Chapter 6: Chapter 6: First Exploration (Part 2)
Due to well-prepared plans and arrangements, results from various groups started coming in less than five hours after the entire camp began operations.
The first to report was the sampling team led by Wang Qiang. This joker held a stack of reports, looking somewhat excited:
"Captain Lin, the top one is the sampling results for soil and air, and the one below is the analysis report for the water sample."
Lin Li sharply noticed a word: "Water sample? You found a water source?"
"Half and half," Wang Qiang scratched his head. Before Lin Li could ask what "half and half" meant, he explained proactively:
"The logistics team discovered a mountain spring while working with stones. The flow isn’t significant enough to be considered a true water source, but it has some reference value."
Lin Li nodded, took the report, shook it, and began to read it word by word.
As a senior academician of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, such forms posed no challenge to Lin Li:
"Carbon dioxide 0.034%, similar to Earth... nitrogen only 62%... huh? Oxygen content close to 26%? Have you confirmed this?"
When it came to critical data points, Wang Qiang was naturally cautious: "Our team conducted three rounds of cross-verification on the relevant data. The values in each round were nearly identical.
I know what you want to say. A 26% oxygen content is a bit high for Earthlings, even exceeding the concept of oxygen enrichment.
This oxygen concentration easily causes damage to proteins, lipids, and DNA, accelerating human aging.
Oxygen toxicity isn’t the case here, young people with good conditions shouldn’t face significant issues in the short term, but for the elderly, it’s hard to say..."
Saying this, Wang Qiang glanced at Lin Li’s sparse forehead and added, "For example, it might cause oily hair loss... ouch!"
Lin Li nonchalantly retracted his pen, glaring at this joker: "Enough with the jokes. Let’s set aside the oxygen issue for now. What’s the situation with this 11% unknown gas?"
Wang Qiang spread his hands neatly: "I don’t know."
Seeing Lin Li was about to tap his head with the pen again, Wang Qiang immediately jumped back, like a startled cat:
"I really don’t know! The gas chromatograph couldn’t analyze the components of this part of the gas. Even the ion source was used, but it didn’t help. Besides, we’re in an alien world now. Isn’t it expected to have some unknowns?!"
Lin Li’s movement halted, pondering: "That’s true, after all, we are in an alien world."
With that, Lin Li looked at his right hand, suspended in mid-air, thought for half a second, and then...
Tapped Wang Qiang’s head again.
Ah, much more satisfying.
"??!!"
Wang Qiang covered his head, looking aggrieved: "What are you doing! If you keep tapping, I’ll turn stupid T.T."
Lin Li ignored this drama queen, turning to look at the deputy leader of the Fire Squad, Zeng Gu Cheng, director of the Shencheng Physics Research Institute: "Old Zeng, how’s the survey team doing?"
Zeng Gu Cheng, a slightly plump old man and also an academician-level big shot, immediately responded:
"Xiaohuang and the team from the Geography Institute first determined the exact directions of east, south, west, and north, and then measured the topography of the valley we’re in—this valley is about 200 meters wide and nearly two kilometers deep.
There are two roads leading out of the valley, both with slopes of around 30°, which fuel-powered vehicles can easily climb.
We’ve also got some results on physical constants. The kilogram prototype and spring balance we brought are still normal, the force unit hasn’t changed, meaning we don’t have to redefine mass, force, and length units in this new world.
Additionally, the silver ion gas radio intensity has been measured, and the GZK limit in this world is confirmed.
Moreover, the molar volume of gas under standard conditions is the same as Earth’s, and Avogadro’s constant is still 6.02×10^23/mol, but....
Lin Li’s expression immediately grew a bit more serious: "But what?"
"Through the Cavendish balance and other experiments, we found that both the gravitational constant and Planck’s constant have changed, with gravity being only 91.4% of Earth’s," Zeng Gu Cheng shook his head, muttering:
"To put it bluntly... with the change in gravitational constant and acceleration, many weapon trajectories need recalculating. The specific calculation process still needs discussion with technical personnel in the military, and it will likely take a fair amount of effort. As for planetary trajectories... we currently don’t have sufficient conditions for observation.
Oh, and we’re still measuring the time scale of the alien world, but we can confirm that the time flow here is the same as Earth’s, so we don’t need to measure the base unit with an atomic clock.
Strangely enough, we’ve been in this other world for several hours, yet the three suns in the sky haven’t moved an inch."
Lin Li patted this old acquaintance’s shoulder:
"The survey team has done very well. Like Comrade Xiao Wang said, this is an alien world after all; you can’t expect all constants to match Earth’s.
If some data needs recalculating, so be it. With our country’s tremendous power, pooling in manpower and resources can always get things solved."
"Exactly, exactly," that joker Wang Qiang nodded hard by the side: "Just like in online games, when the identify skill throws out all question marks, that’s a big problem; if it just shows a health bar, then it’s no big deal."
Admittedly, having a joker around sometimes can really lighten the mood.
Seeing Zeng Gu Cheng’s expression eased somewhat, Lin Li was about to say a few more words when he suddenly saw Lin Ziming walk quickly into the tent: "Captain Lin, the drone has discovered a large creature gathering point!"
Large!
Creatures!
Gathering, point!
The words rang like a bomb in their ears, causing everyone a shock.
Lin Li’s fatigue from the sleepless night immediately dissipated, and he asked: "Comrade Ziming, what kind of lifeforms are they? What is their level of civilization? Has the drone been discovered?"
"The other party’s tech level seems low, there’s no sign of the drone being exposed. The rest we’ll discuss as we watch the video," Lin Ziming first answered the most critical question, then guided everyone to the command table in the tent: "I’ve already asked Comrade Xiao Wang from the communications team to input the image into the computer."
With that, Lin Ziming pressed a button, and soon, a high-definition video appeared on the command screen.
As soon as the video started playing, Wang Qiang let out a soft gasp: "So clear."
"Our drones use military-grade ST6200TPS equipment, even at an altitude of three thousand meters, they can still achieve broadcast-quality image. In terms of image resolution, we’re on par with the Americans, though there are still some gaps in structure and dynamics," Lin Ziming quickly added some details that couldn’t be reported in time during the crucial screen-free moments:
"We dispatched a total of six military drones for the reconnaissance mission. The target was found by the number four drone flying south, about eighteen kilometers in a straight line from us."
Just as he finished speaking, a city appeared on the screen.
The city seemed small in area, with weathered and solid outer walls, seemingly built from clay, with carriages coming and going through the city gates.
The buildings inside resembled ancient Huaxia, mainly low-rise structures, with few tall buildings and evident eaves and door structures.
The most prominent residence clearly showed it to be a large courtyard with an eight-part layout.
Then Lin Ziming tweaked a few buttons, and the drone’s perspective began to zoom in slowly.
Gradually, a large number of clear human figures appeared on the screen.
The people in the image wore simple clothes, looked no different from Huaxia people, with their garments crossing to the right on their chest, some pushing carts selling goods, others walking calmly, or entering and exiting some city buildings...
Watching this scene, the same four words seemed to reflexively spring into everyone’s mind:
Ancient Huaxia.