Chapter 328: Familiar Voice
"This place really doesn't look anything like it used to."
Leaving the shop, Lu Yuan said with some nostalgia, "Actually, it still retains some museum functions."
The Butler pointed to the middle section of the Canyon Park, where the earliest player cafeteria, some dormitories, a warehouse, and the Executive Officer's office were preserved.
Lu Yuan even saw the art sculpture that Hammer Girl and Coffee Cat created using Mechanical Desert Spider limbs.
Those once incredibly familiar camp facilities were now enveloped by bustling commerce, creating a tranquil oasis within the lively city, becoming a tourist attraction.
A young native mother led her child inside to visit.
"Or, would you like to build a monument here, like the one in front of the Oasis City Museum?"
Lu Yuan smiled as he watched the mother and son, shaking his head gently.
"No need. I think this is enough. This shopping center, along with the people who come here, is itself a more meaningful monument."
"Let's go, Great Butler, take me to see the real city."
The Butler personally drove Lu Yuan away from Devil Mountain.
3.5 kilometers away, the dense cluster of buildings in the "Administrative Center" CBD was very conspicuous, indeed having the texture of Night City's core area in Cyberpunk 2077, though the color scheme of the buildings was brighter.
The quality of the road leading there was excellent.
The Butler explained that before construction, every road and every block in the city now first excavates at least 30 meters of sand downwards.
Then, pile foundations are meticulously driven into the deep rock layer, followed by the construction of multi-story underground structures with reinforced concrete, leaving space for future subways, sewers, and underground AI logistics channels.
Therefore, at least one-third of the entire city's engineering work is in unseen places.
"Is Oasis City's water supply sufficient?" Lu Yuan asked.
He knew that concrete construction required a large amount of water.
"It's temporarily sufficient," the Butler said, gripping the steering wheel.
"In the future, external replenishment will definitely be needed. Your employees have already prospected a large number of icy asteroids in the asteroid belt. The plan is to cut them and use 500-meter-class heavy cargo ships to bring them back to the surface. One round trip takes about ten days and can transport 0.004 cubic kilometers of pure ice, approximately 3.65 million tons."
"That really is like ants moving house—"
Lu Yuan sighed.
20 500m-class cargo ships, equivalent to three large convoys, could only add 2.63 cubic kilometers of water to Li Star per year, which is one-third of the Oasis City reservoir's capacity.
Sure enough, no matter what, everything immediately becomes tiny when compared to celestial bodies—
In reality, a city of ten million people uses approximately 3 to 5 cubic kilometers of water annually.
And given Cangyuan's current situation, although water recycling technology is relatively advanced, the proportion of industrial water consumption is not only dozens of times larger than that of ordinary Earth cities but also far exceeds that of New Hope Space Station.
Every ton of warship manufactured requires 5 tons of "new water" that is difficult to recycle. When Cangyuan's second shipbuilding complex is completed, its shipbuilding capacity will reach a terrifying 35 million tons per year, consuming 0.175 cubic kilometers of water.
Other industries, as well as space station construction, agriculture, and the construction industry, consume three times this amount of water, meaning 2.88 cubic kilometers of water per year, which would probably only support a city of 2 million people.
This number was far from satisfying for Lu Yuan.
Moreover, at this rate of water transport, the terraforming of the planet would be nothing but a pipe dream.
When Li Star was burned by plasma heavenly fire back then, most of its water was heated into an ionized state, and the hydrogen ions directly escaped the atmosphere, blown by the solar wind far into space. There was certainly no way to recover them now.
"We can find ways to extract hydrogen from oil and natural gas, and then obtain water by burning or electrochemical reactions with oxygen."
Lu Yuan suggested to the Butler.
"This can only be a supplementary water resource plan," the Butler replied. "Now, with the construction of more oil wells, the oil field's production has been fully released, yielding up to 1.4 million tons of crude oil daily. If all of it is processed and carbon-sequestered locally on Li Star, the by-product can yield 170,000 tons of hydrogen, which, combined with oxygen, results in 0.56 cubic kilometers of water per year."
"So this is just a fraction—"
Lu Yuan realized there was only one solution to the problem.
That was to use a large number of warp cargo ships to transport icy asteroids, compensating for the insufficient single-trip capacity with faster round-trip speeds.
This was actually the solution adopted by New Hope.
However, Anya did not have Lu Yuan's industrial ambition. Although her population was more than twenty times that of current Li Star, she only needed 6 800-meter-class warp cargo ships to collect enough ice from her star system for the space station's use.
Clearly, if Cangyuan wanted to continue expanding, it had to acquire more zero element.
"As soon as this expedition is over, we'll completely deal with Galan and squeeze out zero element reparations!"
Lu Yuan secretly made up his mind.
In a few minutes, he and the Butler arrived at the CBD.
"Currently, there are 16 high-rise buildings here, the tallest one being 450 meters. All of them were designed by your employees, Coffee Cat and Mi Mang De Da Chui," the Butler said, looking up at the cluster of tall buildings. Lu Yuan found it hard not to feel proud of these two veteran players.
They were still graduate students, but in terms of the actual floor area of completed projects, they had certainly far surpassed their mentors.
And also surpassed most architects in reality.
"And this isn't even the real CBD. They've reserved a plot of land two kilometers to the north, planning to build the true city center once the population exceeds New Hope, with landmark buildings around 1.8 kilometers tall, on par with Ruins Star."
The introduction of SCVs and a large number of industrial drones greatly simplified the construction of high-rise buildings, shortening their construction period to within two months.
Lu Yuan followed the Butler into a 70-story apartment building.
It was prepared for future native residents willing to move to the new city, as well as Star Alliance immigrants, capable of accommodating nearly a thousand people, most of which were currently vacant.
He entered a medium-sized unit and found that its area was also over 250 square meters.
Cangyuan now had no shortage of spacious and comfortable housing.
"Why can the glass here be completely flipped open?"
Lu Yuan asked the accompanying Butler.
"This room we are in is actually an aerial garage reserved by your two architects," the Butler explained. "They estimate that, at Cangyuan's current rate of technological development, in another six months to a year, every household might be driving flying cars. At that time, after work, you can fly directly into your home."
"Oh—reasonable, what foresight!"
Indeed, specialization is key.
Even the Executive Officer hadn't thought of this.
"I think it's time to give this city a formal name; it can no longer be called 'Administrative Center'."
Lu Yuan, who was very satisfied with all aspects of the city's construction, said.
The Butler: "As you wish!"
Lu Yuan looked at the distant Desert and the setting sun, and inspiration struck him.
"Then let's call it 【Golden Sand City】."
"Hmm—..—"
The Butler did not show much approval for his Executive Officer's naming talent.
"Putting aside everything else, this name is quite fitting for the surrounding environment and topography."
"Not just that!" Lu Yuan explained, "'Golden Sand' is also the name of the longest river source in the country to which Cangyuan belonged when it was first established. 'Cangyuan' and 'Golden Sand,' in a sense, are actually synonyms."
"Oh—I know that," the Butler nodded. "This knowledge is stored in my database."
"So, don't you think it's very suitable to name Cangyuan's capital with this name?"
"If you put it that way—indeed!"
After seeing all of Golden Sand City, Lu Yuan disconnected from the VR connection, feeling satisfied.
As for the synthetic human avatar, it would just enable auto-follow mode and return to the cave with the Butler.
When he had free time later, he could also use this method to visit Red Iron Town Aerospace Base and Oasis City, or go see the industrial complex in synchronous orbit.
He left the Captain's quarters and came to the bridge.
"Good evening, Executive Officer."
?!
A familiar voice came from the left side of the bridge.
Lu Yuan turned around at the sound, only to see Nan Guo de Xue sitting in the Science Officer's seat, turning her head and smiling at him.
"Good evening."
He walked over and found that even if he tried hard to maintain his persona, to keep the calm, unruffled, and imperturbable expression he usually wore, it was very difficult to suppress the upward curve of his lips.
"Your vacation is over?"
"Mm!"
Nan Guo de Xue nodded vigorously.
She took a deep breath, wanting to tell him everything she had experienced these past few days, but then she reconsidered, unable to figure out in what capacity she should bring up these "out-of-game" topics.
If I just start talking, he'll surely feel very awkward, right?
He'll definitely try to stick to the game's setting, pretending to hear me say I teleported to other places to level up, and then say something like, "It seems you've been through a lot," right?
So, never mind. Anyway, he must have been watching me through various means, and the rescue operation must have been planned by him.
Knowing that is enough. If he wants Star Sea to always be just a game, then I'll stay with him and continue to play my role in it.
"Speaking of which, I heard from an employee that this time you weren't just on vacation, but also helped a native friend?"
Lu Yuan told a small lie, saying.
"Ah?"
The next second, Nan Guo de Xue was immediately inspired.
"Yes! That's right! My friend, her—her boss was very bad! Absolutely terrible! So I went to help her escape her boss's clutches."
"I infiltrated her city as an agent, outsmarting the local violent organizations, and finally got her onto a plane. But the bad boss actually got furious and launched anti-aircraft missiles!"
"Wow, that was truly thrilling." Lu Yuan struggled to squeeze out his hopelessly clumsy acting. "Then what happened?"
"Hmph hmph~ Later, a team of space fighters descended from the sky and saved us."
She tilted her head, looking playfully at Lu Yuan, realizing that in this fictionalized context, she could finally break through the barrier of "setting."
"So, did you send them?"
"Perhaps." Lu Yuan smiled. "Or perhaps, some native friends who didn't like that bad boss played a more important role than I did."
"Oh, the Executive Officer is truly modest."
"Hmm—in any case, after this, no more long vacations. We can't do without you here."
"For now?"
"Always like this."
"Understood!"
Nan Guo de Xue saluted with a bright smile that was rare for her.
"By the way, what are you busy with?" Lu Yuan looked at her screen.
"This is the 【Agent Infiltration Suit · Prototype】 I'm developing for Ye Xing. He helped a lot this time to assist my friend, so I have to thank him properly."
"Indeed." Lu Yuan nodded gently. "I, too, must thank him properly."