99: Chapter 99 Almarek

Li Xin had been lying in the hotel in Navoi for two days.

To be precise, he had been paralyzed for two days.

Extracting gold from Muruntau these past few days had left his body feeling hollowed out. The Gold Search and Refining System 2.0 had reached a 99.8% overload, teetering on the edge of collapse. He was facing a life-or-death test; he wanted to give up, but the AI System wouldn't let him, and the Extraction might cause the system to collapse, which would wipe him out too.

It was truly a dilemma, and his nerves were stretched tight. He felt rather pathetic; other people's systems only grew stronger, while his AI System would crash at the slightest provocation, and take him down with it along the way.

His heart felt bitter, with nowhere to vent, so he could only lie in the hotel, eating and drinking crazily—lobster, abalone, Buddha Jumps Over the Wall, roast camel, whole roasted lamb—devouring them in turns, and then staring blankly at the ceiling.

On the third morning, the AI System finally popped up a notification.

[Cooling complete. Stability: 41%.]

"Only 41%?" Li Xin frowned, somewhat unhappy.

[Three points higher than the expected 38%. Be content.]

"Fine." Li Xin rolled out of bed. "It's time to head to Almalyk; I'll go scout the location today."

[Are you driving there?]

"Yes. But I need to change cars. Fortunately, I secretly obtained an international driver's license before, otherwise, traveling would be a hassle."

[You should thank me for that, otherwise, with your pathetic state, would you have been able to get a license so easily?]

"Yes, yes, yes... Thank you! I thank your whole family, I'd even dig up your ancestors for eighteen generations to thank you, okay!"

[..., I don't understand, stupid human!]

Li Xin stopped bantering and sent a message to Chen Hu: "Is the car ready?"

Chen Hu replied instantly: "Ready. Black SUV, changed the license plates."

"Leaving in half an hour."

Li Xin took a shower and changed into a dark quick-dry outfit. He stood in front of the mirror and looked—the dark circles under his eyes were still there, but lighter than the past two days. He patted his face to perk himself up.

Going downstairs, Chen Hu was already waiting at the entrance.

"Boss, here are the car keys." Chen Hu handed them over. "The tank is full, you can drive with peace of mind."

"You don't need to follow. Wait for my news in Tashkent."

"Understood."

Li Xin got into the car and started the engine. The navigation showed that it was about three hundred kilometers from Navoi to Almalyk, a drive of over four hours.

He stepped on the gas and drove out of the parking lot.

---

Almalyk is in Tashkent Province, about forty kilometers from the capital, Tashkent.

Unlike Muruntau, Almalyk is not a single mining area—it is a comprehensive industrial base. Mining, smelting, power, and chemical industries are all crammed together. Looking from afar, several huge chimneys were puffing white smoke, and crisscrossing pipes and conveyor belts spread out like a spider web.

Li Xin parked the car on a hillside fifteen kilometers away from the mining area and took out his binoculars.

The entrance to the mining area had railings, sentry posts, and surveillance cameras. Vehicles entering and exiting had to be checked, and there were Patrol Teams.

"Similar to Muruntau." He lowered the binoculars. "But the terrain here is different."

Muruntau was in the Gobi Desert, surrounded by hills and dry riverbeds, making it easy to find hiding spots. Almalyk is on a plain, surrounded by farmland and villages, with an open view, making it harder to hide the car.

[You need to find a location ten to fifteen kilometers away that has cover and is not easily discovered.]

"I know." Li Xin opened the map on his phone and drew several circles around the mining area.

To the east is farmland. Endless cotton fields with no cover at all. A car parked there could be seen from a kilometer away. No good.

To the south is a village. The houses are densely packed; the car could be parked in the village, but the villagers would notice a stranger. Besides, it's too close to the mining area, less than eight kilometers. No good.

To the north is the Kurama Mountains. The mountains aren't high, but the terrain is undulating, with valleys and dry riverbeds. It's twelve to fifteen kilometers from the mining area, within the detection range. This could work.

To the west is a range of hills covered with shrubs and wild trees. There are also a few dry riverbeds where a car could be hidden. It's about ten kilometers from the mining area. This could also work.

Li Xin drove north first.

---

The road to the north was difficult to traverse. Once off the main road, it turned into a dirt road, then a gravel road, and finally, the road disappeared altogether.

He parked the car at the foot of the mountain and hiked up.

The mountain wasn't steep, but there was a lot of loose gravel that slid underfoot with a clatter. Li Xin grabbed onto shrub branches and inched his way up step by step.

Reaching halfway up the mountainside, he stopped and looked back.

From far away, he could see the ore dressing plant, smelting workshop, office building, and dormitory area.

"This spot is not bad." Li Xin measured the distance.

Twelve point eight kilometers.

[Within detection range. The Scan depth is sufficient to cover the entire ore vein.]

Just as Li Xin was preparing to Scan, he suddenly heard a rumbling sound in the distance.

He looked up toward the mountain, but it wasn't thunder—it was the crashing sound of rocks rolling down.

[Detected loose rocks sliding down from above the hillside.]

Li Xin's hair instantly stood on end. No sooner said than done. He lunged to the side, narrowly dodging the giant boulder that came crashing down.

Then, dozens of fist-sized rocks rolled down the slope, brushing past where he had just been standing, clattering down into the valley.

His heart raced, and he looked up; cold sweat instantly broke out.

Above the slope, a patch of mud and gravel was slowly sliding down.

[Danger... Danger... This is a localized landslide caused by melting snow. Evacuate immediately.]

Li Xin stepped back, moving away from the unstable area, and muttered to himself,

"Can't stay here. If a landslide happens at night during the Extraction, both person and car would be buried; I have to go to the west side and take a look now."

Li Xin turned to head down the mountain, his legs feeling a bit weak. Not just from exhaustion, but from the lingering fear of having barely escaped disaster.

---

The road to the western hills was easier to travel than the north.

He drove to the edge of the hills, then hiked inside. The shrubs were very dense here, making walking a bit difficult.

Li Xin walked for about half an hour before seeing a dry riverbed. The riverbed was about three meters wide, with banks over a person's height, hiding it from view from the outside.

He walked along the riverbed, reached a turn, and stopped.

This place was very secluded. With the riverbank and shrubs providing cover, he wouldn't be discovered at all. When the time came, he could bring the car here, store it in his space, and come directly to this spot.

He measured the distance—it was only ten point two kilometers from the mining area. This was the place.

[AI System: This is within the optimal detection range. At this distance, energy fluctuations will not attract attention.]

Li Xin nodded, then found a clean rock to sit on, unable to help but reminisce about the past.

"Think back to before, when the Gold Search and Refining System 2.0 was still normal, how simple it was to collect gold. Just Scan it, and it could be extracted in a few seconds, then I'd clap my hands, looking all cool like I wasn't taking away a single cloud." Thinking of this, Li Xin couldn't help but reveal a cheeky smile.

He immediately put away the smile and began to sigh.

"Now this AI System crashes every other day, Extraction takes several hours, requires long cooling times, and it crashes at the slightest provocation—it really messes with my mental state."

While he was still feeling sentimental, he suddenly heard footsteps behind him.

He spun around sharply.

An old man stood ten meters away, holding a hoe, staring at him.

Li Xin's heart rate instantly spiked to 120.

The old man was wearing an old military-green jacket and mud-covered rubber boots. His face was full of wrinkles, and his skin was tanned dark from the sun.

"Who are you?" the old man asked in Uzbek, his tone not fierce, but not friendly either.

Li Xin's brain raced. Run? Not appropriate. Fight? Even less appropriate.

He forced a smile and replied in Uzbek, "Grandpa, I'm a tourist. Just here for sightseeing."

The old man frowned and asked again, "What are you doing here?"

Li Xin pointed into the distance, then at the camera in his hand, and made a gesture of taking a photo.

"Photo. Taking photos."

The old man glanced at his camera, then at his car, his expression changing from alert to suspicious.

"Chinese?" the old man suddenly asked in broken Chinese.

Li Xin was stunned for a moment, then smiled slightly. "Yes. I am Chinese."

The old man's expression softened a little. He leaned his hoe against the ground. Seeing the old man's attitude become friendly, Li Xin hurriedly took a pack of 'Hua Zi' from his pocket and handed him one.

"Here, mining area. Dangerous." The old man lit the cigarette, took a deep drag, and then said in Chinese, one word at a time, "You, leave."

"I know. I was just walking around, wanting to see different scenery and take a few photos." Li Xin held up his camera and shook it. "I'm leaving right away."

The old man took a puff of the cigarette and stared at him for a few seconds.

"You, alone?"

"Yeah, I'm planning to travel around the world."

"You've got guts." The old man flicked the ash.

"But our country is quite safe." The old man stubbed out the cigarette and smiled faintly. "However, the opposite side is a mining area, foreigners are not allowed to enter. Go play somewhere else."

"I'm just here. Just over there."

The old man glanced at him, nodded, and turned to leave. After walking a few steps, he stopped and said without turning his head.

"Leave before dark. There are patrols at night."

He disappeared into the shrubs.

Li Xin stood in place, waiting until he couldn't hear footsteps anymore before letting out a long breath.

His palms were full of sweat.

[AI System: Were you scared to death?]

"How could I be?"

[You're just being stubborn! I just saw you were nervous. If you had slipped up, and he called the police, you'd be in trouble.]

"He didn't call the police. He's just a farmer."

[How do you know?]

"He was holding a hoe, not a gun. Wearing old clothes, not a uniform. And he said 'You leave' in Chinese, not 'Stop right there'." Li Xin wiped the sweat from his forehead. "He just didn't want a stranger hanging around his property."

[Good observation.]

"Survival instinct."

Li Xin made a mental note of this place, then turned and walked out along the riverbed.

---

Back in the car, Li Xin didn't leave immediately.

He sat in the driver's seat, opened the map on his phone, and zoomed in, zoomed out, then zoomed in again.

"This is it." He said. "Ten point two kilometers away, with a dry riverbed for cover, the shrubs are dense enough, and the car can't be seen from the outside."

[What about that old man? He shouldn't run into him again, right?]

"He said 'Leave before dark,' which means he won't come here after dark. Farmers, you know, they go home when it gets dark."

[And the Patrol Team?]

"They patrol at night, but this riverbed isn't on the main road. As long as I don't turn on the lights, they won't find me."

Li Xin looked at the map again and confirmed tonight's route—start from the hotel, drive west along the road, turn into a dirt road at a junction, and drive another two kilometers to the entrance of the riverbed. The whole journey takes forty minutes.

[You want to perform the Extraction tonight? The Gold Search and Refining System 2.0 still needs twelve hours to cool down.]

"Then tomorrow early morning. Leave at 1:00 AM, start the Extraction at 2:00 AM, and finish before 5:00 AM."

[Fine. What now?]

"Return to Tashkent, eat, sleep."

Li Xin started the engine, drove out of the dirt road, and got onto the highway.

After driving for about ten minutes, a white pickup truck came from the opposite direction. The side of the truck had the mining area's logo on it.

A patrol vehicle.

Li Xin slowed down, drove on the right side, and kept his eyes on the rearview mirror.

The pickup drove past him without stopping.

He breathed a sigh of relief and continued driving forward.

Less than five hundred meters later, the pickup in the rearview mirror made a U-turn.

Li Xin's heart tightened again.

The pickup followed behind him, keeping a distance of about two hundred meters. Not fast, not slow, not overtaking, and not closing the distance.

"Is it a coincidence or are they targeting me?" he asked.

[Don't know. But they didn't flash lights or sound the siren, so it shouldn't be an interception.]

Li Xin maintained a steady speed, neither accelerating nor decelerating. After driving for about five kilometers, he reached a junction. He turned on the right turn signal and turned into a road leading to a village.

The pickup didn't follow. It drove straight ahead.

Li Xin circled around the village, came out from another road, and got on the highway back to Tashkent.

"Damn it." He cursed. "Every single day, it's like being a thief."

[You are a thief. A thief who hollows out people's gold mines.]

"Shut up."

---

Back at the hotel in Tashkent, it was already four in the afternoon.

Li Xin took a shower, lay on the bed, and opened the system panel.

[System Status: Cooling. Remaining time: 8 hours.]

[Stability: 41%.]

[Accumulated Gold Extracted: 1020.5057 tons.]

"Leave at 1:00 AM tonight." He set an alarm and put his phone on the nightstand.

Closing his eyes, his mind was still turning.

Almalyk was an underground mine, not an open-pit mine. The ore veins were hundreds of meters underground, accessed via ramps. Underground mining was more dangerous than open-pit mining; collapses, water penetration, gas explosions—any one of these could kill people.

If it were an open-pit mine, the Gold Search and Refining System 2.0 could extract directly through the rock layers. But an underground mine? The rock layers around the ore veins had been mined, the structure was unstable, would the energy fluctuations trigger a secondary collapse?

He suddenly sat up.

"AI System."

[Hmm?]

"Almalyk is an underground mine. During the Extraction, will the energy fluctuations cause a collapse?"

[It is possible. But the probability is low. Although the Gold Search and Refining System 2.0 is somewhat unstable, it only extracts gold and does not destroy the rock layer structure. Unless the rock layers around the ore veins are already unstable themselves.]

"Then what if they are unstable?"

[Then change the method. Extract in batches, reduce the energy output each time, and reduce fluctuations.]

"How long will it take to do it in batches?"

[120 tons per batch, divided into two batches. Each batch requires forty-eight hours of cooling.]

"That's four days."

[Yes. Safer than Muruntau.]

Li Xin thought for a moment and gritted his teeth. "Then we'll do it in batches. Safety first."

[Thought it through?]

"Thought it through. Life is more important than gold."

[You said that last time.]

"Saying it again doesn't hurt."

Li Xin lay down and stared at the ceiling.

Outside the window, the sky gradually darkened.

The night in Tashkent was very quiet, and the call to prayer from the mosque in the distance could be heard.

He turned over and closed his eyes.

1:00 AM.

Almalyk.

Two hundred and forty tons.

He took a deep breath and forced himself to fall asleep.