I live in the Martian wilderness!

[Mars Day 14, 07:30 AM]

The TianShuo engineering vehicle's ShenGong module outside the shelter has finished its preheating and begun its production task for the day.

Parallel production has been initiated.

[Queue 1: [Zhurong No. 1 - Modified] Immersion Heating Rod x2, Estimated Time: 40 minutes.]

[Queue Two: Lightweight carbon fiber cloth (5.5㎡), estimated time 25 minutes.]

Gu Yu passed through the airlock and stepped into the warm backyard.

Instead of immediately laying the aeration pipes, he first went to the two black racetrack pools.

He was holding a pistol-shaped device—the very same 3D laser theodolite he had previously used to draw lines on the wall.

"Xuan, project the installation diagrams for the light array."

"Understood, Lieutenant Colonel. AR installation guide is now in progress."

Gu Yu raised the theodolite and aimed it at the small pond, which was 5 square meters in size.

In his field of vision, three virtual blue lights representing light strips instantly appeared—one lying horizontally at the bottom of the pool, and the other two suspended in the middle of the two sides of the pool wall.

"Start marking".

Gu Yu aimed the laser sight of the theodolite at the fixed points at both ends of the pool wall light strip in the AR light and shadow.

"puff."

He pulled the trigger, and a small stream of highly adhesive white marker paint shot out from the nozzle, leaving two clear white dots on the black carbon-sulfur composite plate pool wall.

With one operation from Gu Yu, the theodolite's notification sounded: [Switched to 'Additive Manufacturing' mode.]

He pressed the front of his theodolite against the white dot he had just marked and pulled the trigger again.

This time, instead of paint, a black hot melt adhesive mixed with carbon powder and sulfur-based binder was sprayed out.

"Sizzle—"

The miniature induction heating coil inside the device is activated instantly, heating and curing the hot melt adhesive.

In just over ten seconds, a semi-circular hook with a slot appeared out of nowhere on the pool wall, blending perfectly with it.

This is the most incredible function of this "pistol"—it can not only "draw," but also perform small-scale spot welding 3D printing.

After a long time, six white positioning points and six black hooks were precisely manufactured on the pool wall.

Just then, Xuanjian's notification sounded: "Lieutenant Colonel, the heating rod and carbon cloth have been produced. Please proceed to the Shenggong Module to collect the parts."

Gu Yu immediately returned to the ground through the airlock; the Tissot's finished product compartment had already been opened.

He first carried the two still-warm black heating rods into the backyard, and then picked up the roll of light carbon fiber cloth.

Back in the backyard, he first aligned the two heating rods with the base through the pre-installed clips and tightened them firmly.

Then take out the specially made high-temperature waterproof cable, connect it to the terminal of the heating rod, and tighten the waterproof nut to the specified force with a torque wrench.

"Click." The crisp, pleasant sound of the torque being reached was clearly audible.

Two heating rods were firmly fixed to the bottom of the pool, like two lurking black dragons.

Next, Gu Yu walked toward today's other main subject—the [GZ-05 Universal Lighting Module].

He found the box labeled "Precision Optical Instruments" in cargo hold number two.

Upon opening, what's inside isn't the finished product, but six silver "light bars," each about 1.5 meters long, wrapped in shock-absorbing material, along with matching brackets and waterproof cables.

"Xuan, how do you spell this?"

"Based on the optimal lighting scheme for a 5-square-meter area," Xuanjian projected AR installation guidance onto the HUD, "you need to build a bottom-side composite lighting matrix."

Gu Yu picked up a light stick. It was cool to the touch, and its main body was a highly transparent quartz glass tube.

It contains rows of rice-grain-sized LED chips, and both ends are titanium alloy caps with complex interfaces.

In the very center of the pool bottom, there were two pre-printed grooves. He aligned the two ends of the light strip and pressed down firmly.

With a "click," the light strip was firmly inserted into the bottom of the pool, as if it were embedded there.

Then, he looked at the pool wall.

The white hooks waited quietly.

He picked up the second light strip, held it horizontally, aligned it with the two hooks 1.5 meters apart, and gently pushed it in.

The light strip slid precisely into the semi-circular slot and hung steadily in the middle of the pool wall.

On the other side, the same operation was performed.

After the installation was completed, Gu Yu jumped out of the pool and began the most crucial electrical connections.

He first fixed a palm-sized IP68 waterproof hub to the outside of the pool wall, and then connected it to the service panel on the wall with a yellow main cable.

Finally, he took out three slightly thinner short cables, connected the three output ports on the hub to the waterproof connectors at the ends of the three light strips, and tightened them firmly.

The miniature indicator light next to the interface changes from red to green, indicating a successful connection and that the airtightness self-test has passed.

Gu Yu stepped back a few paces, examining his masterpiece.

The once empty, black pool now features a futuristic lighting system.

Three light strips lay quietly at the bottom of the pool, like sleeping lightsabers.

"Xuan, hardware connection complete. Before filling with water, conduct an idle power-on test."

"Understood, Lieutenant Colonel. Starting up the GZ-05 lighting module, power 10%."

"Smack."

Without any glaring light, the three light strips were lit up at the same moment, emitting a soft and dreamy lotus root pink glow.

The entire interior of the black running track pool was instantly enveloped by this strange light.

The light is repeatedly diffused on the inner wall of the matte black carbon-sulfur composite plate, forming an extremely uniform light field without shadows.

"Power is normal, spectrum is stable, all chips are activated," Xuanjian reported. "No-load test passed."

"very good."

After doing all this, Gu Yu walked with satisfaction to the side of the Oasis One command module.

On that arc-shaped metal hull, there is an internal multi-functional interface panel, similar to the external service panel.

Multiple standardized snap-fit ​​interfaces for connecting water, electricity, and gas are provided on the top.

"Xuan, report on the situation down the well." Gu Yu removed a flexible heating hose. "We've been heating it for almost two days now. What's the situation down there?"

"Reporting to the Colonel," Xuanjian said, pulling up the live feed from the downhole camera. "A stable liquid water cavity has formed at the bottom of the well, with a diameter of about 2.5 meters and a depth of about 1.8 meters."

"The current total water storage in the well is about 8.5 tons, and the water temperature is being stably controlled at 28°C."

"8.5 tons..." Gu Yu looked at the underground lake shimmering under the infrared lights and nodded in satisfaction. This well had transformed from a water source into a reservoir.

He clicked one end of the hose into the valve labeled "Source Water Output - A" on the interface panel.

The internal piping of this valve had already been connected to the main output pipe of the external "water collection tree" through the hull structure of Oasis One.

Then, he dragged the other end of the hose to the side of the running track pool and connected it to the water inlet pre-installed in the pool wall.

"Open the valve and start filling with water!"

"Whoosh—"