Chapter 425

Chapter 425: The Sea

The news of the blockade in the southern part of Hope City quickly reached Arthur’s desk.

Although he had anticipated possible changes outside the city, he was still quite surprised upon receiving this information.

In Fulan’s report, there seemed to be some great terror in the south.

The actions of the will of the mycelium appeared to be… protecting humanity from that horrifying area.

Clearly, it would not be so benevolent; there must be some ulterior motives behind it.

However, Lin Qingliu himself did not plan to take risks regarding the situation outside Hope City in the short term.

Though he was reluctant to admit it, one reason Lin Qingliu had dared to take risks in the past was the existence of the council.

Even the worst order was better than total chaos, and now that he had personally dismantled the council, the original ecological niche was replaced by a symbolic Speaker, which meant that he had to consider the broader consequences of his every action.

Sending avatars might not reach such distant places due to energy level constraints, while his main body still needed to maintain the shield and other equipment in Hope City…

Lin Qingliu thought for a moment and decided to postpone the exploration to the south for a while, at least until he received some research results from Ji Yongxing before making a decision.

He lightly tapped the terminal on his finger, and the holograms in the office quickly responded; the entire layout of Hope City and the surrounding area appeared in three dimensions before his eyes.

Originally, this map was a standard circle covering only the whole of Hope City and a small surrounding area.

But with the extraordinary beasts exploration team led by Fulan, the war fog enveloping the surrounding map seemed to be illuminated bit by bit, revealing irregular visible areas.

This even gave Lin Qingliu a thrill similar to that experienced in his previous life while playing strategy games; now, it felt like he had entered a challenging battle mode with formidable enemies surrounding him from all directions.

From all directions…

Lin Qingliu suddenly thought of a question, one he seemed to have overlooked for a long time.

He carefully scrutinized the entirety of the explored map, observing the overall position of Hope City.

More than fifty years ago, the spot where the spaceship crashed was only a few kilometers from the Sea on this planet, and from a high point on the spaceship, one could vaguely see that eerily silent ocean.

This distance had not changed with time, but Lin Qingliu suddenly realized that all humans seemed completely unconcerned about this Sea to the east, as if it were a wall with no visible boundaries.

“Infinite Scroll.”

Arthur spoke in a calm tone.

“I’m here.”

A familiar voice responded from the office speaker.

“Retrieve all known data related to the ocean east of Hope City.”

“Understood.”

Soon, folders began appearing in animation on the projection, the speed of the transfer comparable to a pop-up attack during continuous errors.

Before long, the holographic map of Hope City was buried beneath those pop-ups.

Arthur reached out to separate them and began to browse everything related to the Sea.

Despite the abundance of documents, the sheer volume of information made it hard to believe. Compared to other fields, the space occupied by these files could not be equated.

Arthur swiftly browsed through numerous documents; sensors locked onto his eyes, providing rapid feedback.

He arranged the files chronologically, reading the detailed records as he seemed to transcend time, arriving at the pioneering period from more than fifty years ago.

After confirming the existence of alien creatures, the designers among the awakened proposed three potential city-building plans: a floating city, a mobile city on the Sea, and the land circular city that was ultimately implemented and built.

The floating city plan was eliminated because the exploration team had not discovered sufficient fuel on this planet to support it, making the floating city plan a true air castle.

Thus, this plan was understandably abandoned.

The second plan proposed was a mobile city on the Sea, which had considerable references compared to the first fantastical idea, given that this planet was one where tsunamis were unlikely to occur.

However, due to the main body of the spaceship being difficult to restart and unable to land again, this plan was also ultimately canceled, leading to the current Hope City being put on the agenda and receiving unanimous approval from the council members at that time.

Aside from some simple sampling and testing, this was the first record about the ocean of this planet.

Wanting to explore the Sea in a context where satellites and probes could not be launched and the exploration team was already facing difficulties on land was indeed not realistic.

Arthur nodded and continued to sift through the documents, finding the second record concerning the ocean.

In the second year of the New Era, the first batch of matured humans was about to emerge from the cultivation pods.

Facing a group that looked about fifteen or sixteen years old but whose minds were like that of infants, even the council members’ hardened hearts had to consider housing for these people.

With the aid of the super-large integrated construction tools carried by the spaceship, namely the large machinery controlled by “Fortress,” humanity had established the prototype of the inner city in just over a year.

Now, this space was no longer sufficient for human habitation, prompting discussions about the outer city to be put on the agenda according to the concept laid out in the first document.

Generally, when it comes to land enclosure, logically, the bigger, the better.

But on a planet with alien creatures, it was different; humans had to reasonably gauge the scope of land enclosure to prevent sparse populations from leading to negative effects.

Hence, whether to enclose the Sea on the eastern side of Hope City became a question.

Eventually, energy experts, notably the first-generation Zhong Ding, pressed forward amidst objections, establishing a city wall structure that encircled some of the Sea in the eastern part of the outer city.

As an expert in this area, Zhong Ding believed that tidal energy could be a very stable energy source on this planet, which lacked significant waves.

This planet also had its own moon, meaning it would generate tides similar to those on the home planet.

Moreover, the known surface of the planet had very low elevations, significantly reducing the likelihood of natural disasters occurring.

More importantly, according to their estimates, the population of Hope City would surpass one million in ten years and three million in twenty years.

Given this growth rate, electricity would pose a significant gap for future construction, and this gap could not be filled by the reactors in the spaceship’s energy compartment, as those were one of their ace cards for maintaining the spaceship and the spire system.

After laying out the pros and cons, Zhong Ding’s plan was put into action, and in the eighth year of the New Era, those tidal generators near the city walls close to the Sea were completed.

Upon reaching this point, Arthur felt that the development of events remained within a controllable range.

He continued flipping through the next document, and the content that came into view made him catch his breath.