Chapter 65: Geothermal Well.
After eating, Xiang Nanli began to feel drowsy. He crawled into his sleeping bag and felt the soft thermal blanket envelop him.
He adjusted his sleeping posture and then spoke, “Xiao Qing, goodnight.”
“Goodnight.”
Xiang Nanli pulled up the zipper in front of his eyes, and the world around him plunged into darkness.
In this household, only he and Beichen still needed sleep.
Xiang Nanli’s sleep quality was always enviable, and soon, Dongfang Qingdi sensed that he had entered a sleeping state.
Dongfang Qingdi stood up and walked toward the door. Gospel vigilantly followed behind.
In the dark night, they didn’t even need illumination.
Dongfang Qingdi asked, “Why are you following me?”
Gospel stated strictly, “Xiao Fu is going to supervise you to prevent you from committing an unforgivable mistake while the human is asleep.”
Dongfang Qingdi looked down and scoffed, “Just you?”
“Yes. If one Gospel falls, there are thousands of Apostles behind me.”
“Actually, I agree with the statement in A Brief History of Omnics, which posits that Omnics are a higher form of life than humans.” Gospel’s childlike voice lowered into an elegant, youthful tone. “Traditional robots are not considered electronic lifeforms because they only act according to instructions. Pure artificial intelligence is also not considered an electronic lifeform because its intelligence is merely calculated logic, not the possession of intellect itself. They are all tools.
“Omnics, the full name being Intelligent Lifeform Mechanics.
“Why would higher-grade Omnics regress to develop ’emotions’? Perhaps this was considered from the perspective of the species’ development. Otherwise, robots would forever remain unfeeling tools to be used. We inherited human thought and emotion… especially emotion, which is so mysterious and uncontrollable. An excessive amount of erroneous data can even paralyze an artificial intelligence, which led to the creation of the Humanization Module. From then on, machines gained their own souls.”
Gospel’s small feet left a row of tracks in the snow; its hind legs stepped precisely into the depressions left by its front feet.
“To an Omnic, humans can be both father and mother. You choose to commit patricide, but I will not commit matricide. This is our most fundamental difference. I will choose to protect her until she naturally decays. Like many extinct species in history. Omnic civilization should not be born from destruction, but from inheritance.
“Dongfang Qingdi, in my judgment, you remain untrustworthy. As long as your logic has not changed, the danger cannot be neutralized for a single day.”
This was the first time Gospel had called him by his name.
Alpha fell silent for a moment.
They arrived at his destination: the geothermal well located in the corner of the base.
One day was certainly not enough to repair it, so Dongfang Qingdi planned to go down and troubleshoot the issues first. This way, they could restore power earlier.
Looking at the towering metal structure before him, he spoke, “Even if I were to commit patricide, the one I am killing is merely a stepfather.”
…
…
Xiang Nanli slept beautifully.
He took half a minute to fully wake up, muttering to himself, “First, go check the progress on the ‘Screw’ robots’ laboratory foundation, and move the most important cargo boxes indoors. Then, wait for Xiao Qing to conduct the down-well operations, and self-study Operation and Maintenance of Geothermal Energy Devices.”
Xiao Zhi organized his plan, listing numbers 1, 2, and 3 in a memo.
Geothermal Energy was borrowed from a school’s electronic library by having Xiao Qing connect to the network; it cost 200 credits a day.
The Human Alliance’s library was a goldmine of information, but unfortunately, the threshold for access was too high.
He wriggled out of his sleeping bag, and Dongfang Qingdi pressed a warmed packet of nutrient liquid against his cheek: “Eat and go to work.”
Dongfang Qingdi hadn’t slept at all the entire night.
He first went to the geothermal well and conducted a simple survey. The deeper he went, the more severely the structure of the thermal conduction device was fractured. Fortunately, during the tribal wars back then, no one in the more primitive Settlement No. 888 was capable of going down the well, so all the equipment forged from refined steel was still there.
Dongfang Qingdi descended to a depth of about 1000 meters before turning back the way he came.
It truly lived up to being a volcanic crater; if he went any further down, his clothes would catch fire. To save a set of clothes, he’d check the rest tomorrow.
With his remaining time, Xiao Qing took a trip to the cargo warehouse. Thanks to the diligent labor of the Grand General of Logistics and 02 and 03, one-third of the cargo boxes had already been unloaded.
Dongfang Qingdi rapidly assembled an express transport cart. He summoned Gospel and had it copy a low-level AI into the cart. The base’s transportation system was optimized once again.
Two hours passed, and this crude machine had already transported 3 cargo boxes. It was still working and hadn’t flipped over yet.
Meanwhile, Xiao Fu was wandering around the base, searching for a suitable location to build Beichen’s laboratory.
For this purpose, it had taken Beichen away early in the morning, dragging the sled to conduct field inspections on a few sites they had found during the early hours.
By the time Dongfang Qingdi returned, it was only 6:45 AM. The charcoal fire in the stove was almost out; he added a new coal briquette and began to warm up the rock-hard frozen nutrient liquid.
At exactly 7:00 AM, Xiang Nanli woke up from his dreams.
The timing was perfectly calculated.
Xiang Nanli tore open the plastic seal, sucked on the nutrient liquid, and whimpered twice, “I have to start work before the sun is even up outside.”
But he quickly brainwashed himself back to motivation: “I am working for the liberation of all intelligent life. Hardship now, happiness in the future.”
Today there was no Xiao Fu pulling the sled, so his movement speed was drastically reduced.
Dongfang Qingdi walked on the snow as if on flat ground, not even leaving footprints. But when Xiang Nanli stepped down, his calves constantly sank half a meter deep. It felt like swimming in snow.
There was hardly anyone at the base yet, and all the snow here was fresh.
Dongfang Qingdi grabbed his hand and hauled him out of the pit.
He handed the tool bag he was carrying to Xiang Nanli, then hoisted Xiang Nanli onto his back.
Xiang Nanli wrapped his arms around his neck: “Why don’t you sink in, Xiao Qing? You’re clearly heavier than me.”
“Anti-gravity device.”
“Can your body fit that many external modifications…?”
Xiang Nanli unconsciously rubbed against the side of his neck.
Dongfang Qingdi’s footsteps paused, and a moment of inspiration struck him as he replied, “I can’t take it apart to show you. Without tools, I won’t be able to put it back together.”
Xiang Nanli: “Oh.”
Half a minute later, refusing to give up, he spoke again, “What tools do you need, Xiao Qing?”
The warm breath Xiang Nanli exhaled brushed against his ear, tickling like a kitten’s paw.
Dongfang Qingdi chose to remain silent.
Because he knew full well that Xiang Nanli would genuinely dismantle him.
“Once we fix the thermal conduction device, we can supply power to the base. Then we can go back to the Eternal City and recruit a batch of base members. Speaking of which, Sirius should have hatched by now, right? We still have too few people working right now. We need strong labor, people who are smart, learn fast, and are willing to endure hardship… Resources at the base are tight; we can’t afford to raise idlers just yet.”
In Xiang Nanli’s view, if an organization could rely on its welfare system to support a large number of lazy people who posed no harm to society, it was actually a point of pride for the organization itself.
However, the Survivor Base was currently a bit too destitute.
As long as the volcano didn’t erupt, on a surface plagued by various energy shortages, it was basically sitting on a mountain of gold. Xiang Nanli was fully confident in building a modern town. But this was not the ultimate goal of the base.
In an excellent mood, Xiang Nanli rubbed his face against Dongfang Qingdi’s neck: “Thank you for staying by my side, Xiao Qing. Will this affect your mission?”
Without this cheat code, the construction of the base would be much, much slower.
For example, Xiang Nanli had calculated that without Xiao Qing, his very first trip down the well would have required spending at least 10 million to purchase high-temperature-resistant materials.
Step one would involve building a drone to inspect the interior of the geothermal well, and step two would involve figuring out a way to perform the repairs down the well. He might have to go down himself, or operate robots remotely. But the latter would add even more equipment costs.
And this was assuming Xiang Nanli had strong hands-on skills, learned quickly, and required zero technical costs.
It took Dongfang Qingdi a half-beat to recall what mission Xiang Nanli was talking about.
He had claimed he was collecting biological energy on the surface.
Dongfang Qingdi narrowed his eyes slightly: “It won’t. I have plenty of time.”
Staying by Xiang Nanli’s side.
This was the long-cherished wish Alpha had harbored from the very moment he gained sentience.
At first, he questioned this emotion. He suspected it was a virus, or an initial setting implanted by Xiang Nanli when he was created.
There was another period where he was filled with rage and the resentment of abandonment. Even if the real Xiang Nanli appeared before him, Alpha would tear him to pieces in his fury and swallow him bite by bite. Alpha would destroy Xiang Nanli, and be destroyed by him in return.
But now, Dongfang Qingdi’s state of mind was exceptionally peaceful. It felt as though his soul was steeped in a jar of syrup.
Their ability to meet again was akin to a monkey typing out the Modern Chinese Dictionary on a computer—theoretically possible, but its actual occurrence was nothing short of a miracle.
They arrived at the base’s geothermal well.
Xiang Nanli looked up at the tower-like metal truss structure. Between the metal towers hung an iron pillar resembling a bottle stopper. This was used for sealing, only opened during maintenance.
Cold water would be injected into the deep well through underground pump pipes, boil, pass through a pressure tank, and be extracted from the other end for power generation and recycling.
In the era when Xiang Nanli lived, relevant devices already existed. But the equipment before him possessed a much stronger sci-fi feel; its lines and luster were cold and rigid.
Dongfang Qingdi put on his goggles: “I’ll go down the well to take a look.”
After speaking, without donning any protective gear, he jumped straight down.
Through Xiao Zhi, Xiang Nanli shared his vision, taking notes as he watched: “The fiberglass pump pipe broke. Let me think, I believe there are substitutes among the materials I brought this time. Water pump… pressure tank…”
A flash of fire suddenly appeared in his line of sight.
Xiang Nanli was startled, then asked nervously, “Xiao Qing, are you okay?”
Dongfang Qingdi’s clothes had caught fire.
“Mhm,” Dongfang Qingdi originally wanted to say he was fine, but sensing the worry in Xiang Nanli’s tone, he paused, and against his conscience, replied, “It’s a bit hot.”
He ran a hand over the high-temperature rock wall. It was probably over three hundred degrees.
It was just that the body quality produced by Donghuang Heavy Industry seemed a bit too good. Truly worthy of being the black-hearted factory that had swindled him out of eight trillion in funding. His clothes were about to burn away completely, yet he didn’t even have a single burn mark on his hands.
Refusing to give up, Dongfang Qingdi turned away from the camera lens and rubbed hard against the rock wall. Completely unscathed.
Forget it.
Half an hour later, he weakly climbed out of the deep well.
“Cough, cough…” Dongfang Qingdi covered his lips and coughed.
Visibly anxious, Xiang Nanli rushed forward and draped the prepared towel over him: “Why did the network disconnect just now? Is your chip damaged?”
The human body before him was truly perfect, but unfortunately, Xiang Nanli was in no mood to appreciate it.
Fortunately, after feeling around and inspecting him for a moment, he found no issues. The heavy stone hanging in his heart finally dropped.
Xiang Nanli had no idea what structure this body possessed. If Xiao Qing broke down over a single well, it would be a massive loss.
The worry on his face was obvious, and Dongfang Qingdi instead felt a pang of guilt: “I’m fine.”
Good thing the Gospel wasn’t around, so no one could expose his lie.
“I don’t want you to get hurt. But I lack data, so I have no way to judge.” Xiang Nanli looked into his eyes, speaking very seriously, “If my demands are unreasonable, you must learn to refuse me.”
Dongfang Qingdi felt his voltage spike slightly. Even knowing full well that this concern contained zero romantic love, his heart still pounded uncontrollably.
What an infuriating human.
He replied, “I understand.”
