The base that the system equipped Meng Hao with for mech research and manufacturing was not small in scale.
After spending more than two hours meticulously exploring the base, Meng Hao gained a complete understanding of the mech research and manufacturing facility located in the heart of the Taklamakan Desert.
The living and rest area stored a large amount of bottled water and canned food. Judging by its scale, it was enough to sustain Meng Hao's life for ten years.
The research and manufacturing area was filled with dazzling, sci-fi-like facilities and equipment such as particle accelerators, vaporization centrifuges, mineral purifiers, 3D printers, and automated production lines. What was even more reassuring to Meng Hao was that almost all of these instruments and equipment could be controlled by the base's central computer, operating in a user-friendly mode.
The mining area was not only equipped with countless desert heat-resistant suits but also various desert vehicles, spiral drilling vehicles, and multi-functional excavators.
Arriving at the base's central control room.
He retrieved the main task for this mission from the central control computer—a mech manufacturing blueprint over ten meters tall.
Meng Hao zoomed in and meticulously examined the blueprints of each mech module, muttering softly.
"From the current perspective, this task doesn't seem too difficult..."
"It's just that the workload is quite heavy, requiring me to search for, excavate, transport, smelt, shape, set parameters, and assemble within a hundred-kilometer radius centered on the base, as stipulated by the system..."
"The biggest challenge right now is to find and excavate enough raw uranium ore, process and purify it to obtain civilian-grade concentration U-235, and then assemble it into a miniature uranium energy core capable of powering the initial mech..."
After spending a full half-day analyzing, breaking down, and planning the subsequent work, Meng Hao's last trace of doubt and worry vanished without a trace.
Instead, it was replaced by anticipation and excitement for the mech's completion and the experience of controlling it himself!
Even, perhaps...
There was a hint of annoyance.
After understanding and familiarizing himself with the base's relevant control instruments and facilities.
Meng Hao calculated the time.
If he worked a standard eight-hour workday, he should be able to complete the system's assigned task before the end of the summer vacation—
To manufacture a mech, control it to perform a Wing Chun set, and film a video!
However.
Because he was previously worried, he had only brought a mobile phone for filming videos when he arrived in the heart of the Taklamakan Desert.
Moreover, even if the system hadn't forbidden Meng Hao from leaking information, there was absolutely no mobile signal in this vast, desolate, deathly desert.
This meant that he would have no entertainment for the next two months.
If he had known the system's initial mission wasn't terrifying at all, he should have brought his laptop.
Even if he got bored playing single-player games, at least there was a large number of "video materials" in the "learning materials" folder for him to study.
To spend sixty to seventy days in this desolate heart of the desert, with long nights and sleeplessness, having accompanying learning videos demonstrated by Japanese teachers would be great...
...
It had been more than half a month since he arrived in the heart of the Taklamakan Desert.
Every day, Meng Hao drove the tracked desert vehicle and the multi-functional ground drilling vehicle within the hundred-kilometer radius stipulated by the system.
After continuous efforts in these past few days.
The base's storage area was now piled high with various metal ores such as gold, silver, copper, iron, nickel, and cobalt.
Preliminary estimates indicated that this was enough to satisfy the torso of at least half a mech.
However, what was currently frustrating Meng Hao was that the core energy problem of the mech had not been solved.
In simple terms, he couldn't find uranium ore.
Of course, this was also understandable.
Uranium, across the entire Earth, was a radioactive mineral with a low storage volume.
Meng Hao glanced at the depth gauge. He was currently at a depth of 26.7 kilometers below the desert surface.
If this news were to spread, it would drive the world's geological exploration community into a frenzy.
It should be noted that the deepest drilling depth achieved by humans so far was the Kola Superdeep Borehole in the former Soviet Union, which reached a depth of 12.2 kilometers.
This was already the extreme drilling depth achievable by human technology.
Even so, in this borehole, which had not even reached one-third of the Earth's mantle thickness, some people had confidently claimed to hear the wails of infernal spirits from hell, which was why no one dared to venture to the bottom of the Kola Superdeep Borehole.
And at this moment, Meng Hao.
Driving the multi-functional ground drilling vehicle equipped by the system, had easily reached a depth of nearly 27 kilometers underground, more than twice the human drilling depth record.
As Meng Hao muttered to himself, planning to turn the vehicle around and continue digging for uranium ore elsewhere.
Suddenly, the multi-functional ground drilling vehicle began to shake violently, as if it had penetrated deep mantle sand and soil.
What the hell.
He had only gone twenty kilometers underground, it was impossible to have drilled through the Earth's crust.
Could it be that the Earth is hollow?
Or is there really a devil's hell underground?
As Meng Hao's thoughts ran wild, the depth indicator on the instrument panel suddenly began to jump rapidly.
Bang!
A huge external force struck.
Meng Hao felt his head spin dizzily. After a full ten seconds of stunned silence, he regained his senses and looked at the depth gauge.
Good heavens!
He hadn't drilled through the Earth, nor had he reached hell. Instead, he had stumbled into a giant underground cave.
This fall was a staggering 13.9 kilometers.
Fortunately, this multi-functional ground drilling vehicle was a black technology product equipped by the system. If it were a product of human technology, even if the drilling vehicle wasn't damaged, Meng Hao would have been turned into a pulp by the immense impact of the fall, with his internal organs liquefied.
He adjusted the multi-functional ground drilling vehicle to a horizontal position, operated the instrument panel for a while, and then shot out a long-lasting flare from the front of the vehicle.
This long-lasting flare, with a brightness of tens of thousands of lumens and a duration of several hours, provided Meng Hao with excellent visibility.
Through the images transmitted back to the driver's seat by the multi-functional ground drilling vehicle's imaging equipment, Meng Hao stared in amazement.
What appeared before him was an extremely exaggerated, vast underground cave that seemed to have no end in sight.
What shocked Meng Hao even more than this boundless cave at a depth of 40 kilometers underground were the diamond jungle formations scattered across the uneven ground, walls, and surrounding areas of the cave, numbering in the hundreds and reaching the height of two or three adult men.
"Oh my god, such a massive scale of uraninite roses!"
"I'm afraid the total amount of uranium contained in these uraninite roses within this cave already exceeds the total amount of all uranium reserves discovered by humans on the Earth's surface."
"The uranium energy core is no longer a problem."
Uraninite roses.
They were mineral crystals shaped like roses and as large as pine trees.
In ordinary uranium ore discovered by humans, the pure uranium content was very low, only about 0.5%.
However, in the uraninite rose jungle before him, Meng Hao's preliminary investigation concluded that the pure uranium content was close to 10%.
Miserable humans!
They always claimed to be the masters of the Earth and desired to conquer the Milky Way and the vast sea of stars.
In reality, they hadn't even fully understood the planet they inhabited, this blue Earth that was like a drop of water in an ocean compared to the universe.
In fact, they only knew the tip of the iceberg about the situation within a hundred kilometers of the Earth's surface, which had a diameter of over six thousand kilometers.
Meng Hao's tightly clenched heart finally relaxed.
The uranium ore needed for the mech's core kinetic energy module had finally been resolved.
Looking at the dazzling uraninite rose jungle illuminated by the long-lasting flare, Meng Hao, who was in an exceptionally relaxed mood, even felt a sense of mischievousness—
Perhaps he could use the instruments and facilities provided by the system base to purify military-grade uranium energy and handcraft a nuclear bomb to detonate as a firecracker for fun.