130: Chapter 130 The First Morning for 30,000 People

At 5:40 AM, Lu Chen opened his eyes in the driver's seat.

The low-brightness indicator lights of the six fire control displays emitted a constant green glow in the darkness.

Three scan lines rotated at a constant speed on the radar panel; there were no abnormal heat sources moving within an eight-kilometer radius.

He sat up and glanced at the temperature data in the corner of the panel.

The temperature inside the vehicle was a constant twenty degrees.

Outside the vehicle, it was minus forty-four degrees.

The LED light strips of the dome greenhouse had automatically switched to simulated sunrise mode, with the dark red light transitioning to warm yellow.

The communicator rang.

"City-State Lord."

Lin Wan's voice came through the communicator, with the faint sound of running water in the background—the sound of the nutrient solution circulation pipes operating.

"Are you in the greenhouse?"

"I got up at five. The newly planted potatoes have sprouted."

"How many plants?"

"Twelve plants. All of them have sprouted; the germination rate is one hundred percent."

Lin Wan spoke half a beat faster than usual.

"The potatoes from the grade a seed vault have extremely strong cold resistance. Under a constant temperature of twenty-four degrees, the germination speed was nearly twice as fast as I estimated."

"Good."

Lu Chen stood up from the driver's seat and headed toward the public living area on the second level.

While washing his face, the communicator rang again.

"City-State Lord Lu Chen."

It was Zhou Yuan's voice.

"I'm here."

"The migration statistics from last night are out."

"Go ahead."

"As of five o'clock this morning, 1,200 people have completed registration and entered the residential area on the second level of the Polaris."

"Are all sixty beds full?"

"They're all full. Priority was given to the elderly and mothers with young children. The first batch of 570 people are staying on the beds and the temporary thermal insulation mats laid out along the sides of the corridor."

"The second batch of 630 people have set up floor mats in the open space of the material storage area on the first level."

"1,200 people."

Lu Chen wiped his face with a towel.

"At this rate, how long will it take for all 30,000 people to move in?"

"If we maintain the current batching rhythm, about fifteen to twenty days."

"Too slow."

Lu Chen looked at his own face in the mirror.

"How much longer can the auxiliary engine of the Black Rock City-State last?"

"City-State Lord Lin Xiao had the engineers re-evaluate it last night; the conclusion is forty days at most."

"Forty days."

"The month and a half mentioned before was an optimistic estimate. In reality, the auxiliary engine's coolant is leaking, and it's being consumed faster than expected."

"Which means that after forty days, the temperature inside The City-State will drop below zero."

"Correct."

"Increase the migration speed."

Lu Chen's speaking pace didn't change.

"At least 2,000 people must move in every day."

"Complete it all within fifteen days."

"I will relay this to City-State Lord Lin Xiao."

"One more thing."

"Please go ahead, City-State Lord."

"The progress on the search for the nineteen missing people from yesterday."

The other end of the communicator went silent for a second.

"City-State Lord Lin Xiao sent three search teams to search the ruins of The City-State throughout the night, as of four o'clock this morning."

Zhou Yuan's voice dropped.

"We found eleven people."

"Alive?"

"Seven are alive; four no longer have vital signs."

Lu Chen's hand paused on the towel for a moment.

"What about the other eight?"

"Still searching."

"The depth of the ruins in the collapsed area at the front of The City-State exceeds fifteen meters; manual excavation is very slow."

"Use the Mechanical Arm of the Polaris."

Lu Chen hung the towel back on the rack.

"This morning, I will go to the collapsed area of The City-State to assist with the search."

"The precise control of the Mechanical Arm can avoid secondary injuries; the Mechanical Arm can do what manpower cannot."

"I will notify City-State Lord Lin Xiao immediately."

Lu Chen walked to the protein synthesis unit and took a nutrient bar from the dispensing tray.

Beef flavor, the texture was a bit hard, but the protein content was sufficient.

He walked toward the main entrance of the first level while eating.

Six o'clock sharp.

The airtight door opened.

The ground, which was above zero degrees, was dry and warm under the coverage of the wide-area high-heat dispersion generator.

One hundred meters away, people were already lining up on the platform at the side exit of the fourth level of the Black Rock City-State.

The migration on the second day was much more orderly than the first.

Lin Xiao had formulated a batch-based migration plan last night, starting from the seventh level downwards, with each floor taking turns according to the zoning order.

The first migration group for today was the 400 people from the East District of the seventh level.

Lu Chen stood inside the airtight door, watching those people walk across the one-hundred-meter snow-free zone.

They walked very slowly.

Not because they were physically weak, but because the ground under their feet was dry.

For people who had lived inside a Mobile City their entire lives, standing on ground without snow was a completely strange experience.

Several people crouched down and touched the soil with their hands.

The rusty-colored, moist soil stuck to their fingertips.

A boy of about ten years old picked up a small piece of gravel, clenched it in his palm, and stuffed it into his pocket like it was a treasure.

"Stop picking up stones, hurry up."

His mother tugged at him.

The boy looked back at the thirty-meter-high steel wall of the Polaris.

"Mom, is this vehicle really two hundred meters long?"

"Two hundred and six meters."

His mother's voice trembled slightly.

"It's even longer than the first level of our City-State."

The 400 people walked into the first level of the Polaris.

The ten-meter-high space made everyone look up.

LED lights were evenly distributed on the I-beam support beams of the ceiling, the light bright and stable.

The temperature was twenty degrees.

The air was filled with a faint metallic scent and the refreshing fragrance of plants.

An old engineer with gray hair stood at the entrance, neck craned, looking for fifteen seconds.

"Weld precision."

He muttered.

"This weld precision is higher than any piece of equipment in the industrial area on the second level of The City-State."

A young man beside him pushed him.

"Engineer Han, stop looking, let's go, go get the nutrient bar first."

"You don't understand."

The old engineer didn't move.

"Look at the cross-section design of that support beam, the ratio of the flange width to the web thickness of the I-beam; that is the optimal structure in pre-civilization standards."

"I've worked in The City-State for thirty years, and the best I-beam I've ever seen was a remnant dug out of the Ash Rift Valley."

"But compared to the precision here, those remnants are at least two grades lower."

Lin Wan came down from the second level, holding a stack of nutrient bars in her hands.

"Line up to collect them, one per person. Today's production is enough for these 400 people plus those who stayed behind from yesterday to all receive one."

She stood behind the distribution counter, handing out the nutrient bars one by one.

"Young lady."

The old engineer walked up to her.

"Are you with The City-State Lord?"

"I am the Botanist of the Polaris."

Lin Wan handed out a nutrient bar.

"It's beef-flavored. You can eat it directly, or soak it in hot water."

"I'm not asking about that."

The old engineer took the nutrient bar but didn't eat it.

"The steel structure precision of this fortress far exceeds City-State standards. What welding process is used?"

"I am not in charge of engineering matters."

Lin Wan shook her head.

"You'll have to ask The City-State Lord."

"Where is The City-State Lord?"

"He went to the ruins of The City-State to assist in the search for the missing people."

The old engineer took a bite of the nutrient bar.

Chewed three times.

"It fills you up."

He muttered and walked away.

Eight o'clock in the morning.

Lu Chen drove the Polaris and slowly moved to the collapsed area at the front of the Black Rock City-State.

The 206-meter lv.3 fortress and the 800-meter paralyzed City-State parked side-by-side on the ice of the Rustwind Wasteland. The difference in size was visible to the naked eye, but the 200-meter radius snow-free zone around the Polaris made it look more vibrant than The City-State.

The ruins at the front of The City-State were shocking.

The collapsed steel skeleton piled up into a small hill over a dozen meters high. Twisted armor plates and broken pipes protruded from the ruins, and frost covered all exposed metal surfaces.

Lu Chen operated the Mechanical Arm, carefully removing an eight-ton piece of armor debris from the top of the ruins.

Underneath the armor plate was a deformed load-bearing rib.

Under the rib was a human body that had frozen stiff.

The voice of a search team member came through the communicator.

"Coming from the side, there's someone."

"Check vitals."

Silence for fifteen seconds.

"There's nothing."

Lu Chen's Mechanical Arm maintained a hovering posture, waiting for the search team members to transfer the remains to a stretcher.

"The twelfth."

Zhou Yuan's voice came through the communicator.

"Resident No. 1763, boiler worker from the third shift of the industrial area, forty-one years old."

"How many are left?"

"Seven."

"Keep searching."

By twelve o'clock at noon, three more had been found.

Two alive.

One had stopped breathing.

"Fifteen."

Lu Chen retracted the Mechanical Arm to its anchored position.

"Four left."

"The search team assesses that the remaining four people might be buried in the deepest part of the collapsed area, a position that is difficult for both manpower and the Mechanical Arm to reach."

Zhou Yuan's voice was very low.

"Furthermore, calculated by the time trapped, even if there is residual air, in an environment of minus forty degrees with no heating conditions, the probability of survival after more than thirty-six hours is less than five percent."

"Keep searching."

Lu Chen's tone didn't fluctuate.

"Search until found."

Lin Xiao's voice came from the other side of the communicator.

"Brother Lu Chen."

"I'm here."

"I know you want to bring everyone back."

Lin Xiao's loud voice lowered by half a degree.

"But the location of the remaining four is at the very front of the first level of The City-State, where the entire ceiling collapsed, with fifteen meters of steel and concrete pressing down on it."

"The Mechanical Arm's extension radius is eight meters, not deep enough."

"If we force a deep excavation, it might trigger a secondary collapse, which would instead endanger the search team members."

Lu Chen looked at the ruins in front of him.

A fifteen-meter-thick collapse layer.

His Mechanical Arm really couldn't reach it.

"That's it for today."

Lu Chen's fingers tapped twice on the steering wheel.

"City-State Lord Lin Xiao, arrange for people to properly preserve the remains that have been found."

"I have to do something tomorrow, and after that, I will come back and continue the search."

"What is it?"

Lu Chen's gaze crossed the ruins of The City-State and looked toward the ice field in the north.

There were two wreckage sites of lv.3 fortresses that had completely stopped, lying quietly on the ice.

"To get points."