Chapter 428 Methods and Conditions
72 hours is not a short time, but it is not long either.
Zhao Hong finally spent two days to transfer all members to the dungeon, but found that there were less than ten hours left until the deadline.
Ten hours to find a new energy source that can sustain the operation of the entire underground city.
This is almost impossible!
The only way now is to find a rare item.
A magical item that can replace electricity and maintain the energy operation of the entire dungeon!
But rare objects are not cheap even in today's world, otherwise, with a population of more than two million in the entire Chunhui City, there wouldn't be only a few dozen owners of rare objects.
Even these dozens were transferred from other cities!
Zhao Hong's hair turned white due to worry about this.
On the contrary, Director Li acted very calm. In his office in the underground city's administrative building, he looked at the increasingly haggard Zhao Hong and consoled him, "Okay, Xiao Zhao, go and have a rest first. I'll take care of the underground city's affairs. You haven't closed your eyes for more than fifty hours, right?"
"Director Li, I dare not close my eyes! There are only ten hours left. If we can't find a solution within ten hours, we will be trapped in the underground city forever!"
Not only that, indoor vegetable and grain cultivation, as well as livestock breeding, all require the use of machinery, even high-end precision machines.
Without electricity, these machines will become scrap metal and food production will not keep up.
By then, half of the people in the dungeon will probably die again.
And most likely starved to death.
Zhao Hong couldn't help but be anxious, after all, these were human lives.
Director Li certainly knew the seriousness of the matter, but even if he knew, what could he do? The inability to use electricity was not a problem with technology, but someone had used a strange object to make the existence of "electricity" disappear.
Science cannot solve this problem, only strange things can solve it, but strange things are not so easy to deal with. What else can they do now except sit here and wait for the darkness to come? After all, they have done everything they can do, and it is useless to worry now.
Boom boom boom.
When Zhao Hong was worried, someone knocked on the door.
Zhao Hong said "Come in" without even looking up. The door was opened and Xu Leying, who was wearing glasses, walked in from outside: "Director Zhao... Director Zhao, our captain wants to see you."
"Meng An?"
After hearing what Xu Leying said, Zhao Hong raised his head.
Zhao Hong didn't bother Meng An these past few days, because he knew that everyone has their own expertise. Meng An's abilities were indeed strong, but apart from the magical items on him, he was just a smarter kid.
Originally, Zhao Hong was unwilling to put most of the affairs on one child. In fact, if Meng An had not insisted on being the captain, Zhao Hong would have sent him to the capital to take classes with those children.
So now that such a big thing has happened, Zhao Hong didn't ask Meng An to do anything else except maintaining order and acting as a human battery when necessary.
On the one hand, he didn't want to, and on the other hand, he felt that no matter how smart Meng An was, he probably wouldn't be able to do anything when faced with such a big thing.
There is also the most crucial point. Given Meng An's personality, if he doesn't want to do it, no matter what Zhao Hong says, it will be useless.
On the other hand, if Meng An wanted to do it, he would take the initiative to come to the door without Zhao Hong saying anything.
For example, now.
Hearing that it was Meng An who was looking for him, Zhao Hong thought for a long time, and finally asked Xu Leying: "Where is your captain now?"
"He's… uh, at the power plant."
Xu Leying answered truthfully.
…
The power plant in the underground city is a nuclear power plant. This nuclear power plant was not built within a month, but was transferred from Chunhui City to underground using rare objects.
This is not just the case with the power plant here, but with all the underground power plants in the country.
After all, rebuilding a power plant is too time-consuming, and what China lacks most right now is time, so China asked someone to use a magical device for space transfer to move the entire power plant underground.
Not to mention the manpower and material resources consumed during the process, the price paid was even higher.
However, even though such a huge cost was paid to move the power plant underground, it would be unusable in ten hours because no matter how much electricity was generated, it could not be transmitted to other precision instruments.
but……
During this day, Li Qi found a way to make the power plant operate normally.
"Meng An!"
Li Qi was observing the situation inside the power plant. Zhao Hong had already come here under the guidance of Xu Leying and was greeting Li Qi.
Li Qi asked without looking back: "Has the power generation problem been solved?"
“…Not yet. If it really doesn’t work, I can only ask the witch god to help again.”
Zhao Hong said in a deep voice.
This is not a solution.
Although he didn't know what the Witch God was, he understood that the price of using this rare item would probably be even higher than the Twelve Golden Immortals Diagram, otherwise the higher-ups would not have revealed some information about the Witch God until now.
But compared to those costs, Zhao Hong felt that the lives of more than one million people in the underground city were more important!
It's not just the lives of over one million people. The entire China, with more than 30 underground cities of all sizes and hundreds of millions of people, all need electricity to save their lives!
For these people, the higher-ups must be willing to pay more to maintain the existence of "electricity".
The premise is that they really can't find any other way.
"I'm afraid the higher-ups are unwilling to bear the cost of asking the Witch God to take action, otherwise they wouldn't have used it until now, let alone for only 72 hours. Don't even think about it, it's impossible."
Li Qi poured a basin of cold water on Zhao Hong.
If allowing the witch god to survive could maintain electricity, the higher-ups would have probably done so long ago instead of giving each place a 72-hour time limit.
Since a time limit has been given, it proves that beyond this deadline, the upper echelons will either no longer be able to pay the corresponding price, or even if they pay the price they will not be able to summon the witch god.
No matter what, they can't rely on the witch god, they can only rely on themselves.
Zhao Hong could naturally think of what Li Qi could think of, but he had no other way. In the current situation, who else could he rely on except the Witch God?
After a long silence with fist clenched, Zhao Hong finally chose to skip this topic and asked Li Qi:
"What's the matter with you coming to see me?"
"These past few days, I have thought of a way to maintain electricity, so I plan to make a deal with you."
"What?! You found a way?!"
Zhao Hong was startled when he heard this, and then he was delighted. He walked to Li Qi in two or three steps, half squatted down and looked him straight in the face and asked, "Do you really have a solution?!"
Li Qi then turned his gaze away from the nuclear power generator in front of him and looked at Zhao Hong:
"Yes, but you should know that if you want me to take action, you need to pay a corresponding price. After all, 'I' am also a rare creature."
“…”
Zhao Hong was stunned.
He knew that the body Li Qi was using now was a strange object called a 'Wish Doll'. As long as a price was paid, his wish could be fulfilled.
But I never thought that even the "wish" of maintaining electricity could be fulfilled.
But leaving these issues aside for now, Zhao Hong thought about it carefully and said solemnly: "As long as you can restore the power, no matter what the price, we are willing to pay it!"
"You have no say on this."
Li Qi's eyes moved away from Zhao Hong and fell on the generator. He said softly, "Only what the higher-ups say counts."
"…Then tell me first, what do you want?"
"It's very simple. First, lend me the Twelve Golden Immortals Diagram. Don't worry, you won't have to pay for it. Second, I won't be a teacher to those naughty kids, but the previous conditions cannot be invalidated. When you enter the ancient ruins to explore, you must take me with you unconditionally.
"Third, give me...all the information."
Li Qi paused at the end, his eyes showed a little confusion, and then repeated the third condition.
"Give me all the information about ■■■!"
Zhao Hong: “?”
The muteness in Li Qi's words was so obvious that Zhao Hong couldn't hear clearly and his expression became blank.
Li Qi's face darkened instantly. He stared at Zhao Hong and opened his mouth to say something, but in the end he said nothing. He said to Zhao Hong: "...Forget it, let's complete the first two conditions first. We'll talk about the last condition later."
"Okay, I agree to both of these conditions!"
Zhao Hong selectively ignored Li Qi's third condition and responded seriously.
Li Qi looked at Zhao Hong strangely: "Can you make the decision?"
"As long as you can restore the power to Chunhui City, then I can make the decision!"
Zhao Hong is very sure about this.
As long as Li Qi can still maintain Chunhui City's electricity after the time limit expires, he can guarantee that the higher-ups will agree to any of Li Qi's conditions!
Also willing to pay any price for using 'Li Qi'!
After all, compared with the cost of using the Witch God and the Twelve Golden Immortals Diagram, Li Qi's cost is simply too easy.
"Very good, then you can ask all the staff here to leave. The method I am going to use next is a personal secret."
Li Qi said to Zhao Hong.
Zhao Hong was stunned: "All? Can't I stay too?"
"No, hurry up, we don't have much time."
Li Qi urged.
Zhao Hong stared at Li Qi for a long time. Finally, without saying a word, he stood up and ordered the power plant staff to leave.
He knew that he might be gambling.
After all, no one has verified Li Qi's method, and now they can't verify Li Qi's method.
But, in a few hours the world will be plunged into darkness anyway, so it doesn't matter whether it's a few hours earlier or later.
Besides, if Li Qi takes action now and the nuclear power plant is shut down, they still have backup energy available.
If they really wait until the power is out before taking action, they won't even be able to use backup energy. Not to mention whether other places can withstand several hours of darkness, the hospital certainly can't.
Previous major power outages have already killed many people who rely on electricity to survive, and if the power outage is extended to several hours.
Then I'm afraid more people will die.
Zhao Hong knew very well what to choose.
(End of this chapter)
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