Chapter 3612 The End of the World

When Ye Chen and his group of four disembarked, the short daytime was almost over.

On the ice cap a hundred meters away from the ship, three members of the Nordic polar expedition team were waiting next to a snowmobile.

The message they received was that after resupplying the research station with fuel and various supplies, they would set it to an unmanned operation mode. The station's power, heating, and water supply would operate automatically and remain habitable. The instruments and equipment would record the operating status and key indicators such as temperature, humidity, air quality, and oxygen content within the station. If the unmanned operation of the research station throughout the winter went smoothly this year, a group of research team members could truly stay here for the winter next year.

Because there is no sun and the wind is unstable in Antarctica during winter, there is almost no clean energy available. The most stable source of energy is diesel generator sets, and the heat generated by the diesel generator sets during power generation can also be used to heat the research station.

Therefore, this research vessel needs to replenish the research station with at least 150 tons of diesel fuel to support its operation throughout the winter.

Transporting fuel is relatively troublesome, requiring at least two or three trips to complete the shipment. Therefore, the research team members were prepared to be busy, hoping to finish their mission this morning and return to their warm home in Northern Europe.

When they saw Ye Chen and his three companions, the three research team members who came from the station were somewhat surprised. They were driving a snowmobile to tow the crew cabin, intending to bring back the people on the ship who could help, but they did not expect that there were four Asian faces on board.

Ye Chen stepped forward and shook hands with the leader. While using his spiritual energy to give himself a mental suggestion, he introduced himself to the three men: "Gentlemen, I am a meteorological expert from the military. I am here on a very important mission. While you are here, you must cooperate fully with my work. After you leave, you must forget that I exist. Can you do that?"

The three of them immediately answered in unison, "We can do it."

Ye Chen nodded and asked the man in the lead, "What is your name?"

The other person said respectfully, "My name is Charles, Charles Johnson."

Ye Chen asked him, "Okay, Charles, how many people are there at the research station now?"

Charles said, "We were originally a team of sixteen, but most of them went back home at the end of summer, so now it's just the three of us here to prepare for the winter unmanned operation."

Ye Chen nodded and instructed, "Then send us there now."

Charles nodded and said, “No problem, everyone please get in the car. My two colleagues will be responsible for driving us back.”

Accompanied by Charles, Ye Chen and the other three boarded the crew cabin, while the other two sat directly in the driver's cab of the snow tractor. The vehicle then started and headed towards the research station more than 100 kilometers away.

Antarctica is truly the end of the world, surrounded by nothing but ice and snow and endless mountains. There are no real roads, but most of the terrain is relatively flat, so snowmobiles can pass through easily. There is absolutely no trace of human presence here, making it perhaps the only virgin land on Earth that has remained almost unchanged since hundreds of millions of years ago.

According to Charles, research stations in the Antarctic interior are not actually concentrated. They are scattered about 100 kilometers inland from the coastline. The Nordic research station is relatively close to the coastline. Most of them are actually inland, 200 to 300 kilometers deep. Some research stations are even far away near the South Pole. If you want to get there by land, it is at least a thousand kilometers away. It is almost impossible to reach them in winter. Only in summer can you use the simple airfields on the ice sheet for resupply and personnel dispatch.

Even so, most research stations cease operations during the winter. On Antarctica, a continent larger than Canada, very few research stations remain operational during the winter.

Ye Chen also learned from him that once winter arrives, these still-operating research stations have strict operating guidelines. Unless there are unforeseen circumstances, they are not allowed to leave the research station for more than 24 hours. This means that everyone's range of activities will be restricted, so there will be almost no interference between the various research stations.

Ye Chen then asked about the aurora borealis. Charles told him that Antarctica had recently entered the aurora season, but it had not yet reached its peak. So, at the Nordic research station, one could see the aurora every two or three days. However, once the polar night arrived in April or May, the aurora could be seen almost every day, and even for several days in a row.

This was almost the perfect environment for Ye Chen to cultivate in seclusion.

The snowmobile traveled for several hours in the Antarctic night before finally stopping in the middle of a cluster of low-rise buildings.

The research station in Northern Europe looks unremarkable and even somewhat shabby from the outside. In front of it is a row of stilted bungalows about 100 meters long. To the left are several arched buildings of the same shape and size, arranged in a very orderly manner. To the right, there are several special buildings with various kinds of equipment installed on top of them, including communication equipment and climate monitoring equipment.

In the center of the entire building complex, several special vehicles of various kinds were parked. Whether they were transport vehicles, loaders, cranes, or excavators, they were all tracked vehicles.

After the vehicle came to a stop, Ye Chen and the others got out of the warm car. Although they had only traveled more than 100 kilometers inland, the temperature was much colder than when they had just disembarked because the sun had been out for several hours.

Charles subconsciously considered Ye Chen and the others to be military personnel involved in national security matters, so he said very politely and warmly, "The temperature has dropped sharply now, and the four of you may not be used to it yet. Let's go inside quickly!"

Ye Chen nodded. The three women beside him didn't feel cold at all. They looked around curiously. After all, most people wouldn't have the chance to come to such a place, especially in winter.

Ye Chen said to Charles, "Could you first give us a detailed introduction to the entire research station and its operation, such as what hardware facilities it has and the basic operating methods of the necessary equipment?"

Charles nodded and introduced to the four people: "The main building in front of us is the living and daily working area of ​​the research station. All the indoor spaces are equipped with electric underfloor heating facilities, as well as 24-hour heat exchange fresh air and humidification equipment. In addition, there is a molecular sieve oxygen production system, so it can basically achieve constant temperature, constant humidity and constant oxygen."

After saying that, he pointed to several arched buildings on the left and said, “Our generator sets are in the first equipment compartment on the left. There are five diesel generator sets in total, three main and two backup, and an energy storage system to ensure that the power supply is uninterrupted. The second equipment compartment contains our ice melting equipment and water storage equipment. We use the temperature and electricity of the diesel generator sets to slowly melt the stored glacial ice. After purification, the ice is stored in water tanks and transported to various rooms through underground pipes.”

Ye Chen asked him, "Are all these devices automatic?"

“Yes,” Charles said. “All the equipment will run automatically after it is set up. The diesel generator set will adjust its power according to the electrical load, and the same goes for the meltwater equipment. It stores a large amount of glacial ice, at least a thousand cubic meters, plus the underground reservoir, which is nearly a hundred cubic meters.”

Ye Chen nodded. A little over a thousand cubic meters of water should be enough for the four of them to use for a winter.

Charles added, “Our oil storage tanks are all built underground around the perimeter of our main building, with ample fire and explosion prevention measures in place. They can store up to 500 tons of high-grade diesel fuel. In addition to the generator sets, all vehicles are also diesel-powered.”

Ye Chen asked him, "Then how do we refuel these vehicles?"

Charles led Ye Chen to the central parking lot, where there were four refueling machines specially developed for polar regions. While showing Ye Chen how to refuel the vehicle, Charles explained, "The fuel here is ultra-low pour point diesel mixed with aviation kerosene, which can flow normally even at minus seventy degrees Celsius. All the vehicles have also been modified for polar regions. Apart from needing to spend a little more time preheating, they are not much different from inland vehicles in terms of usage."

Ye Chen specifically asked him how to operate the enclosed snowmobile. After he understood everything, he asked Charles to take everyone inside the research station to learn more.

Although the outside temperature was below -50 degrees Celsius, the interior temperature of the main building of the research station was a remarkable 26 degrees Celsius. The building has an area of ​​over 4,000 square meters and contains not only some professional research facilities and laboratories, but also as many as 20 rooms. Like the research vessel, these rooms range from four-person rooms to single rooms, and each room is equipped with a simple toilet and shower. Wastewater has an automated recycling system, and sedimented sludge and solid waste are automatically collected and transported back to the country for treatment on supply ships.

The restaurant and kitchen had a good amount of food reserves. Although it wasn't enough for the research station to operate at full capacity for the whole winter, fortunately, among Ye Chen and his group of four, only Lin Wan'er needed to eat, while the others could abstain from food. So the supplies were quite plentiful.

Charles also told Ye Chen that in addition to the daily necessities and supplies, there is also a television, telephone and satellite network here. All communication is through satellite, and the efficiency is no slower than inland. In any situation, Ye Chen can contact the outside world immediately, and others can also contact him immediately.

However, this network coverage is limited to the research station area. If you leave the research station to work in the field, the vehicles outside are equipped with Musk's Starlink system, which provides signal coverage throughout the Antarctic continent and the speed is not slow, with bandwidth exceeding 100 megabits.

Ye Chen was quite surprised by Starlink's coverage and speed. He had never encountered such a product before, and he did not expect that such comprehensive network service could be guaranteed even in the polar regions. Even if the first phase of the satellite communication system that he had Lang Hongjun build was completed and put into use, it could only ensure basic communication around the world except for the two major polar regions. To achieve such high-speed network coverage without any blind spots, the number of satellites would need to be increased exponentially.

While Ye Chen was mastering the operation of the research station's equipment and vehicles, the oil tanker was constantly shuttling between the research vessel and the research vessel. They spent a full thirty hours replenishing fuel and other necessary supplies. After replenishing the supplies, they packed a large amount of garbage into trucks.

Three days had passed after the last truck was fully loaded and the transport was completed.

During these three days, Ye Chen saw two aurora borealis events, but because the others were still working non-stop, he did not leave the research station during these three days.

As the supply team and the three remaining personnel finished their work and prepared to return, Ye Chen watched their vehicles depart from outside the research station.

After leaving the research station, everyone completely forgot about Ye Chen's existence. In their subconscious, the research station had entered an unmanned operation phase, and the next time someone would come would be when Antarctica entered summer in the second half of the year.

After these people left, only the four of them remained within a radius of several hundred kilometers around Ye Chen's research station.

Ye Chen joked that this might be the loneliest place in the world, but interestingly, none of them felt lonely. On the contrary, all four of them felt that this was a rare opportunity in life to completely escape the hustle and bustle of the world.

Just as the four had settled in at the research station, a Japanese research vessel set sail from the port of Ushuaia.

On the vast sea, a fishing boat was drifting and swaying. Wu Bolin sat cross-legged in the cabin, meditating with his eyes closed.

At this moment, Wu Siyuan ran in excitedly and said, "Elder, the research vessel you've been waiting for has arrived!"