Ning Xiaofan's heart skipped a beat. When he wanted to see clearly, the minibus had already turned a corner. His line of sight changed. The door of the reception center was blocked by a row of board houses.
Is it her? Is she already well? Since you are here, why don’t you come out and meet everyone?
Ning Xiaofan let out a breath, feeling a sense of sadness in his heart for no reason...
The base area is huge, and there are many open posts and secret posts along the way, but no one stopped us. It should be because of the pass placed in front of the car window.
About a minute later, the minibus entered a tunnel.
After driving about a kilometer through the tunnel, before reaching the end of the tunnel, the minibus stopped. The driver turned around and said, "We're here."
Ning Xiaofan and others were also confused at this moment, so they picked up their backpacks and got off the minibus without asking any more questions.
Beside the tunnel, there is a circular iron gate with four armed men standing at the door. It is estimated that behind the iron gate is the passage to the mine.
One of the armed men who seemed to be the leader said with a cold face: "Everyone shows his ID."
The ID for entering the mine was a card. After Ning Xiaofan and others showed their ID, the team leader took out a black rectangular instrument and started scanning the ID.
The instrument showed a green light and there was no problem with the certificate. The team leader turned around and came to the display instrument embedded next to the iron door. He took out a card and swiped it on the display. The iron door quietly opened.
As the iron door opened, a circular passage came into view. At this time, the team leader made a gesture, indicating that Ning Xiaofan and his party could go in.
The passage is more than four meters wide and about three meters high. The dome is inlaid with bright white energy-saving lamps. The lights are brilliant and the white is very dazzling.
Ning Xiaofan and his party didn't know how long this passage was. They walked all the way and saw no one along the way. It gave people a sense of tranquility, but the sound of their footsteps could be heard clearly.
Not only that, this passage has forks. Fortunately, every time you pass the fork, you can see the indicator lights marked on the wall. You can continue to move forward according to the green arrow, while the red cross is closed, which is good.
distinguish.
After turning several forks in the road and walking along the forked passage for a short distance, we reached the end ahead.
There was a rectangular white door at the end. Ning Xiaofan walked closer and saw a row of digital display keys above the door, a monitor, and buttons next to the door. It looked a bit like an elevator door.
Ning Xiaofan was hesitating whether to press the button next to the door, when the door in front of him opened automatically.
The door opened suddenly, and Ning Xiaofan, Fatty and the others couldn't help but look at each other. However, this place was already at the end, so since the door was opened, they all rushed in.
After all the people entered, a few seconds later, the door closed automatically. Then, everyone felt a slight sinking feeling, as if they were falling downwards.
It seems that it is really an elevator. This elevator is relatively spacious and can accommodate more than 20 people. Ning Xiaofan and his party were standing inside, and it did not look crowded at all.
The elevator descended very smoothly, without feeling any shaking, but it could feel that the depth of the descent was very long. Being in a strange and slightly mysterious confined space, Ning Xiaofan, Fatty and others could not help but feel anxious.
Talking is very quiet.
The elevator continued to descend for nearly 10 minutes. Ning Xiaofan and others felt the elevator shake slightly, and the elevator stopped. Then, the white elevator door slowly opened.
When Ning Xiaofan and his party stepped out of the elevator, they were immediately shocked by the sight in front of them.
What comes into view is a huge space. At a glance, it seems to be thousands of square meters.
The space is brightly lit, with forklifts, engineering vehicles, and battery trucks passing by. Staff members wearing safety helmets are coming and going. There is a lot of traffic and a lot of people. It is like coming to a busy and huge construction site.
.
Looking up, there is a translucent fiberglass dome at the top about two to three hundred meters above the ground. Through the dome, about two to three hundred meters away, you can faintly see a circular light, a circular shape.
The light should be caused by the top of the sinkhole. Where you are, it seems that this is the bottom of the sinkhole.
Ning Xiaofan and others had just come out of an extremely quiet environment, and were suddenly transformed into a lively, noisy and spectacular scene. It was obvious that they had not yet adapted. They were all dumbfounded and could not recover for a long time.
"Welcome to Base No. 3..." As the words rang out, Ning Xiaofan and others noticed that there was an extra person next to the elevator door.
The speaker was a young man, wearing a helmet and a white coat. There was a card hanging on his chest with the Xinao Group's logo on it. Judging from his attire, he was not a Xinao staff member.
He is a scientific researcher.
"I wonder who is Mr. Ning Xiaofan?" the young man asked again.
"That's me." Ning Xiaofan replied.
"Hello, my name is Yang. I am the manager of the New Australia Office of Base No. 3. I am responsible for receiving your team." The young man who called himself Director Yang introduced himself politely and took the initiative to shake Ning Xiaofan's hand.
After Ning Xiaofan shook hands with him, he asked, "Is this the mining area?"
"It's within the scope of the mining area. There is still some distance to go into the mining area." Manager Yang replied with a smile, and then said: "Everyone, please come with me..."
With that said, Manager Yang made a gesture of invitation, turned around and led the way.
Ning Xiaofan and his party followed Supervisor Yang and walked along the huge construction site for less than 200 meters when they saw a vehicle with windows. It looked a bit like a bus. At a glance, there were people on the vehicle.
There are more than 30 empty seats, and a driver is already sitting at the front of the car.
Manager Yang arrived at the car and motioned for Ning Xiaofan and others to get in and take their seats. At this time, Ning Xiaofan and others also noticed that the wheels of the car did not have rubber tires. A closer look revealed that there were two rubber tires under the wheels.
The track is clearly a light rail car.
There is even a track at the bottom of the tiankeng. You can imagine how huge the space under this tiankeng is.
After Ning Xiaofan, Supervisor Yang and others got on the bus, the driver started the rail car without waiting for a signal and drove along the track towards the depths of the sinkhole.
Base No. 3 must have been under construction for a long time. As the rail car goes deeper, the wide space gradually begins to shrink and become narrower, and the light becomes dim. However, every 20 meters or so, you can see
The lights set up on the roadside do not affect the view.
But even with lights on, you can only see the uneven cave walls outside the car window, and there is nothing eye-catching about the scenery.
The rail car rumbled forward, not very fast, and kept at around 304. During this period, it also encountered several branch tracks, and I don’t know where those branches lead?
From gathering in the early morning to setting off, Ning Xiaofan, as the leader of the 03 team, did not know where the destination was. He also did not know his own prospecting route, so he could only walk in confusion.
Of course, Ning Xiaofan also knew in his heart that the person in charge of the base would give instructions when he got to the ground, so he did not ask Manager Yang.
Half an hour later, a brightly lit scene appeared in front of me again. I guessed we had reached some station.
Sure enough, when Ning Xiaofan and others saw a row of prefabricated buildings through the car window, the rail car slowly stopped.
Calculating the distance, this site should be about a kilometer away from Base No. 3.
Ning Xiaofan couldn't help but secretly sighed. Kilometers are nothing to the land mileage outside the tiankeng. But if you put it under this tiankeng, it is already an amazing miracle. What's more, this has been detected under the tiankeng.
The place is under construction, but how big is the real area of the sinkhole? It is already unimaginable.
At this time, Manager Yang, who was sitting in the front passenger seat of the car, stood up and greeted: "Captain Ning, we have arrived at our outpost in Xin'ao. Please get off the car..."
After Ning Xiaofan and his party got off the car, they found that there was a pitted cave wall in front of the track. It was obvious that the track had reached the end.
There is a platform more than thirty meters long beside the track. In addition to several armed personnel patrolling back and forth on the platform, you can also see a sign on the platform with the words "Outpost No. L" on it.
Behind the platform, there is a row of prefab buildings. At a glance, there are eight prefab houses in total. There are lights shining through the windows of each prefab house building, and the figures of staff in twos and threes can be seen.
Manager Yang led Ning Xiaofan and his party straight towards one of the prefabricated buildings.
Entering this board room, the light inside is bright. Looking at the layout of the board room, it should be a conference room.
There were two iron boxes placed on the rectangular conference table. In addition, there were two armed men standing beside the table, giving the impression that they were guarding the two iron boxes.
After Director Yang entered the conference room, he first asked the two armed men to leave, then turned to Ning Xiaofan and said: "Captain Ning, I received a notice yesterday. According to the instructions above, your prospecting route has been determined.
These two boxes contain your prospecting equipment and equipment.”
With that said, Manager Yang opened one of the iron boxes.
When you open the iron box, you can see at a glance that there are tablets and two-inch rectangular black boxes inside.
Manager Yang pointed to the tablet computer and said: "There is a landmark route map on the tablet computer. This is the main line map we set up based on the previously detected routes. You only need to click on the map to determine the route. Each of you is equipped with one of these tablet computers.
Of course, the main line marked on the map is for your reference only to prevent you from getting lost. What you actually want to explore are unexplored routes other than the main line..."
Manager Yang said, pointing to the black box placed in the iron box, and then said: "This is a locator. Everyone must wear it. The function of the locator is to determine the coordinates of each of you. There is a large receiver at Base 3.
, within a radius of 100 kilometers, your location can be found through the locator you wear. Our staff will stay in front of the display screen of the command center to observe your location at any time..."
