184: Chapter 183 Building Base

Just after hanging up with Liao Kai, Chen Huaiyu called. Cao Xiao had thought it was to ask for cigarettes and was prepared to part with some, but to his surprise, Chen Huaiyu didn't know anything about that. It turned out a meeting had just finished over there. Cao Xiao's phone had been off for the past two days, so Chen Huaiyu called specifically to brief him on a few matters. Operation Sky Net from the day before yesterday hadn't achieved the desired results—or rather, part of it had been botched. There were no issues in Huanghe City, but there weren't many results elsewhere, and several key suspects had even escaped. The reason was that the Provincial Police Department had delayed things; by the time they started communicating with other provinces and cities, Huanghe City's operation had already been underway for nearly an hour. With such a massive commotion in Huanghe City, an hour was more than enough time for suspects in other locations to flee upon hearing the news. Ordinarily, achieving such significant results should have earned them commendations, but unfortunately, they also had to pay the price for the failure of operations elsewhere. During the meeting today, Chairman Hu repeatedly emphasized that the intelligence provided by Huanghe City was inaccurate and criticized the Huanghe City side for not being meticulous enough in their work.

Cao Xiao was utterly speechless after hearing Chen Huaiyu's venting. Although Operation Sky Net was very rushed, the intelligence he provided was comprehensive. As long as the operation was timely, there was no reason for it to fail. To wait several hours before acting—the suspects would have to be idiots not to run. This was, after all, the norm in officialdom, but he didn't know how to comfort Chen Huaiyu. He simply said he would have someone send two boxes of the Collector's Edition 1916 cigarettes to each of the city leaders later as a small token of consolation. His reason for proactively sending them was to preemptively shut them up; what happened at the Tobacco Group today couldn't be hidden for long. By creating a fait accompli, the leaders would be too embarrassed to blame him once they found out.

Returning to Biyuntian Villa, after eating lunch, Cao Xiao took a helicopter to Tianxing Garden. He scouted the area around Tianxing Garden along the outskirts of Baiyun Mountain to select a suitable location for building an underground base. Since it was an underground base, the terrain requirements weren't high, as long as it was sufficiently hidden. Exactly fifteen kilometers from Tianxing Garden, he found a completely enclosed valley that saw few people. It was tightly surrounded by five small hills about thirty meters high, with a valley floor area of over a hundred acres. There were no residential settlements within three kilometers, nor any mountain roads. The only drawback was its location deep within Baiyun Mountain with no road access, but that was perfect. Cao Xiao never intended to build a highway; he could just travel by helicopter, or build the road underground. If conditions permitted, he could even set up a high-speed subway line between the base and the city.

Having chosen the spot, he returned to the Tianxing Garden villa. After sending Zhang Qiling away, Cao Xiao began his great excavation project. Entering the underground space from the basement, he aimed toward the valley he had maliciously named 'Unfeeling Valley' and dug a massive arched tunnel ten kilometers long, fourteen meters wide, and eight meters high. The material used to reinforce the tunnel walls was the excavated earth itself. By melting the soil at ultra-high temperatures to remove certain substances and then cooling it, he obtained a material with hardness comparable to firebricks. This formed a two-meter-thick integrated support structure on the tunnel walls, enough to ensure no water seepage or collapse for decades to come. He laid a one-meter-thick layer of asphalt on the tunnel floor and installed cables and lights for illumination, creating an underground highway.

An underground project of this scale would take a construction company at least a year or a year and a half to complete, yet Cao Xiao did it in just a few minutes. The quality of the engineering would make those construction companies so ashamed they'd change professions, and it was ready for use immediately. If the state knew about his construction efficiency, they would absolutely pay a fortune to hire him to build a global underground high-speed railway.

According to his design, the entire underground base was located two hundred meters deep, shaped like an inverted pyramid. The overall height reached one hundred and fifty meters, slightly taller than the Great Pyramid of Giza. It was divided into five levels. The top level was fifty meters high with an area of one hundred thousand square meters. To account for load-bearing stability, the ceiling consisted of multiple densely arranged domes. Besides a five-meter-thick layer of solid igneous rock, the outer surface was encased in a one-meter-thick layer of superalloy. It was impregnable, and with the two-hundred-meter-thick layer of soil above, it would remain safe even in the event of a nuclear strike.

He planned the top level as a residential area for the Supervision Office members and their families. Using four adjacent load-bearing alloy pillars as frames, he planned twenty-five buildings that reached straight to the dome, perfectly concealing the monotonous support pillars. The AI brain had not been idle; during this time, it had been running various scientific deductions and experiments at full capacity, producing countless research results. Among them were several practical formulas for building materials. One formula could directly use soil components and rocks to fire high-grade cement, solving the cement problem with local materials. The rebar was all superalloy, so constructing houses was no problem at all. Not just skyscrapers, but small high-rises, villas, and courtyard houses were interspersed between the buildings. Public facilities like schools, hospitals, greenery, small rivers, and roads were all planned. Large solar lamps were installed on the ceiling and walls to ensure plants had enough light; when all the lights were on, it was as bright as day and didn't feel gloomy at all. In short, though small, it had everything; this level was built as a fully functional ecological community. Not just the architectural framework, but even the internal plumbing and electrical renovations were included in the construction plan. One would only need to provide appliances and furniture to move in.

The second level was eighty thousand square meters and thirty meters high, serving as the Supervision Office's combat command center, training grounds, armory, and archives. The third level was twenty meters high and sixty thousand square meters, used as a research center where secret research would be conducted; Cao Xiao would set up a teleportation portal to the research space here. The fourth level was a shelter, twenty meters high and forty thousand square meters, used as a supply warehouse during normal times, which also housed a domestic wastewater and garbage recycling station. The fifth level was only twenty thousand square meters, where Cao Xiaoxin would install a nuclear fusion reactor to provide ample energy for the entire underground base's operations and external weapon systems.

Building an underground base that can run well long-term is a very complex engineering system. The load-bearing, power, water, drainage, air circulation, access control, lighting, weapon defense, and intelligent control systems all required precise design. Fortunately, Cao Xiao didn't have to worry about this; the AI brain could provide perfect blueprints. After manufacturing the entire base within the space, he could just move it out as a whole and place it in the corresponding position. However, the weapon defense system only had a large number of laser emitters, high-power microwave generators, and machine guns installed at the base entrance tunnel. No defense or attack weapons were placed on the surface around the valley because there was no such need for now. He didn't intend to build an entrance on the surface above the base; the entrance would be built secretly in the city via an underground road, so no one could find the base's exact location. Besides, he didn't think anyone in the country would dare to invade a Supervision Department station.

Riding his motorcycle, he sped along the underground road toward the city, building as he went. In less than twenty minutes, he reached the city center's underground. He emerged in a hidden, deserted corner and found a closed-down shopping mall. This was the exit location he had chosen long ago. Yesterday, he had contacted the mall's owner and the landlord, taking over the mall for twenty million and buying the property rights from the landlord for fifty-five million. The mall owner and landlord had already completed the transfer procedures. After paying today, everything here, including all the goods inside the mall, would completely belong to him. This mall had three floors: the basement was a parking lot and warehouse, while the first and second floors were the sales areas, totaling three thousand six hundred square meters. He only cared about that underground parking lot, but they wouldn't sell it separately. Regardless, it didn't cost much and real estate wouldn't depreciate, so he just bought the whole thing. The location was good with high foot traffic; it would be a good choice to renovate it and open a jewelry store.

He found the people, signed the contracts, and finished the payments. After dismissing everyone in the mall, Cao Xiao began transforming the place. As for the massive quantity of goods and sundries like shelves, he first put them into his space; he might find a use for them later. He didn't make too many changes to the parking lot, only adding a fifty-centimeter-thick alloy layer to the interior walls. The entrance was turned into an intelligent electric alloy gate, equipped with a security scanning system and access recognition. No weapons were installed because that one-meter-thick superalloy gate couldn't be blown open even with a handheld nuclear bomb, which was enough to block any intruder.

The focus of the renovation was the jewelry store. He stripped all the original decorations and even a layer off the walls. However, Cao Xiao only finished the most time-consuming parts: the walls, floors, ceilings, plumbing, electricity, lighting, and air conditioning. The interior soft furnishings, advertisements, display cases, and the storefront sign would be left to a professional advertising company to design and produce. There was no need to worry about the security system; the underground base entrance would surely be guarded by a squad of armed guards who would also handle the jewelry store's security. If anyone actually came to rob it, they would be walking straight into a gun barrel. He estimated it would be ready to open within a month. The jewelry company wasn't even registered yet, but it would be mostly prepared by the time he returned from his trip abroad. He didn't intend to let Hao Linger manage the jewelry company because it was his personal property, and a large amount of jewelry from unknown origins would be sold here. Hao Linger was too curious and clever; she had to get to the bottom of everything. What he feared most was people prying; his clumsy acting couldn't fool her keen eyes that saw straight into one's heart. Therefore, he wanted to give the jewelry store to He Yueyou to run. His fiancée had one trait he liked best: she knew how to respect boundaries and wouldn't force him to do anything he didn't want to.

The base was built, but it wasn't yet perfect. None of the greenery had been done, and many things still needed to be purchased. He only planned to open the first level for now; the others would be opened slowly once enough people were recruited. Currently, including himself, the entire Supervision Office only had four people, so they didn't need those areas yet. However, before going abroad, he would arrange for Ni Zhen to recruit from various military regions, selecting about a hundred elite soldiers. What gave him the most headache was recruiting various specialized talents: base operations management personnel, intelligence collectors, and professional weapon and tech equipment operators. These high-quality technical talents were the crown jewels of their respective military regions; without a sufficient price, they wouldn't let a single one go. If he recruited from the outside, it would take a long time to train them, and with the probation period, who knew how long it would take before they were useful. This matter could only be solved another way, but he hadn't thought of any good ideas yet.

He found a coffee shop with a nice environment in the city center, chose a quiet booth, and ordered a cup of Blue Mountain coffee, slowly sipping it while waiting for Ni Zhen's group of three to arrive. Previously, he had only drunk cheap instant coffee; this freshly ground and brewed flavor was fragrant and rich. This coffee shop had a good reputation and used authentic Jamaican Blue Mountain beans, otherwise, it wouldn't sell for 438 yuan a small cup. While the quality might not be the top-tier Grade 1 beans, being able to drink authentic Blue Mountain coffee in China was rare enough. The taste was far beyond what instant coffee could compare to, and Cao Xiao had grown to like this distinct flavor. However, the cup in front of him wasn't even enough for one gulp. He felt that drinking with a small spoon was too tedious. Under the waiter's strange gaze, he ordered ten cups at once, poured them into a large mug he specifically asked the waiter to find, and drank in large gulps, while thinking about buying some authentic Grade 1 Blue Mountain beans when he went abroad. Actually, there were even more premium ones here, like Kopi Luwak or Black Ivory coffee, but just hearing the names made him lose his appetite. He was absolutely certain he wouldn't have the 'fortune' to try even a small sip of those in this lifetime.

Before long, Ni Zhen appeared before him, looking hurried.

“Cao Xiao, I thought I already lacked taste, but in front of you, I’m practically an aristocrat,” Ni Zhen said with extreme disdain, looking at Cao Xiao holding that oversized mug that couldn't be found anywhere in the coffee shop, with the sugar cube dish on the table completely empty.

“Haha! To each their own. I like drinking coffee this way. Being different is what you call personality. Can't I be rich and willful? Want a cup?” Cao Xiao said nonchalantly.

“Uh, waiter, get me one too. I want a mug like his. Drinking it like this should be quite satisfying,” Ni Zhen said, quite tempted, without a second thought.

“Tch! And here I thought you were so noble!” Cao Xiao was stunned by Ni Zhen's sudden shift. After a speechless retort, he told the waiter to bring three more cups.

“Speak up! Why did you call me here? If you hadn't contacted me, I would've gone on a trip. You must explain the work details clearly today, especially the salary and benefits. The nature of the work better be reliable. Weekends off, no more than forty working hours a week, and holidays must align with national regulations, or else you can play by yourself!” Ni Zhen sat opposite Cao Xiao and said to him bluntly.