The New Base

“Good.” Hearing Fang Lei’s words, Pan Yongnian nodded at once, then turned to his two students and instructed them: “Xiao Xu, Xiaoxiao, stay at the scene. Section Chief Fang and I are heading out on a mission; we’ll be back later.” Xiao Xu and Chen Xiaoxiao had been with Pan Yongnian for some time. Having run into similar situations a few times before, they saw no reason to speak up: “Understood, Teacher.” Pan Yongnian patted both their shoulders, neatly organized the report Xiao Xu had earlier given him, carefully placed it in his briefcase, and followed behind Fang Lei and Chen Zhengze out of the control room. Led by Fang Lei, the group passed in turn through several security systems such as iris recognition, and soon reached the outdoors. Unlike the open-air street scene of yesterday, right now, a closed roof like a construction site had been erected around the transmigration point, about six or seven meters high, filled inside with many gray, square metal plates. Several devices were also fastened to the ground with acoustic materials. While broadcasting construction-site maintenance sounds, they directionally simulated the vibration waveforms produced by medium and large construction equipment, ensuring everything was fail-safe from every angle. Fang Lei led Pan Yongnian and the others to a parking area, where a black MPV and an eleven- or twelve-meter-long large truck were parked. He walked to the black MPV, opened the door, and made an inviting gesture. “Academician Pan, please get in.” “Thank you.” Pan Yongnian thanked Fang Lei, lowered his head, and climbed into the cabin. Inside the MPV, three independent seats were arranged with one in front and two in back, with a touch panel embedded in the armrest of each seat. A dark metal plate completely separated the cabin from the driver’s compartment, so the conditions ahead were not visible. Pan Yongnian chose the front seat. He had just set down his briefcase when Fang Lei outside slammed the car door shut. At the same time. Whoosh— Shutters of some unknown material also rapidly dropped over the side windows, and all light inside the car vanished instantly. The only visual focus was a small button glowing green at the lower right corner of the partition ahead. “Academician Pan.” After another ten-odd seconds, Fang Lei’s voice came from near the small button: “You should know the rules for classified trips. A signal jammer is installed in the car, so you cannot contact the outside for the entire journey.” “The place we’re going this time takes a while to reach. Drinking water and blankets are behind the seats. If you need to relieve yourself, there’s a simple commode and disinfectant wipes underneath; figure out the exact location yourself.” “If there are any other special situations, press the green button to contact me.” After speaking, Fang Lei hung up without waiting for Pan Yongnian to respond. Fortunately, Pan Yongnian was no stranger to dealing with comrades on the classified front. He knew the other party’s coldness wasn’t directed at him personally, so he just smiled. Then he reached out, groped behind the seat skillfully for a moment, soon produced a blanket, draped it over himself sideways, and dozed off. To be honest, these past two days had been nothing but meetings and data analysis. He really hadn’t rested properly. Now he could catch a nap. A few minutes later. The two vehicles soon started up, maintaining a certain distance, one after the other, driving out from under the roof. ...... About three hours later. Pan Yongnian, who had dreamed of growing a lush head of long hair, suddenly felt his hairline tremble. In the dream, the dense, shoulder-length strands began to fall one by one. Immediately after, Fang Lei’s voice pulled him back to reality: “Academician Pan, we’ve reached the destination. Please get out.” Arrived? Pan Yongnian rubbed his eyes sleepily, opened them, and saw the car door slowly opening outward. After adjusting to the light for a moment, he put on his glasses, straightened his appearance, and got out of the car. Right now, the black MPV he had ridden in was positioned in the center of a flat surface. Surrounding it were many pipe-like facilities, and above was a reinforced artificial dome, estimated at about thirty meters high. “Academician Pan.” Just as Pan Yongnian was observing his surroundings, Chen Zhengze walked over from the side and greeted him: “You’ve worked hard on this trip.” “No, no, it’s nothing like that. Rather, I took the chance to get a good sleep,” Pan Yongnian waved his hand cheerfully. Then he looked up and around curiously. “Chief of Staff Chen, is this the base contributed by your Fourth Service Branch?” “Exactly,” Chen Zhengze nodded, and a hint of a gossipy smile could still be seen at the corner of his mouth. “There aren’t many bases of this scale in the hands of the Fourth Service Branch. It’s said that a few old bigwigs were distressed about it, clamoring for the other three service branches to provide compensation.” Not long ago… that is, after the important talk in the capital that determined the direction, the state immediately went all out and pushed forward the Ruo Jiao Project at full speed. The base where Pan Yongnian and Chen Zhengze now were was one of the sub-plans. The reason for establishing this sub-item was actually quite simple: Although the transmigration point on Nan’an West Road was of a special nature, its geographic location meant that no matter how secret it was kept, it could absolutely never be expanded into a super-large base with transfer and research capabilities—at least not in the short term, and there was neither the possibility nor the necessity. The relevant links involving scientific research had to be completed at another location or unit. First, this location could not be too far from the transmigration point; it had to be within Lindu City’s radiation radius. Second, it had to be highly classified, and the space had to be spacious enough. After extensive discussion, the base where Pan Yongnian and Chen Zhengze now stood emerged as the answer everyone unanimously agreed upon. This base was located 1,163 meters below a certain mountain peak southwest of Lindu City, with a total area of 229,000 square meters, a straight-line distance of 79.4 kilometers from the transmigration point. Originally, it was one of the strategic-level bases of the Fourth Service Branch. What does strategic-level mean? Take a very exaggerated example. Suppose one day a foreigner who looked like Japan’s Sanae Takaichi flew a UFO to invade Earth, and all command centers, satellite links, and communication hubs were destroyed immediately. Then this base would be the only desperate central command in the entire central region capable of carrying out a counterattack mission. Bases of this scale, across all of Huaxia, numbered only four. To ensure this base could operate smoothly in extreme scenarios, the state equipped it with complete water and electricity facilities, and it did not occupy any external supply quota. Even without undertaking counterattack missions, the entire base could easily support tens of thousands of people living inside. The famous Fuling 816 Nuclear Plant covered less than half its area. No wonder Chen Zhengze said those old bigwigs were distressed—this was truly the lifeblood of the Fourth Service Branch… In any case, after the base was vacated, the indoor cross-world channel in Lindu would mainly undertake the task of transmitting items between the two worlds, as well as observing and researching topics involving the concept of “space.” All other research related to cultivation would be completed at this base. For this, Lin Huaian… that is, the high-level decision-maker who had spoken with Zhou Jianmin back then… personally gave the base a new name. It was called… Daybreak.