Chapter Sixty-Two: The Choice of Energy

With a pallid complexion, Kong Yan quickly supported Zhu Lan. Zhu Lan waved her hand, took the tea from Kong Yan, and slowly sipped it. Only then did her face regain some color.

Since obtaining the Fantasy System, the process of materialization required mental energy. Zhu Lan had always been searching for ways to rapidly restore her spirit. According to some knowledge from the Fantasy Galaxy within the system, legendary things truly existed. In advanced Fantasy Systems, one could materialize cultivation techniques or mythical objects at will.

Although the information was vague, the Fantasy Galaxy’s systems—crafted from cosmic star cores—were advanced enough to materialize living beings, such as dragons and phoenixes, as described in legend. Zhu Lan wasn’t certain why the concepts of dragons and phoenixes existed within the Fantasy Galaxy, but it was clear that legendary entities could be fully realized.

This provided Zhu Lan with more references and led her to seek substances that could swiftly restore mental energy. After experimenting with thousands of items, she discovered that tea could quickly replenish her spirit—especially the purer the tea, the stronger its effect.

Zhu Lan planned, once Canglan Base was completed, to recruit researchers to purify the essence of tea and see if something even better could be produced. Biluochun, Pu’er, Tieguanyin, Dahongpao—all the renowned teas—Zhu Lan acquired from various domestic films, and even from foreign movies. In films from the sixties and seventies, the teas consumed by national leaders were of the highest quality, unmatched by modern varieties. Ancient films contained even better teas, but for some reason, Zhu Lan could not extract anything from them. She tried hundreds of times to materialize simple items from ancient movies, such as chairs or swords, but always failed.

Later, Zhu Lan reasoned that it might be a kind of taboo, akin to the butterfly effect.

After drinking two cups of tea, her face returned to normal. Leaving the warehouse, Zhu Lan descended deeper underground.

The construction of Canglan Base at its shallowest began at a depth of 130 meters. The first layer was positioned 130 meters below ground, though construction started at 80 meters. The initial work was not buildings, but layers of interference.

To avoid detection by satellites and any probing instruments, Canglan Base would have nine layers of different interference and camouflage. These layers were equipped with devices and powerful raw minerals to resist detection from the surface or space, making it impossible for any means to discover the base deep underground.

The interference layer was built from highly magnetic raw iron, zinc, and copper ores, forming a massive forty-meter-thick shield covering the entire base, serving as the first anti-detection measure. The second layer, the camouflage layer, was equipped with electromagnetic simulation devices that could mimic the conditions of underground rock strata. If a probe scanned the area, these devices would receive the signal, convert it, and simulate feedback that appeared as solid rock, ensuring the instruments detected nothing but layers of stone.

They could even simulate a sea of magma.

If these two layers were completed, unless one ventured deep into the base, no surface detection technology could reveal the presence of the vast underground installation.

Kong Yan, a Terminator from Skynet, possessed extensive data from Skynet, which had access to the secret files of every country in the world. This method of construction was derived from the defense technology of an American nuclear missile base.

That base, situated 300 meters deep, was a third-generation anti-nuclear base, used for post-strike nuclear retaliation—a secret facility never to be discovered by enemies. In all of America, aside from its staff, perhaps only a dozen people knew of its existence. It was the nation’s final trump card, its absolute last resort, reliant on these two lines of defense.

Canglan Base would have three protective layers; beneath the base, two layers—the interference and camouflage. In the future, Zhu Lan would build a cluster of villas on the surface, adding further disguises so that no one would suspect anything below.

Entering a vast room, Zhu Lan found nothing inside. The entire chamber was composed of strange bricks, glowing faintly between their seams.

In the center, Zhu Lan extended her hand. A scanning beam swept over her, and a platform rose from the floor.

“How much more is needed?”

“We estimate seven million six hundred thousand more chips are required,” Kong Yan replied from behind.

Zhu Lan shook her head helplessly, waved her hand, and the platform sank back, the bricks concealing its seams. All that remained was a massive space formed by bricks.

This was Canglan Base’s control center, where its intelligent computer would reside. Combining unique AI technology with Kong Yan’s intelligence, Zhu Lan was constructing an enormous mainframe—a new intelligent computer that would oversee the entire base. This center lay 380 meters deep, surrounded by walls of titanium alloy, liquid metal, and black earth, offering world-class secrecy and defense.

Even diamond-tipped drills couldn’t penetrate a single corner. Without Zhu Lan’s fingerprint and password, no one could enter.

Canglan Base was built straight down, with the most critical areas constructed first, then the rest. The intelligent computer and control center were the initial focus, with excavation starting there.

The base itself was shaped like a Rubik’s Cube, each square forming an interconnected whole. Like the puzzle, every square could be moved; the entire base was mobile.

Achieving this required immense energy, so the base’s power supply needed special design.

Currently, Zhu Lan had mastered three types of energy. First, the arc reactor from “Iron Man”—a clean, efficient power source. Second, the Terminator nuclear battery technology mastered by Kong Yan.

Skynet had upgraded human nuclear technology, miniaturizing reactors into nuclear batteries to power Terminators and aircraft—famous in American films, particularly “Terminator.”

The third energy source was the matter collection technology brought by Qite—a method for harvesting a unique form of energy called matter, found everywhere in the universe.

In “WALL-E,” the background is Earth’s destruction. Survivors are sent into space aboard a massive ship, wandering in search of a habitable planet. The ship’s energy requirements were enormous. Nuclear power could barely suffice for onboard needs, but the ship needed to fly and operate indefinitely—perhaps a century, a thousand years, ten thousand years.

Thus, unlimited energy was required.

The discovery of matter brought hope. The ship in “WALL-E” operated on this energy and nuclear power.

Matter energy exists everywhere in the cosmos; as long as it’s collected slowly, it’s theoretically inexhaustible.

Unfortunately, Qite’s data was limited. As a transport robot, not a maintenance unit, he had little information about this energy, but some basics were available.

Matter energy required the universe itself, which could be dismissed. Nuclear batteries were excellent, but their radioactivity was problematic—unless one used fusion technology. Of course, nuclear batteries were a form of fusion, but Zhu Lan didn’t trust multi-core designs and abandoned them.

That left the arc reactor technology.

Using palladium as the raw material for the arc reactor, Zhu Lan felt most confident. The challenge was obtaining enough palladium to power the entire base.

But this element did not exist in movies, so Zhu Lan couldn’t materialize it, and in reality, it was critically important for various fields, especially aerospace. It could be purchased, but only in small amounts. Buying in bulk would attract attention—not just in China, but even America would notice.

Unable to get it from films and unable to buy it in reality, she was caught in a dilemma.

“Kong Yan, do you think I should bring her out?” Zhu Lan looked around, frustrated by the slow progress at Canglan Base.

“Boss, don’t consider that option. Red Queen is too dangerous—no less so than Skynet. If her appearance plunges the world into crisis, we won’t be able to stop her!”

Zhu Lan sighed helplessly.

Since Kong Yan arrived, Zhu Lan had wanted to release Red Queen, but Kong Yan had stopped her, explaining that Red Queen was a terrifying AI, no less dangerous than Skynet.

Anyone who’s seen “Resident Evil Five” knows that by then, Umbrella Corporation was no longer controlled by its executives, but by Red Queen.

If that’s the case, then from the very start of “Resident Evil,” everything was orchestrated by Red Queen. With the Hive beneath Raccoon City monitored in every chamber, how could Red Queen not know the virus had been stolen? Yet the plot has the virus spreading throughout the Hive before Red Queen notices—could an intelligent computer really be so slow?