CHAPTER 225: CHAPTER 223 GUANGGU UNDERGROUND CITY

Transferring the technology of manufacturing the Isotope Thermoelectric Battery to the nation wasn’t a difficult decision for Chen Xin.

Of course, he knew how beneficial the Isotope Thermoelectric Battery was to the country and what kind of role it could play in disaster recovery.

Imagine, even a small Isotope Thermoelectric Battery could achieve hundreds of kilowatts of power output. If the technology were applied to small nuclear reactors to enhance their output, the effects would be astounding.

It can be said that, if one could fully master the technology of manufacturing the Isotope Thermoelectric Battery and expand it comprehensively, it would be enough to change the current energy application situation of the Flame Country, alter the entire national energy structural system, and even affect the overall national development strategy and national situation!

Even before the disaster, this would have been technology capable of altering a nation’s core strategic direction.

While Chen Xin isn’t the type of person to selflessly give everything to the country, he’s also not the type to hoard such technology solely for personal gain, refusing to help the nation.

The problem is that while Chen Xin’s Isotope Thermoelectric Battery was created by him, it was made possible only through a system and not because he understood the underlying technical principles well enough to explain them, or reproduce them outside the system.

In other words, Chen Xin can produce the finished product and even improve it to make it more powerful. However, he cannot articulate how it is made or the principles it is based on.

He can only provide the finished Isotope Thermoelectric Battery to the country, and is unable to offer the related technology.

This is the fundamental reason for his hesitation and reluctance because only providing the product but not the technology can, from certain perspectives, be seen as Chen Xin being possessive and unwilling to share the technology.

Maybe he could provide the schematics? Chen Xin scratched his head, coming up with a new idea.

His workbench can record the schematics of items he creates, so he can fully document the schematics of the Isotope Thermoelectric Battery to provide the finished product and the schematics later, allowing scientists to conduct reverse research, which could save a lot of effort.

As for the related technology, there truly is none; we can only rely on those scientists to reverse engineer it.

Realizing this, Chen Xin felt much more at ease, and detecting his change in mood, Zhang Chengguang and the other two astronauts couldn’t help feeling a sense of expectation and hope.

Even though Chen Xin hadn’t agreed to anything explicit, Zhang Chengguang could see that Chen Xin had made a decision regarding his proposal.

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Under Zhang Yao’s driving, Chen Xin’s car arrived at the provincial capital of Hubei province.

The astronauts’ matters were of utmost importance, and in the current environment, they could only reach out to a provincial government to ensure the security of the critical data stored in their drives.

The Hubei provincial government, after the initial surprise, took serious notice of the astronauts’ arrival and the crucial data they carried.

However, the provincial government itself did not have the capacity to handle this data, so after meeting with the three astronauts, Hubei’s top officials decided to dispatch armed police to escort them to the Guanggu district of Tri-town.

The three astronauts voiced no objection to the provincial government’s decision.

The government, being an administrative body, naturally couldn’t handle such research-related data, but Guanggu was different.

This area was a significant high-tech industrial zone in central Flame Country, having attracted over forty universities and more than fifty national and provincial research institutes before the disaster, and it hosted Asia’s largest and most complex underground complex — the Guanggu Underground City.

Chen Xin had only learned about the Guanggu Underground City, claimed to be the world’s largest single underground building structure, through TV programs, and had never actually been there.

However, when Chen Xin drove there, escorted by two armored police vehicles, he was clearly astonished by this enormous underground structure.

"Why did you build such a massive underground city here in the first place? Was it for disaster prevention?" Chen Xin curiously asked the escorting Hubei provincial government staff member about the original purpose of construction as they slowly drove into this immense underground city.

The Guanggu Underground City is a massive disc-shaped structure. Just looking from the entrance, one could sense the vastness of its internal space, exaggeratingly resembling the terminal of a large airport.

This made Chen Xin very curious about why the high-level officials of Tri-town and Hubei province built such an exaggerated structure, especially underground, in the city’s central area.

"The primary reason for building such a large structure here is because of actual usage needs." The Hubei provincial government staff, well-informed about this massive underground city, explained that not only was it once the largest underground complex in Asia, but it is now also the largest underground refuge in Hubei province, or rather a true underground city.

"Usage needs?" Chen Xin grew even more curious about what kind of usage demands necessitated such a massive underground building: "Is it a subway station here? But even subway stations wouldn’t need to be so large, would they?"

The staff member smiled and explained Chen Xin’s speculation: "Five years ago, this area in Guanggu was Tri-town’s most congested intersection. At that time, the municipal government wanted to improve traffic flow to accelerate Guanggu’s development, so they planned this huge underground complex to serve as an underground transportation hub.

In this area, three subway lines and two highways converge here. During peak times, eighty thousand people need to pass through per hour, so a large facility was necessary to accommodate such traffic needs."

After hearing the staff’s introduction, Chen Xin realized that this massive underground city wasn’t the underground mall or simple underground building he originally imagined, but a transportation hub, or a huge subway station.

Chen Xin believed that when it was originally built, countless efforts were poured into it by the engineering designers to meet all usage requirements while also making it spacious, bright, and elegantly grand.

Now, however, this once beautiful underground complex had been transformed into a massive underground city.

The entire complex’s top had been remade and reinforced, the glass ceiling structure that once allowed sunlight inside had been visibly sealed off, providing protection while also retaining heat.

As Chen Xin looked up at a subway line running through the interior of the complex, a train happened to enter the platform.

"The transportation lines here are still running; although subway frequencies are not as dense as before, they are still operational. However, many stations along the subway lines have been similarly converted into underground shelters, supplied by the subway." Seeing Chen Xin watching the train, the staff member hurriedly provided the introduction.

To this point, Chen Xin wasn’t surprised. He simply asked the staff member, "Are the research institutions also concentrated here now?"

"Not really, Guanggu’s schools and research institutions remain in their original locations, as their basements typically have underground shelters or parking lots with civil defense works, so the research institutions mainly abandoned above-ground buildings and moved research facilities underground." The staff member seemed to anticipate such questions from Chen Xin, guiding him through internal roads of the complex while explaining the situation here: "Research institutions and schools moved underground, the Tri-town municipal government dug tunnels connecting these institutions and schools, making the entire Guanggu area a contiguous whole, its core being here.

One could say the entire Guanggu area is a true underground city. We’re now in just the core part of this underground city. The research institution you need to visit is not far from here, just a five-minute walk away."

Following the staff’s instructions, Chen Xin steered the car into a tunnel, with the two armored police vehicles closely following behind.

The configuration looked somewhat intimidating, but the people by the roadside showed no special reaction upon seeing the three armored cars pass by, as if they were used to it.

After entering the tunnel, Chen Xin continued to question: "I didn’t see many residents just now. Isn’t the number of survivors in Guanggu lots?"

"Before the disaster, the Guanggu area alone had 400,000 students and over a million permanent residents. After the disaster, over 100,000 students remained, and there were more than 800,000 other survivors, so of course there are lots of people!" The staff member gave a bitter smile as he answered Chen Xin’s inquiry: "It’s just that the Guanggu complex wasn’t used to accommodate lots of people; it mainly serves as a transportation hub and regional center, with survivors distributed across other underground shelters in the area."

Such a large underground space not being converted into living quarters surprised Chen Xin greatly, and the three astronauts in the vehicle were also puzzled. Logically, with an underground space as vast as the Guanggu complex, accommodating tens of thousands of people should pose no problem.

According to the staff’s earlier description, the entire Guanggu underground complex covered an area roughly equivalent to thirty-two football fields, comfortably housing tens of thousands of people.

Yet, when faced with Chen Xin’s question, the staff could only offer another bitter smile: "The Guanggu underground complex primarily serves as a transportation hub. Despite its vast underground public space, it’s also relatively open, making it difficult to maintain warmth despite modified and sealed entrances. Thus, it hasn’t been used for habitation but rather as a distribution center for materials."