I Have a Mansion in the Post-apocalyptic World

[June 27, 2019]

Wang Qiang wrote the date at the top of his journal. He sniffed and looked outside the window. The sky was blocked by a sandstorm.

The days on Mars were only 37 minutes longer than Earth. Based on twenty-four-hour time, it should be around three in the afternoon, but it was dusk here.

After the initial excitement, the excitement of landing of Mars already faded.

Life on Mars was boring, communication resources were precious, and of course it was impossible to use the Internet. Before the completion of the large-scale communication base station, each person only had10 minutes of telephone time per day to call their relatives and friends on Earth. It was the only way for them to obtain information.

Without the Internet, it was torture for modern day people.

It meant that he couldn’t use Twitter, nor could he wear a phantom helmet to dive into the virtual world. Almost half of all entertainment methods were crossed off for him.

For Wang Qiang, his daily entertainment was listening to pop music. Lying in bed and reading webnovels, the rhythm of life seemed to slow down. It was the same for most others. They would find something they like to do in their spare time.

Fortunately, one of the twenty colonists in the colony was a chef who specialized in four cuisine types. The reserves in the colonial chamber were quite rich, and they could cook any type of meals every day. Ever since, eating became one of their few entertainments.

In order to boost the morale of the colonists, the captain assured them that he would request to the command center at the end of this month to bring more chefs in the next group of colonists. On the one hand, they had to balance the diet of people from different cultures, on the other hand, they could not eat the same thing forever.

The dust storm outside the window was growing stronger, but Wang Qiang was not bothered and continued to write things down. It was a habit that he developed after he came to Mars, mainly to pass time.

As for why he was so calm, he knew that as long as it was not a level 13 typhoon, the sandstorm just couldn’t move his anchored vehicle. The sandstorms on Mars, since they started to be tracked, were only as powerful as level 12 typhoon equivalent .

Before being sent to Mars, he was a geological worker for Future Mining. And of course, now too. The only one mission assigned to him by the command center was to survey the geological information of Mars, find minerals, and assess the reserves of groundwater.

While it was possible to produce steel with any shovel of sand, the heavy industrial industry required more than just steel. Elements such as aluminum, manganese, chromium, cobalt and nickel were all covered by a layer of iron oxide.

The colonization ship orbiting on the synchronous orbit scanned the geological information of the area. Based to the topographical features on the topographic map, he identified several locations where deposits and groundwater enrichment areas may exist. And his task for the next month was to inspect these mines on the mars rover and complete the final works on geological information mapping.

Although he did not imagine this to be an easy job, the hardships of the planet’s conditions still exceeded his expectations.

The entirety of Mars was a desert with no obstructions at all. It was the fifth time he encountered a sandstorm today. If the colonization ship above his head didn’t continuously monitoring weather data, he didn’t have the courage to get off the rover.

Mars climate was volatile and sandstorms came fast but also went fast.

When the wind indicator returned to a safe level, the dim sky finally reappeared.

Due to the thin atmosphere, dust particles were larger. Because of the Mie Scattering Effect, the dust scattered red light of the same wavelength. The sky was red in the direction without the Sun, and the sky was blue in the direction of the Sun.

Such a magnificent view could only be seen on Mars.

However, watching the same view every day turned out to be dull and boring. Wang Qiang began to miss Coro Island, the pleasant island where the sea breeze mixed with the scent of seafood, and the pristine sky.

Shaking his head, Wang Qiang put away his journal and also his nostalgia.

He opened the door, geared up his space suit, and jumped into the sand with the equipment box. In order to prevent the sudden arrival of a sandstorm, he already opened the anchoring device of the rover and attached himself with a safety rope behind his back.

While he never witnessed it before, before he came, he heard that the sandstorm could reach a strength equivalent to a level 12 typhoon on Earth. He could be easily sent into the air with his build.

“A lake bed sedimentary phase? This is almost weathered. There should be water underneath, just don’t know how much…”

He collapsed the holographic image and held onto the device as big as a suitcase, Wang Qiang found a relatively flat position on the ground, and then fixed the device to the ground.

It was not a sophisticated piece of equipment, but a practical one. There was a striker at the bottom of the device, which simulated the seismic wave by high-speed impact on the surface. According to the different propagation speed of the wave in different media, the lithology of different depths was determined, and also groundwater was determined along with its depth.

He removed the tablet in front of his chest and connected it to the equipment before exporting the seismic wave.

“Imported, let me see…”

Looking down at the waveform, Wang Qiang already gained an understanding of the formation. However, when he saw the positioned about two kilometers underground, he suddenly frowned.

“…is it wrong?”

At the position of two kilometers underground, the three red, blue and green waves were distorted and even intertwined. In his more than ten years of experience, it was the first time he witnessed this kind of a graph.

The seismic wave was backed up, Wang Qiang restarted the device. After waiting for three minutes, he measured another set of data.

However, the result this time was still the same.

Future Heavy Industries was known for its durability. However, if the possibility of equipment failure was ruled out, then there was only one possible explanation. The geological information of the target area was extremely complex.

More than one hundred meters of the formation, there was iron, aluminum, titanium… and something he had never seen before.

It was impossible for this to be formed naturally.

But if wasis not formed naturally, what could it be?

A thought suddenly emerged in Wang Qiang’s mind, his heart started pounding faster.

“… Damn, is this a treasure?”

Taking a deep breath, Wang Qiang restrained his excitement and didn’t bother collecting another set of data. He put the tablet back onto his chest, reached out and pressed on the helmet of the spacesuit, connecting the command center of the colonial chamber through the radio on the rover.

“This is Prospector 01, calling the command center. I have a situation here… not a security situation, I found something interesting.”