Captain Purge's words were like an invisible golden ticket of immunity from death, posted at Basel's doorstep.
Going to the research institute tomorrow, what does that mean?
This means that you won’t die today, or at least you won’t be captured.
He and his family are safe.
At this moment, Basel's years of work seemed to have paid off. He happily closed the door and returned to the bedroom, hugged his family tightly and fell asleep.
The next day, January 4th.
Bazel got up early, put on his coat and left home.
He didn't know who the researcher named Ji Yongxing was, nor did he know whether he had helped him with his affairs.
But let's just assume it was there. He was dressed very formally today and went out early in the morning and walked towards the research institute.
In the past twenty-four hours, the neighbor on his left was captured by the army, and the neighbor on his right was taken away for tea by the purge team. Now, he and his family of three were the only ones left living in the large neighborhood.
When passing by the door of the neighbor's house, Basel couldn't help but glance in the direction of the gate and saw a few scattered, yellowish solids mixed with blood scattered at the door.
He sighed silently. It seemed that the neighbor who loved to show off would have to be more cautious in his words in the future...
Basel continued to move forward. For some reason, he didn't want to take a taxi today. It seemed that he wanted to see if Hope City had become different from before.
However, no matter how much cleaning was done, only a few people were arrested, and the flow of people on the streets was almost the same as before. If one had to find some differences, it would perhaps be that many people were buying food with heavy dark circles under their eyes.
An hour later, Basel, feeling a little cold, arrived at the bottom of the institute.
After confirming his identity as the person who made the appointment, the security guard at the door gave Bazel a temporary magnetic card:
"Swipe your card and go to the laboratory on the underground floor. Researcher Ji is there."
This was not his first time at the research institute. Before entering the factory system, Basel's major made him frequently go in and out of the research institute during his last year and a half in college, but that was ten years ago.
At that time, he was completely unaware of the existence of the underground part.
The elevator door opened and Basel saw a research area he had never been to before.
More than a dozen researchers were busy at different lab tables and equipment. The facilities here looked newly configured not long ago, but parts of the ceiling seemed a little charred, as if there had been a fire a long time ago.
He was about to stop a passerby to ask questions when a young man trotted towards him.
"Mr. Bazel?"
"Yes, may I ask who you are?"
"I am Ji Yongxing."
The young man was very enthusiastic about the visitor and pulled him into a separate room.
It was a personal area that combined a laboratory and an office. Bazel, sitting in a chair, felt a little overwhelmed.
Obviously, Ji Yongxing was not an old man as he thought. On the contrary, he looked very young, very young.
Ji Yongxing picked up a document from his desk and handed it to Bazel:
"Did you get these data from surveying in the past?"
Basel took the document and flipped through it. He looked at the familiar data and his signature and nodded.
That was a summary of some of his work in the past ten years, from the 43rd year of the New Era to the 52nd year of the New Era that just passed.
After receiving the other party's affirmation, Ji Yongxing's eyes became a little more serious:
“Can you ensure the authenticity of this data?”
In response to this question, Basel was briefly confused, and then fell into relieved silence.
Theoretically, data, especially surveying and exploration data, cannot be falsified, but data processing is a science in factories. There is no such thing as falsification. There are only massive "empirical formulas" that can make the data meet one's expectations.
It seems that some of the factory's actions have left a deep impression on the institute... Thinking of this, Bazel sighed and said:
"I confirm that it is real and has not been processed in any way."
The young man in front of him nodded and said:
"You should have listened to the Speaker's speech, right?"
"Yes."
"Then you should know that the planet we are standing on is not actually our home planet."
Bazel nodded.
"The distribution of metal veins on this planet is somewhat peculiar... This is exactly what I am studying now. I believe there must be some rules hidden in it, otherwise there would not be such a distribution."
Ji Yongxing explained carefully:
“In the construction of the City of Hope over the past few decades, a large amount of steel and other metals have been consumed.
"It's impossible that all these things were brought by the spacecraft, and the factories with earlier serial numbers are also responsible for smelting, as you know."
Bazel continued to nod.
"So, have you ever thought that the metal mines on this planet seem to be a little too easy to obtain?"
Ji Yongxing looked at Basel:
"You are a professional in this field. When you were exploring, didn't you feel that... the mineral veins on this planet were free?"
The two looked at each other, and after a long time, Basel stretched out his hands.
Seeing this, Ji Yongxing also stretched out his hand, and the four hands were clasped tightly between the two of them, shaking a few times before letting go.
“I made a similar discovery when I graduated.”
Bazel seemed to be lost in a memory.
"When I was collecting data, I felt that all the mineral veins were concentrated on the edge of the outer city, as if someone had buried them there in advance...
"At the time, I thought it was a shallow mine found specifically for our graduation, but after working here for so long, I realized that Hope City seemed to be... located on a huge mineral vein.
"It's just a pity that since this is not related to work, I didn't investigate it carefully."
Ji Yongxing fell into deep thought. After a long while, he said:
"Your guess may be right, or it may be a little conservative.
“Since this is not humanity’s home planet, we have an obligation to find out the various values of this planet.
"This is the direction of my research, not only on the ground, but also on the unknown things underground...Your surveying and mapping skills are very good, I hope you can join my team."
As Ji Yongxing spoke, he took out a photo from another folder and showed it to Basel.
"This is?"
Bazel looked at the old, somewhat faded photograph, at the man-made object that took up half of the frame.
"This is the human colony ship, the Spire."
“I can see it, but why is it crooked?”
Basel was confused. Although his house was not close to the spire, he could see it from afar when he was at work. The magnificent building seemed to grow straight out of the ground, which was quite different from the angle in the photo.
“This photo was taken on…”
Ji Yongxing took back the photo and said meaningfully:
"Fifty years ago."
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