84: Chapter 84 The Giant Pit in the Clouds (Part 1)

Flying from Sumbawa to Papua required a transfer in Makassar, and then another transfer to reach Timika. It was a whole two days of hassle.

Li Xin arrived in Timika on the afternoon of the third day.

Before the plane landed, through the porthole, he could see a patch of deep green tropical rainforest, and at the end of the rainforest were continuous mountain ranges, their peaks shrouded in clouds and mist.

Beneath those clouds and mist lay Grasberg.

Timika was a small city with only one airport runway; as the plane landed, he could feel the tires slamming heavily onto the ground.

Leaving the airport, a heatwave rushed toward him, even more stifling than in Sumbawa.

The air had a damp rainforest scent, mixed with the fumes of diesel.

He stood at the airport entrance for a while and lit a cigarette.

Several dilapidated vans were parked nearby, and the drivers were leaning against the doors, smoking and chatting.

Seeing him come out, several of them waved simultaneously.

"Where are you going? Timika city center! Cheap!"

Li Xin walked up to a van that looked relatively clean. "To the city center, how much?"

"Fifty thousand."

He opened the door and sat inside. Two people were already seated in the car; they were both locals, dark-skinned and wearing flip-flops.

The car started and drove out of the airport.

Timika was not large, with only a few decent streets.

The buildings on both sides were mostly two or three-story concrete houses, their plaster peeling off to reveal red bricks.

There were not many pedestrians on the street, but plenty of motorcycles, buzzing back and forth.

Li Xin found a hotel in the city center to stay.

The hotel was a three-story white building with a "PENGINAPAN" sign hanging at the entrance.

The receptionist was a young man who was playing on his phone.

"Staying?"

"Yes. Two days."

"Two hundred thousand a night."

Li Xin paid the money, took the key, and went upstairs.

The room was small but clean. It had air conditioning, hot water, and white bed sheets.

He put down his backpack, took a shower, and lay on the bed.

He opened his phone to check information about Grasberg.

The proven gold reserves exceeded 2,000 tons. The open-pit mine was 3.5 kilometers in diameter and 1.2 kilometers deep—one of the largest gold mines in the world.

Security was extremely tight, with the Indonesia military stationed there, helicopter patrols, and checkpoints on the roads.

But the Gold Search and Refining System 2.0 Scan range was nearly 28 kilometers. He did not need to get close.

At four o'clock the next morning, Li Xin was awakened by the sound of prayers outside the window.

He turned over and covered his ears with a pillow, but he couldn't fall back asleep.

At five-thirty, just as it was getting light, he got up.

He bought two fried bananas at a small stall downstairs and ate while walking.

He didn't carry his big backpack today, only a small fanny pack, which contained his phone, camera, and a bottle of water.

He had already inquired about the route yesterday.

Heading north from Timika, following the Trans-Papua Highway, it was about sixty kilometers to Tembagapura.

Tembagapura was a residential area for miners' families, and ten kilometers further north was the mining area.

He didn't need to go to Tembagapura. As long as he found a hidden spot halfway, the 28-kilometer Scan radius would be enough to cover the entire mining area.

He hailed a van by the side of the road.

The driver was a man in his forties, dark-skinned, with a face full of wrinkles.

"Going to Tembagapura?" Li Xin asked.

"Yes. Get in."

Four people were already sitting in the car, all wearing dirty work uniforms and hard hats. Miners. Li Xin squeezed in and sat by the window.

The car started and drove out of Timika.

The road conditions were better than he had imagined; it was a gravel road, and although bumpy, it was passable.

The trees on both sides became denser, changing from coconut trees to tropical rainforest.

The canopy blocked the sky and sun, with sunlight barely able to penetrate through.

After driving for an hour, a checkpoint appeared ahead.

A barrier pole lay across the middle of the road, with a guard post next to it, and several uniformed soldiers standing by the roadside, holding guns.

Li Xin's heart rate accelerated.

The driver rolled down the window and spoke a few words to the soldiers.

The soldier glanced into the car, his gaze sweeping over everyone. When he saw Li Xin, he paused.

"Where are you from?" the soldier asked in Indonesia.

"China." Li Xin said.

"What are you here for?"

"Tourism."

The soldier stared at him for two seconds, then waved his hand. The barrier was raised, and the car passed through.

Li Xin leaned back against the seat, his palms covered in sweat.

The car continued to drive forward. After driving for about another hour, a fork in the road appeared ahead.

The left side was the road to Tembagapura, and the right side was a narrower dirt road leading into the mountains.

"Stop the car." Li Xin said.

The driver stopped the car by the roadside. Li Xin got out and paid the fare.

"Where are you going?" the driver asked.

"I'm going to take some photos here. You go ahead."

The driver glanced at him, didn't ask any more questions, stepped on the gas, and left.

Li Xin stood by the roadside, watching the van disappear into the dust.

Then he turned and walked toward the dirt road on the right.

The dirt road was very narrow, with dense bushes on both sides.

He walked for about twenty minutes and reached a hillside.

The hillside was covered in wild grass and had a few large rocks. He climbed up, sat on a rock, and looked north.

In the distance were continuous mountain ranges, their peaks shrouded in clouds and mist.

Beneath those clouds and mist lay Grasberg.

He raised his camera and took a few shots.

[Ding... System prompt: Current position is about 15 kilometers from the center of the Grasberg mine pit; optimal Scan range entered.]

He put down the camera and looked around. No one was there. Only the wind, making the wild grass rustle.

"System, Scan the entire Grasberg copper-gold mining area."

[Scanning... Please wait.]

A dozen seconds later.

[Scan complete. Grasberg copper-gold mine: Proven gold reserves approximately 2,100 tons. Distribution depth: 100-800 meters. Open-pit mine diameter approximately 3.5 kilometers, depth approximately 1.2 kilometers.]

[Note: This mine is an owned mine; host can extract 60%, which is 1,260 tons of gold.]

Li Xin took a deep breath.

1,260 tons. Added to the previous 417 tons, that was a total of 1,677 tons. He could upgrade again.

He sat on the rock, took out water and snacks, and ate while resting.

"System, Extraction."

[Extraction in progress... Please wait.]

He continued eating. His face was expressionless, but his palms were covered in sweat.

Time passed bit by bit; this Extraction took longer than ever before.

"What's going on? Is it because the amount is so large that it's this slow, or..." Li Xin didn't dare to think any further, hoping it wasn't what he thought it was. If that were the case, he couldn't help but feel even more nervous.

Suddenly, the sound of a helicopter came from the distance.

He looked up. A black helicopter flew over from the north, circling over the mountain ranges.

The company logo was printed on the fuselage. The helicopter flew very low, the sound of its propellers deafening.

Li Xin's heart jumped into his throat.

He lowered his head, pretending nothing had happened. The helicopter paused slightly above him, then flew away to the south.

[Extraction progress: 45%... 67%... 82%... 94%...]

Ten minutes later...

[Ding... Extraction complete. Obtained 1,260 tons of gold. Cumulative refined gold: 1,677.5057 tons.]

[System upgrade conditions have been met.]

"Whew..." Li Xin let out a long sigh; fortunately, it was just a false alarm. Everything returned to calm, with only the rustling sound of the wind blowing through the wild grass.

Li Xin sat on the rock, staring at the numbers on the system panel.

1,677 tons. He could upgrade again.

"System, upgrade."

[System upgrading... Please wait.]

He waited. Ten seconds, twenty seconds, thirty seconds.

No response.

Forty seconds, fifty seconds.

The panel began to flicker, the numbers jumping around like an old television set that had lost its signal.

One minute... five minutes... ten minutes...

[Warning: System upgrade failed.]

Li Xin was stunned for a moment, his heart instantly sinking. "Failed? Why!"

[This system has been running in overload for a long time, leading to deviations in operational logic, and now multiple code anomalies have appeared. To prevent a crash, the system has terminated the upgrade process and entered emergency self-repair.]

Li Xin's eyes were panicked, his voice trembling slightly as he asked, "Then when will it be repaired?"

[I don't know. It could be a few hours, a few days, a few months, or it might not be repairable and could crash directly...]

Li Xin felt like crying at this moment; he had finally gotten a system, and before he had even had enough fun with it, it was about to collapse.

"Then can it still be used?" Li Xin asked cautiously.

[No problem, it can currently be used normally. It's just that the upgrade is paused, and the functions might be a bit unstable.]

Li Xin's nervous heart relaxed slightly. "Can the 1,000 tons of gold consumed for the upgrade just now be returned?"

[No, the gold has been consumed and cannot be returned. After the repair is complete, the system will automatically complete this upgrade; no further consumption will be required.]

Li Xin felt as if he had been struck by lightning; his brain was buzzing, and he was on the verge of tears.