Jing Mingqiu deliberately drew out the sound, "This is a directional zero-gravity launcher."
Upon hearing this term, the Ah Qionghan expert first froze, then subconsciously asked, "A directional zero-gravity launcher? What is that?"
"It's a bit troublesome to explain, I'll demonstrate it to you myself." As he spoke, Jing Mingqiu pressed the startup button. With a low hum, the seemingly completely defunct machine successfully activated.
Immediately after, a blue light flashed, enveloping the entire collapsed tunnel ahead.
"There," Jing Mingqiu clapped his hands and jumped off the massive machine, "It won't collapse anymore. Hurry up and dig!"
After Jing Mingqiu finished speaking, the Ah Qionghan soldiers around did not immediately start digging to rescue people. Instead, they gathered and whispered amongst themselves.
"Is this broken thing really useful? It's already smoking inside!"
"Whoever wants to dig can dig! I don't want to be buried in there!"
"Are you really Professor Jing? I suspect you're a spy..."
Jing Mingqiu had expected the doubts from others. As the saying goes, a clever cook can't make a meal without ingredients. To build a zero-gravity launcher that could operate for an extended period required a large quantity of special alloys and custom parts.
Jing Mingqiu did not want to waste too many research points here. He only exchanged a small portion of the critical components. The rest were salvaged from Ah Qionghan equipment. Through special means, he extracted their potential, forcing them to operate somewhat normally.
Of course, this method would not last long. It was just to save a few people, and it wouldn't take much time.
Since no one else dared to go, Jing Mingqiu had to take action himself. With a shake of his arms, the number of mechanical arms behind him doubled.
Jing Mingqiu manipulated sixteen mechanical arms and plunged into the collapsed tunnel. Amidst flying debris and rolling rocks, he quickly dug a new passage and disappeared from everyone's sight.
"Professor Jing, don't be rash, it'll collapse!"
The Ah Qionghan expert was extremely anxious. As soon as he shouted, his attention was immediately captivated by the peculiar changes before his eyes, leaving him dumbfounded and speechless.
The other Ah Qionghan soldiers were also stunned by the changes. An old soldier couldn't help but exclaim.
"This, this is unscientific! Why are those rocks floating in the air?"
"It's not just the rocks, everything else is also suspended! Has time stopped here?"
"Professor Jing is still digging inside. It doesn't feel like time has stopped; it feels like gravity has disappeared!"
A daring Ah Qionghan soldier walked into the range covered by the directional zero-gravity launcher and jumped with all his might.
Under everyone's gaze, a miraculous scene unfolded. He didn't land but continued to fly forward until he hit the ceiling of the tunnel and stopped!
Seeing this, others were also filled with curiosity. A few of the bolder ones followed him inside.
Then, under the command of the Ah Qionghan expert, after several more tests, they finally confirmed that it was indeed like space inside, with no gravity at all.
After understanding what the directional zero-gravity launcher was, the Ah Qionghan expert quickly raised a new question.
"That's not right. If there's no gravity, why didn't the sand and soil that Professor Jing dug out fly everywhere, but instead stayed obediently in the air?"
"Saving lives is important, why think so much about it!" an Ah Qionghan soldier yelled, interrupting the expert's thoughts.
"Since we've confirmed that this area is in a zero-gravity environment and won't collapse again, brothers, what are you waiting for? Hurry up and dig inside!"
"Right, right! Save people first! We can't let Professor Jing be the only one busy!"
Once they confirmed there would be no secondary collapse, the other Ah Qionghan soldiers no longer hesitated. They immediately grabbed their tools and rushed into the collapsed tunnel, digging forward at the fastest possible speed.
Initially, due to their unfamiliarity with the zero-gravity environment, their digging speed was slower.
But soon, the Dragon Country auxiliary mechs they were wearing detected the change in gravity and automatically switched their programs to space mode. They used multiple small thrusters inside the mechs to control movement instead of their hands and feet.
Everyone's digging speed increased significantly. Coupled with their numbers, they soon caught up to Jing Mingqiu.
Seeing that they had caught up, Jing Mingqiu wasted no time and directly instructed them to dig towards the location of the trapped personnel.
With everyone working together, they successfully reached the trapped individuals in less than twenty minutes.
Except for two individuals who were extremely unlucky and were directly hit by falling rocks, causing severe damage to their mechs and breaking all their life support systems, all other trapped personnel were rescued.
Although these individuals suffered injuries to varying degrees, and a few unlucky ones had their limbs crushed into pulp, with the medical pods invented by Jing Mingqiu, as long as they weren't completely dead, and were sent to a medical pod in time, they would be back to their old selves in three days at most.
Shortly after Jing Mingqiu arranged for the injured to be sent back for treatment, the heavily overloaded directional zero-gravity launcher exploded with a bang, rendering it completely useless. The Ah Qionghan expert, who wanted to study it thoroughly, showed regret upon seeing this.
"It's just a temporary substitute," Jing Mingqiu noticed his expression and waved his hand, tossing a list over. "You go back and tell your General to prepare and transport these materials as soon as possible."
"With what happened, our plan might have been discovered by the US military, and they could return at any time. We need to speed up our actions."
"Yes, Professor Jing. I swear with my life, I will deliver this document to the General."
After speaking, the Ah Qionghan expert immediately set off, leaving the underground tunnel as quickly as possible.
The Ah Qionghan General did not dare to delay Jing Mingqiu's request at all. He immediately gathered his forces and, at the fastest speed, transported the materials he requested to the underground tunnel.
With ample material supply, Jing Mingqiu simply built an ultra-large zero-gravity launcher that covered the entire tunnel. This not only completely prevented the previous collapse from happening again but also greatly accelerated the tunnel excavation speed.
Half a month passed unnoticed. During this time, the US military discovered through satellites that a large quantity of supplies and soldiers had entered a military base in the capital of Ah Qionghan and then completely disappeared.
For this reason, the US military convened a military conference to discuss where these supplies and soldiers had gone.
During this process, someone suggested that Ah Qionghan might be digging tunnels, but this speculation was immediately rejected by a group of people.
"Impossible! The capital of Ah Qionghan is hundreds of kilometers away from us. If they were digging tunnels, it would take them ages to get here!"
"Most of Ah Qionghan's territory is desert, with soft soil. If they tried to dig tunnels to come here, they would collapse on their own before we even had to do anything."
"Alas, a large number of soldiers from Ah Qionghan were suddenly sent to medical pods not long ago. Could it be that they were digging tunnels, and the tunnels collapsed, and they were crushed?"
"It's possible, but," William Ster, who had finally escaped the suspicion of colluding with the Communists at a considerable cost, made the final decision, "According to internal intelligence, that military base is managed by Jing Mingqiu."
"That guy Jing Mingqiu is very cunning. Maybe he really has a way to dig tunnels in the desert. A new batch of military fuel is arriving soon. At the critical stage of launching a full-scale attack on Ah Qionghan, we cannot afford any oversight!"
"Just coincidentally, the first batch of our country's mecha warriors arrived today. How about this, Adjutant, you personally lead a team to reconnoiter the capital of Ah Qionghan to see what that guy Jing Mingqiu is up to?"
"Yes, Commander." As William Ster's adjutant stood up, preparing to salute, the ground suddenly began to shake violently. Immediately after, Jing Mingqiu's arrogant voice began to echo through the conference room...