Chapter 319.1: Why Don't We Cooperate More?

Somewhere in the real world.

Following the footsteps of the staff, Gao Jianhui arrived in a spacious room. The decoration in the room was a bit simple, like it had just been tidied up at the last minute. The only furniture was a bookshelf, a coffee table, and 2 sofas.

There was already a young man with glasses sitting on the sofa when Gao Jianhui walked into the room. After seeing him, the young man immediately stood up from the sofa and said to him politely. "Hello, Academician Gao. Please have a seat."

Gao Jianhui didn't refuse. He sat down on the sofa opposite the young man and looked him up and down. He didn't have any impression of this young man, so he simply thought the young man was probably from other departments.

At about 8:00 the night before, he received an invitation letter from a well-known national academic institution. However, when he arrived early in the morning, he did not see any admission guidance for academic lectures, but was invited to a private car.

"We have learned through various investigations that you are an expert in the fields of rock mechanics and mining engineering, so we took the liberty to invite you here."

"A special car pick-up and a non-disclosure agreement, what's up with all this secrecy?" Academician Gao frowned. "If you have anything to say, just say it."

The man said politely. "It's just protocol, I hope you can understand."

"Can I have a cigarette?"

"Of course, feel free."

Gao Jianhui took out the lighter from his pocket. He lit a cigarette for himself and then squinted his eyes slightly to look at the laptop on the coffee table.

Just when he was about to ask what it was for, the young man wearing glasses clicked open some photos in a folder and then showed them to him.

"Please have a look at those photos."

"This is... Huh?" He stopped abruptly, his brows slightly furrowed. He couldn't help but hold the mouse with the hand that was also holding the cigarette, scrolling down unconsciously. His eyes grew more and more surprised.

Vertical shaft and inclined ramp joint development?

It was the first time he had seen a main transportation system designed like this.

Of course, it wasn't just the main transport system that surprised him.

The vertical section structure diagram of the entire mine did not look like a mine at all, but like a sophisticated instrument. Each block had a clear division of labor and could work closely together.

But...

The problem with this design scheme was also obvious, that was, it was too idealistic!

Many design ideas couldn't be realized with the current technical capabilities.

Round the clock continuous mining was not difficult, and unmanned mining was not impossible, but intelligent mining, where the mining face synchronously moved downward with the mining system and was completely detached from human intervention...

He dared to assert that no mine in the world could do it.

After a long while, Academician Gao looked up at the man sitting across from him. He turned serious and asked, "... Where did you get these photos?"

The young man did not immediately answer the question. "Before I answer this question, I would like to hear your opinion on these."

Gao Jianhui thought for a moment and gave an evaluation. "It's a very special design. If I'm not mistaken, the entire mine probably uses a complete set of intelligent mining systems. It is similar to the Kiruna Iron Mine in Sweden in terms of design concept... However, just looking at the appearance doesn't reveal much. Do you have more photos?"

The man in glasses had a helpless expression on his face. "Unfortunately, these are the photos we have for the time being... Could you tell me about the similarities and where they are specifically reflected?"

"Intellectualization." Gao Jianhui said immediately.

The man raised and eyebrow. "Intellectualization? Can you be more specific?"

Gao Jianhui thought for a while and replied, "Kiruna Mine is not only famous for its high-grade iron ore, but also its intelligent mining system, including drilling, charging, loading, transporting, lifting... All operating procedures can be realized through remote control. The entire mine only needs a very small number of workers to complete their production processes.”

"Moreover, apart from the intellectualization, their research in the field of deep mining below one kilometer, as well as their experience in dealing with issues such as increased ground pressure, elevated rock temperatures, mine elevation, drainage, support, ventilation, backfilling, and environmental protection. They are quite worth learning from.”

The man listened carefully and kept taking notes.

After the old academician finished speaking, he then asked about the part he was most concerned about. "What about the mine in these photos?"

Gao Jianhui leaned back on the sofa and said in a flat tone, "I can only talk about the field I know. I can't talk about the things in your photo. It is completely different from the field I am studying. Assuming this machine can operate successfully, it would need to address at least a hundred issues for which we currently haven't found solutions. Do you realize what this means?"

The man in glasses gulped. "What does it mean?"

"It means that these photos are likely to be fake, or produced using a computer."

Hearing Academician Gao's answer, the man froze for a moment, then burst out laughing. "Indeed... We cannot rule out that possibility."

Gao Jianhui paused for a moment, then continued, "I don't know about your work, but as far as I'm concerned, many of the assumptions in it are not realistic. Let's put it this way, the whole building is built on a series of unresolved assumptions. It's like the pattern carved on a gold bracelet. What is valuable is not the pattern, but the gold. That's why I asked you if you have more photos or information."

"If we can know how to solve those unresolved problems, we can make something similar even if we don't use this design plan at all. And even if we solve one of the technical difficulties, it will greatly improve our existing mining technology.."

"For example, in the deep backfill mining project my students are working on recently, there is a difficulty in how to reduce the frictional resistance of the filling material transportation pipeline. If we can solve it, our energy consumption and efficiency of filling mining can be greatly improved."

"As for what this means? It's difficult to give a simple answer. Suppose if our mining depth could go another kilometer deeper, the mining costs could be reduced by 50-60%, and unexploited mineral deposits could be utilized...."

"Do you think we can find iron ore with a higher grade than Australia and South America? If we are able to do that, do you know how much impact this will have on the local economy, national finance, and industrial structure? And it's not just that, if we can really make this mining system, we can even export this technology to other countries instead of importing them!”

The reserves of resources were a relative concept. With the development of mining and exploration technologies, it was possible that the resource reserves might even increase.

The denser the material, the easier it was to accumulate downward during magmatic activity and diagenesis, so the closer to the center of the earth, the more abundant resources that could be used. The resources on the surface of a planet were just a mere fraction.

Looking at the young man with an increasingly excited expression, Gao Jianhui tapped the cigarette ash into the ashtray and joked, "Since when did you people become so free? You actually have time to entertain an old man like me."

He had already figured out the identity and position of the person in front of him, but he didn't expect that they would find him to consult with him about professional issues.

After all, what he had been researching was still quite far away from the level of national security.

Well, his neighboring departments engaged in geological and geographic intelligence probably could reach that level.

Holding back his excitement, the man wearing glasses coughed lightly. He did not answer the question, but reached out to gently close the laptop.

"... Regarding the case we are dealing with, I'm sorry that I can't say too much about it because it involves top secrets. But I really have to thank you for taking time out of your busy schedule to cooperate with our work. Please allow me to drive you back personally."

"I understand." Gao Jianhui put the cigarette butt out in the ashtray and waved his hand. "Just call me next time if you have any questions. I'm too old to handle this kind of stress."

The man wearing glasses nodded and was about to get up to open the door for the old academician.

However, at this moment, he suddenly thought of something. He quickly tore a piece of paper from the notebook next to him, wrote a string of letters, and handed it to the old man.

Gao Jianhui reached out to take it and glanced at it. "This is?"

"A link." The man wearing glasses smiled and said, "Although I can't tell you more details about our case, these photos were all found on the discussion board of this website."

The main problem was that they couldn't censor it even if they wanted to.

The entire website was like a black box, and any information leaked from it was what the other party was willing to let them know. Any attempt to open the black box had been proven to be ineffective. If they wanted to block the website, they had to block the Internet.

The most likely speculation now was that the website and the Wasteland Online game should be the enlightenment or investigation of human civilization by a certain advanced civilization.

Considering that many of the technologies displayed in the game far surpassed, or even deviated from, the current level of civilization on Earth, the entire case had been classified as ‘Contact Of The Third Kind’.

As for the motivation of this weird X Civilization contacting humans in the solar system... It still required further investigation.

But at present, at least it didn't seem to contain any malice.

Considering the need to prevent causing a larger-scale panic, they decided to temporarily withhold information about the extraterrestrial civilization, maintaining a cautious stance for observation.

"A website?"

Interesting.

Academician Gao raised his eyebrows in surprise and stuffed the note into his pocket.

Maybe I should check it out when I have time.

...