A blue light flashed and the elevator quickly descended to the bottom.
A moment later, the red indicator light turned green and the elevator stopped at 1000 meters below the surface. Jiang Chen walked toward the entrance of the fallout shelter, typed in a few passwords, pulled out the cable from inside, and connected his EP.
<Genetic sequence confirmed, welcome back, Mr. Leader>
<The gate of the fallout shelter is currently opening…>
Jiang Chen disconnected the cable and backed up two steps. Following a deep noise, the circular entrance in front of him began to shift to the side. At the back of the door, the director of Camp 27, Xu Lu, was already waiting there.
When she saw Jiang Chen, she bowed down with a smile and led Jiang Chen into the fallout shelter.
“The mutant flood is already over; you can arrange for personnel to return to the surface.”
“Already?” Xu Lu was slightly shocked, but it didn’t take long before she returned to her smiling self. “I’ll go prepare now.”
After saying goodbye to Xu Lu, Jiang Chen headed straight to the Robotic Research Facility in Fallout Shelter 027 along with the two soldiers behind him. He managed to find Fang Weixian, who was working on a blueprint.
“General? How come you’re here?” Fang Weixian pushed aside the tablet used to draw blueprints and greeted Jiang Chen with a smile.
“Mhmm, I want to show you something and consult your opinion.” Jiang Chen signaled behind him.
The soldier nodded and put the two boxes in his hands on the table before returning to stand behind Jiang Chen.
“This is…?” Fang Weixian raised his eyebrows, walked up to the box, and opened it.
When he saw the contents, he took a moment to process before he was shocked.
“Kinetic skeleton… Gauss Rifle?!”
“It’s a kinetic skeleton with optical illusions,” Jiang Chen added.
With interest flashing in his eyes, Fang Weixian first searched among the broken pieces of the kinetic skeleton before glancing at the broken Gauss Rifle.
“I want you to recreate the technology – can you do it?”
“I can give it a shot; it shouldn’t be hard.” Fang Weixian first moved the two boxes beside a scanner. “Scan the part composition and replicate the lost parts then use a quantum computer to simulate the design plan to finally establish the production process.”
“Is it possible to produce these on a large scale?” Jiang Chen asked.
“It’s going to be difficult.” Fang Weixian shook his head. “A lot of things must be recycled. For example, for the Type-50 Electromagnetic Pulse Cannon at the base, a lot of parts can’t be produced. Without recycling the parts, we can only print the parts using a 3D printer.”
The 22nd century 3D printing technology was extremely mature without the durability, precision, and limitations in materials faced in the early 21st century. But even then, 3D printing technology was still an expensive technology. For example, a Reaper Assault Rifle manufactured from a military production line would have a price of less than ten thousand USD, but if 3D technology was used to the print the rifle, the cost would be at least six figures, and producing it on a mass scale would not lower the cost.
On the wasteland, with the collapse of the industrial process, the survivors printed parts unable to be produced with 3D printing technology. Just like with the T-3 power armor, out of the ten thousand parts, at least six thousand were printed by 3D printing then assembled by hand. It was a large factor leading to the high cost of the power armor.
“What would the cost be to equip one Gauss Rifle per power armor?” Jiang Chen asked casually.
“The majority of the cost would be power consumption and material usage if everything is printed by 3D printing… It would be 4000 crystals per rifle. The Miniature High Energy Capacitor and acceleration track have high requirements for materials.” Fang Weixian provided an estimate.
[Damn, it’s close to half the cost for T-3 power armor.] Jiang Chen was shocked by the figure.
Jiang Chen deliberated for a moment before he said, “Regardless, first recreate the technology. It’s fine for it to be a bit expensive.”
Other than a potential application in the aerospace field, the Gauss Rifle was particularly effective against power armor. Its penetration power and stability could not be matched by traditional rifles.
Jiang Chen examined the status of armored vehicle production inside the Robotic Research Institute before he left, not wishing to disturb the researchers inside any longer.
Leaving the Robotic Research Institute, Jiang Chen then headed to the Biology Research Institute not far away and found the biologists unpopular at the fallout shelter. When Jiang Chen walked inside, he saw a bunch of scientists in white lab coats all surrounding a vial with daunting excitement on their faces.
As to the reason why it was daunting, it was because they acted like science freaks from cartoons.
The study of life had always been a taboo in the science field as its danger was no less than advanced artificial intelligence. But on the wasteland, research laws were no longer in effect and hence, they had the opportunity to allow their creativity to flow.
“What’re you looking at it?” Jiang Chen walked up to Wang Fangping and patted him on the shoulder.
Wang Fangping jumped. It wasn’t until he saw Jiang Chen that he smiled. “General, we completed the electricity-producing seaweed project.”
“Completed?” Jiang Chen stopped to think for a second before a joyful expression appeared on his face.
For Xin to develop its tourism, they had to decrease the number of coal-powered power stations. But due to the low efficiency of wind and solar energy, the high cost of tidal energy, and the reluctance to use nuclear energy, Jiang Chen maintained a strong interest in the biological power generation Wang Fangping proposed.
Not only was it environmentally friendly, but it was also cheap, and the one thing a Pacific country didn’t lack was ocean territory.
“This is it.” Wang Fangping moved aside and pointed at the vial in the middle.
Inside the yellowish-green vial was a piece of floating three-meter-long seaweed with a UV light hanging above the seaweed. The note on the side recorded the ratio between light levels and power generation.
“It can be grown 100 meters below the surface with maximum power generation of 1-kilowatt of power per square meter. The tip of the seaweed can be attached to a metal wire and transports the electricity to the transformer on the surface before becoming part of the grid.” Wang Fangping pointed at the device and explained to Jiang Chen.
Jiang Chen nodded with pleasure. “Great, you did well. All researchers who participated in the project will be awarded 1000 crystals each!”
All nine scientists in the facility turned ecstatic.
A NAC knight’s monthly salary was merely 50 crystals, so 1000 crystals was a large sum of wealth. Jiang Chen would never be stingy on his investment in research.
“Thank you, General!” Wang Fangping thanked Jiang Chen with sincerity.
“No need, I’ll generously reward anyone who contributes to the NAC. Also, I still need you to do something: I need you to breed a type of mutant that isn’t hostile, easy to breed, and quickly able to produce crystals.” Jiang Chen brought up the primary purpose of his visit.
Since he was certain he was going to “clean up” Wanghai, the source of the crystals would have to come from elsewhere.
He would make all the hunters transform into mercenaries guarding the merchant fleet, then change the source of crystals from the “hunting ground” to a farm and establish food production at the Garden of Eden.
Jiang Chen already had the blueprint drawn out in his mind, and the first step to completing the plan was to find the best-suited mutants as livestock.