The card players started playing.
The trays only needed to be placed in the designated collection area, where they would be cleaned automatically.
Rubbing his belly with a satisfied look, Lin He turned toward He Xuan.
Lin He asked, "Um, weren't you one of Tianhe 1's designers? What happened to the Third Area? Do you have any internal access privileges or anything?"
"Want to know?" He Xuan's icy gaze fixed on Lin He, making him shiver again. "Go take a look yourself."
"Uh... on second thought, forget it... what if there are mutated monsters or something... even if they didn't mutate, they probably... might not have made it. Corpses and all that... besides, I don't have access."
Wild ideas burst forth in Lin He's mind.
Holding his cards, Qi Siyu said, "Quite an imagination."
Wang Xiaofei was wholly focused. "Pair of threes."
The older man frowned, while Huang Qi silently wandered behind the three players.
He Xuan said, "Whatever went wrong in Area Three isn't ours to worry about. Until we reach Orange Star's orbit, each area's living module will remain isolated from the main activity area."
The camera on the ceiling quietly took in everything in the hall.
[No. 3 Hibernation Area] [Seal failure] [Circuit damage] [Unable to obtain detailed information] [No life signs detected among personnel] [Approximately 3,300 liters of fuel leaked in the area. Breach automatically sealed.] [No. 4 Activity Area-minor air leak of approximately 1,700 liters. Resealed. Additional circuit damage-repaired by self-inspection robots.] [No. 1 Activity Area-minor air leak of approximately 4,000 liters. Resealed. Additional circuit damage-repaired by self-inspection robots.] [Encounter with stray meteorite fragments-70%]
Over the next few days, no one investigated Area Three, and no one lost their mind or did anything inexplicable.
Everyone gradually recovered, physically and mentally. Some even sent messages home, mostly videos expressing how much they missed their families and assuring them they were safe.
Lin He and his group's objective was to help Orange Star Base establish a Production Zone, expand it into an Industrial Zone, then build an Ecological Zone and enlarge it into an Ecological City.
The Alliance would keep sending personnel. Apparently, some scientists also wanted to develop oxygen-producing algae for Orange Star.
Carrying that transformation plan, Tianhe 1 had set sail. Orange Star was where they would make their mark!
In the days that followed, even Lin He started playing poker. There was simply too little to do.
The spacecraft was under intelligent control throughout the journey. Ultimately, they were all just passengers.
Occasionally, they also used virtual reality equipment to enter virtual spaces.
Lying in a hibernation pod did make them look like corpses.
But as the older man put it, "Anyone who comes out of long-term hibernation alive is already one of the lucky ones."
As for the scientist who had proposed transforming Orange Star's environment and researching algae... well, he was already buried beneath Orange Star's sand.
Tianhe 1 continued drifting through space as it decelerated.
Day 81 at Orange Star Base-
With theoretical and technical support, the Research Center burned through resources at a furious pace, building machines for producing 48-nanometer, 32-nanometer, 20-nanometer, 14-nanometer, and 8-nanometer chips.
Although some things could not be achieved simply by throwing materials at them, Luo Qi also had a supercomputer brain. Given ten thousand theories, he could devise ten thousand corresponding experimental approaches.
He was extraordinarily generous with the researcher copies under him. If they wanted materials, he supplied them; if they wanted a Research Center, he built one.
With enormous material and computing resources behind them, results came extraordinarily quickly. Unlike scientists on Earth, they did not have to beg everyone under the sun and dance with joy over a little funding.
Unexpectedly, all five sizes of chip-production machines ran reliably, with astonishingly high yields in the vacuum workshops.
The Research Center also began experimenting with even smaller carbon nanotubes.
Watching the Second World, however, Luo Qi exclaimed, "Who knows how many years it'll take to reach the level of Three-Body's Droplet and Higher-Dimensional Unfolded Sophon?"
"The former mastered a technology through sheer brute force; the latter mastered one to pull off the seemingly impossible."
Luo Qi knew he might still be a long way from that path.
The laboratory's 8-nanometer chips were sufficient for the equipment currently in use, both in space and on the ground. The Research Center finalized the 8-Nanometer Chip Production Line.
The No. 1 Electronics Factory was established in the New Industrial Zone and immediately installed an 8-Nanometer Chip Production Line.
Chips and supporting electronic products poured out in a steady stream, along with what Luo Qi wanted most: the T3 Robots' Intelligence Modules, which would free up some of his considerable computing power.
Palm-sized metal boxes emerged from the electronics factory's finished-product assembly line. Each had connection ports, four 8-nanometer processing chips, and five terabytes of high-speed storage. New network chips also allowed them to connect to the network.
The T3 Robots began lining up to install their own brains.
In the Second World, Luo Qi also wrote intelligent programs for the industrial robots.
These would give the robots basic logic and judgment. Whenever they encountered something they could not handle, they would report it to the main base's program.
These programs had limited independent learning and reasoning abilities. After all, Luo Qi had no intention of doing all the groundwork only to have his subordinate intelligent programs seize his grand undertaking before it even got off the ground.
"And once intelligence has been installed in the T3 Robots, knowledge can be packaged into modules and uploaded to the network for download, such as the Land Machinery Operations Module, Aerospace Machinery Operations Module, War Infantry Module, War Aviation Module..."
"Then, whenever an area needs robots, the central program can dispatch them itself, and the robots can download the appropriate modules."
All the T3 Robots fitted with new brains froze.
[A1001 Robot dispatched] [Downloading Land Machinery Operations Module]
The program selected the T3 Robot designated A1001.
The robot then installed the module over the network and left the base with many of its companions aboard a flatbed vehicle used to transport base supplies.
Luo Qi freed up some computing power, while the intelligent robots gained dedicated databases and logs.
The Research Center backed up its data, and these robots uploaded theirs.
Luo Qi immediately established the Central Information Storage Server in the No. 2 Factory in the New Industrial Zone.
During their ceaseless work, intelligent robots developed faults. The Repair Workshop replaced parts such as arms or legs, or sometimes recycled an entire body.
The identification numbers and logs stored on the server would continue within their bodies, like souls. Each robot remained itself, merely in a different body.
After spending another two days organizing all the mechanical construction functions, Luo Qi finally replaced the base's remote-controlled equipment with automated equipment.
Day 83-
Research began on Large-Scale Communications Radar Technology.
Research continued on high-performance metal materials.
Research continued on metallized silicon.
Research continued on silicides.
Research continued on chips.
Knowledge of the electromagnetic force system awaited verification.
Research was conducted on superconducting wire.
Research was conducted on the New-Type Energy Weapon.
Research began on nanorobots.
And so on.
Day 84-
The number of research projects continued to increase.
Research Center request for coordinated material supplies: approved.
Research Center request for expansion: approved.
Preparations began for a mineral-prospecting satellite launch.
Preparations began for rocket-related development.
Preparations began for conventional fuel reserves.
Research began on conventional-fuel engines.
Research began on space ion engines.
And so on.
Day 85-
The builders completed construction of the Nuclear Fusion Research Center.
The researcher copies requested the relocation of the relevant equipment.
Verification of the crucial electromagnetic force system was about to begin.
Attempts began to construct satellite equipment.
Day 86-
The Nuclear Fusion Research Center received power.
Construction began on the rocket project.
Trial operation of the satellite equipment succeeded.
Research succeeded in upgrading superconducting wire once again.
Metal materials research yielded: No. 1 Metal.
A new breakthrough was achieved in metal silicide, which was added to the list of standard construction materials to replace steel.
Before you continue