375: Mining sponge

Shen Yuan’s words clearly made Tian Ming pause. Yes, if eternal life was so good, why would the Yuanchu God choose to slumber? And spend most of his time in slumber.

Perhaps the Yuanchu God uses slumber as a way to escape the accumulation of memories. Xin Xin also said something similar: immortality might become the root of suffering. Living too long, everything becomes bland.

Seeing Tian Ming lost in thought, Shen Yuan smiled and said, “Hubby, don’t frown. How long have we lived? We can end it when we’ve lived enough.”

Tian Ming smiled, stirring the rice in his bowl. What Shen Yuan said, to him, was actually not true. Even if he had lived enough and wanted to end it, he might not be able to.

The current Tian Ming can control energy. Even if he jumps into a black hole, he might escape in the form of energy. Perhaps from the moment he obtained the Divine Body, he no longer had a choice.

“Indeed, the Yuanchu God did not deceive me!” Tian Ming muttered to himself.

If the Yuanchu God could truly break through the barrier of this universe and evolve to a higher dimension, then he would take his place. Billions of years later, would he enter the cycle that the Yuanchu God is currently in?

Tian Ming shook his head, driving away these strange thoughts from his mind. No matter what, he currently had his wife and Xiao Xiao, and his life was very happy. He shouldn’t think too much about future matters; thinking too much made it feel a bit terrifying.

After dinner, Tian Ming watched TV for a while. The base’s TV station now only showed base news or some melodramatic promotional dramas, most of which used virtual scene modeling, directly placing actors in a virtual world for filming.

Watching the male and female protagonists bravely face zombies, Tian Ming really couldn’t stand it anymore. He directly turned off the TV.

Recently, online community scripts have been very popular, mostly on the Apocalypse theme, such as safe houses and harems. They are mainly designed to fit the current situation, and the produced content is rushed online. They are fine for entertainment, but they cannot withstand close scrutiny.

He turned and went to the bedroom to rest. After Shen Yuan finished coaxing Xiao Xiao, she ran over with a slight blush, burrowing into Tian Ming’s embrace.

“Time to do homework?” Shen Yuan asked softly.

“Okay, I’ll create a vacuum shield to block out sound, so we don’t wake our daughter. It would be hard to explain then!”

“Oh, you’re so bad!”

...

The next morning, Tian Ming left after breakfast. He began to prepare for clearing the low-Earth orbit.

The interception net Tian Ming created, he called it the Space Mining Sponge. It was made of high-strength, lightweight material, filled with absorbent material inside, capable of absorbing space debris like a sponge.

This thing was highly efficient. As long as orbital intersections were formed, the Space Mining Sponge would be extremely efficient at clearing orbits.

After possessing the Divine Body, Tian Ming’s ability to manipulate matter expanded tenfold, while the sensing range of his Nanometer Avatar expanded hundreds of times, enough to cover the entire low-Earth orbit.

Tian Ming ascended to high altitude, and the first batch of Space Mining Sponges was quickly manufactured and then sent into space. With some Nanometer Avatars assigned to each sponge, Tian Ming used Three’s computing power for positioning, precisely placing them in low-Earth orbit. These sponges acted like giant nets, absorbing orbital debris inside.

Tian Ming, on the other hand, focused on the larger particles of the Star Ring. Once the low-Earth orbit was cleared, satellites could be deployed. This would allow for the preliminary restoration of the base’s reconnaissance network and long-range communication network.

There were many sponges. In space, Tian Ming contacted the base through Three, asking Bai Yan to dispatch the Super Legion of mechs to receive the Star Ring’s ore.

He first gathered and fused the orbital fragments in space, then directly let these ores fall back to the ground, of course, calculating the trajectory and adding a huge parachute, much like a satellite’s return capsule. This kind of orbital calculation was very simple; Tian Ming only needed a small number of avatars to provide Three with positioning and parachute deployment.

After falling back, the Super Legion’s mechs would then pick them up, making the mining efficiency extremely high. Tian Ming collected in space, and the ground personnel cooperated. The visible Star Ring in the sky slowly faded until it completely disappeared. The entire process took only about ten days.

The density of these fragments was very high. Thirty million tons was actually not much, just a small mountain. Shen Yi’s preparations had just finished, and Tian Ming’s side was already complete, which felt quite awkward. The refining factory operated twenty-four hours a day, and the gravity weng’s refining was also very smooth.

This kind of material was almost unique, and the base had reached a unified agreement to refine all of it as strategic reserves.

The Star Ring in the sky had disappeared, and the sunlight became bright, as if everything had returned to how it was before the Apocalypse. Many residents in the base began to run to the ground to bask in the sun.

Previously, the Star Ring blocked the sun, and the sunlight was not strong. Moreover, Donghai City was a coastal city, and although it belonged to a temperate zone, nearly two years of reduced solar radiation had made this area cold and damp.

Now, with bright sunlight, the climate was clearly warming up, and everyone seemed to see hope.

In space, there were still many mining sponges operating in orbit. Although from the ground, the Star Ring in the sky had disappeared, there were actually still many tiny fragments.

Tian Ming’s idea was simple: since they were going to do it, they might as well do it big. Satellites and such would be directly sent behind the orbit of the mining sponges, which would be like giving the satellites a shield in front.

On the third day after the orbital cleanup was completed, Tian Ming received a notification from Three that the Comprehensive Management Department was holding another meeting, stating that they would revise some plans for the future development of the base.

When Tian Ming arrived at the conference room, most of the base’s attendees were already present. Seeing Tian Ming walk in, everyone straightened up.

Many department heads looked at Tian Ming with complex expressions. The incident of clearing the Transformed Ones made these managers worry that the future of humanity would be destroyed in Tian Ming’s hands.

However, the events that had occurred during this period, especially the disappearance of the Star Ring and the beginning of global temperature recovery, made these managers’ hearts begin to surge with hope. This mentality was contradictory, but it was also because the management had no way to restrain Tian Ming and were very worried that Tian Ming would go astray.

Tian Ming sat down, and the meeting officially began. The meeting was chaired by Lin Yao and Meng Xian, and a large portion of the participants were from the Flying Research Institute.

The base meeting abandoned the cumbersome meeting procedures of the past. Meng Xian went straight to the point.

“Today, we have gathered everyone mainly to discuss two matters. First: The Flying Research Institute will spin off a new department, the Aerospace Administration. After its establishment, this bureau will be solely responsible for the base’s space exploration endeavors. Therefore, we will transfer relevant talents from existing departments to the Aerospace Administration. If there are any objections, please state your reasons here.”