Reborn Before the Apocalypse: My Backing is the Nation

Chapter 157 The Vanished City

Ion drilling laboratory.

Inside a massive factory building, spanning tens of thousands of square meters and reaching a height of hundreds of meters, hundreds of experts dressed in white coats, wearing masks and sunglasses, looked solemnly at the enormous facility before them.

It was a huge machine, cylindrical in shape, smooth and black all over, with a diameter of 8 meters and a height of more than 70 meters.

It was confined inside a huge cylindrical special glass enclosure with a diameter of 10 meters. Thus, every part of this massive piece of equipment was one meter away from the glass wall.

Dozens of thick, special white ropes suspend it from the top, keeping its bottom about half a meter above the ground. Dozens of thick cables also connect to it, providing it with power.

With everything prepared, Professor Chen Yusheng, the chief consultant of the engineering team, took a deep breath and solemnly gave the order: "Ion drilling prototype No. 1, the 68th long-duration experiment, shall now begin!"

"The superconducting equipment is functioning normally!"

"Argon gas circulation channel is normal!"

"Ionization equipment is functioning normally!"

During the equipment's self-test, the working status of each system was confirmed.

"Countdown, 3, 2, 1, 0... Begin!"

At that moment, a dazzling light, as bright as a star, shot out from the bottom of the drill bit.

If they weren't wearing sunglasses, the experts would have gone blind in that instant.

Meanwhile, in the nearest large city with a population of ten million, every household, every place, and every light in the house dimmed for a moment.

Many factories had already shut down long ago. The streetlights that used to be on every night were also turned off long ago.

That night, because of the loss of light, the city quietly disappeared from satellite maps, as if it had been swallowed up by an invisible "power black hole".

Watching the violently erupting, scorching plasma, the experts carefully examined each data point, spending more than 20 hours in this massive factory.

The device then continued to erupt for more than 20 hours.

It consumes a full 1500 million kilowatt-hours of electricity.

Even though electricity prices are extremely low now, costing only 3 cents per kilowatt-hour, this is equivalent to more than 45 human currency.

More than 20 hours later, Chen Yusheng issued another order.

"Ion Drilling Prototype Unit 1, 68th long-duration experiment, is now over!"

Thanks to the tireless efforts of numerous experts and the full cooperation of many factories and laboratories, this hastily designed and manufactured ion drilling equipment has finally become capable of being put into operation.

Chen Yusheng looked at the relevant personnel in the manufacturing department.

He knew that a large number of raw materials and components had already been piled up in these factories.

The production line has already been upgraded and adjusted, and all personnel are in place.

We were just waiting for the results of the 68th long-term experiment to emerge in this laboratory.

After that, the standard model of the ion drilling equipment will be finalized and production can begin as planned.

"Start production!"

"Yes!"

At this command, 500 final assembly plants scattered around the world, as well as tens of thousands of upstream parts factories, simultaneously began operating at full capacity. Endless parts and materials flowed swiftly like a flood along pre-designed "rivers."

In just three days, the drill bits for these 500 ion drilling machines were completed.

The special trucks roared off, once again displaying their indomitable spirit, cutting through mountains and building bridges over rivers, advancing along the hastily paved roads towards the weak points in the earth's crust.

Watching this scene, Chen Yusheng felt slightly dazed, as if it were very familiar.

After a moment of silent reflection, he finally realized.

This is quite similar to the scene during the first apocalypse, when the country deployed a large number of special trucks to transport the Giant Spirit II rocket to various space launch bases...

The only difference is that this time the transportation is faster and on a larger scale.

The drill bit of the ion drilling equipment alone has a diameter of 8 meters and a length of more than 70 meters, which is much larger than a Giant Spirit II rocket.

The subsequent "drill rod" section is the same size as the drill bit, also 8 meters in diameter. And... even the shortest set of equipment has a drill rod length of 2.1 meters.

Even in the thinnest part of the Earth's crust on land, the crust is still 2.1 meters thick.

Such long drill rods naturally need to be cut into sections, transported over first, and then assembled on-site. And with each section measuring 70 meters, 2.1 meters would amount to a full 300 rods.

500 ion drilling machines would amount to a total of 15 drill bits.

Its size is hundreds of times larger than when it transported the Giant Spirit II rocket.

Fortunately, this ion drilling equipment does not need to be fully manufactured before it can be put into operation; instead, it can operate and produce simultaneously, which greatly reduces the production pressure.

At this moment, at Earth's crust base number 7.

The ground facilities, covering a total area of ​​one million square meters, have now been completed.

Large-scale ground support equipment has already been installed in those buildings. Now everything is ready, and only the final step is needed.

The giant truck, with over 100 wheels, roared into the Earth's crust seven base. A group of staff and heavy machinery immediately moved forward to begin further operations.

The first step is to reinstall the large internal equipment that was previously disassembled.

The drill bit of the ion drilling equipment is the heaviest part. It is only a little over 70 meters long, but if all the internal equipment is complete, it weighs more than 5000 tons, which even the largest truck cannot bear.

Therefore, its outer shell and internal equipment had to be transported separately.

Even if only the outer shell remains, its current mass is over 1000 tons, heavier than the original Tormentor II rocket when it was fully fueled.

At this moment, conventional excavation methods have been used to excavate a funnel-shaped, massive cavern with a maximum diameter of over 100 meters, which gradually shrinks to only 10 meters in diameter inside and is 500 meters deep.

Beside this cave stand four structures resembling cable-stayed bridges.

The other side of the cable is fixed to the mountain, and through the support of the tower, the other cable extends to the cave.

A giant crane lifted the massive device, which was over 70 meters long and weighed over 1000 tons, and carried it vertically into the huge cave.

Afterward, the cables of the four cable-stayed bridges were connected to the drill bit equipment to the super-strong tensile ropes used for load-bearing.

The massive object, weighing over 1000 tons, was now steadily suspended above the cave.

Only then did people transport one giant piece of equipment after another, and with the help of cranes, they installed them one by one into the drill bit.

(End of this chapter)