes." Captain Wang replied crisply.

"Yan Tianhao, what are you doing? I didn't bring you here to study rocks. Get ready, we're going down in a moment."

Chu Ge scanned the people around him and shouted at Yan Tianhao, who was poking at some rocks.

This time, all the elite troops and capable personnel who could come had come; Li Gang, Yan Tianhao, and Zheng Jun, the new backbone members of the Research Institute, were naturally not left behind.

Captain Gong saw that Chu Ge was preparing to go down, and immediately gathered the soldiers who were keeping watch around the area.

"Engineer Yu, arrange for everyone to carry the necessary tools."

"Yes, Academician Chu."

A quarter of an hour later, everyone began to form teams; the soldiers in one team, and the engineers and experts in another.

The two teams added up to over a hundred people.

Everyone looked straight ahead, waiting for Chu Ge's order.

The hanging ladder was quickly set up, and after testing it, the engineering personnel nodded at Chu Ge.

"Alright, the situation below is unclear. After you go down, look out for each other and stay safe."

"Yes!" The team members shouted in unison.

"Hmm, I won't say anything else. Go down the shaft in batches, and we'll gather at the bottom."

"Yes!"

After Chu Ge finished speaking, he turned to get on the hanging ladder, but Captain Gong stopped him at this moment.

"Let us go down first. If there are no problems, then you and the experts can go down."

Chu Ge wanted to refuse, but after looking at Captain Gong's eyes, he gave up the idea.

He considered it for a moment and then agreed, instructing him to pay attention to the monitoring data.

Captain Gong nodded, waved his hand at the soldiers, and they ran over in a neat formation.

Chu Ge looked at their equipment, with all their heavy weaponry, and felt a little more at ease.

Captain Gong and his party of 30 people soon boarded the several hanging ladders that had been set up, and under the operation of the engineering personnel, they slowly descended.

After a long while, Captain Gong reported that everything was going smoothly.

After the hanging ladders came back up, Chu Ge stepped into one, and the subsequent team members followed one after another...