NOVEL NEXT Chapter 30: Upgrade
Ban Xia spent an entire day digging a large pit to bury the tiger's corpse.
She wasn't lacking in food and had no desire to taste what the king of beasts tasted like. She just wanted to quickly bury the rapidly decaying giant body. If not buried, all the flies in the Qinhuai District would swarm here for a buzzing convention.
What's the most annoying thing in summer?
First is mosquitoes, second is flies.
Modern people like Bai Yang can certainly not imagine what "thunderous summer mosquitoes" look like; they've only seen such scenes described in the junior high school Chinese textbook, "Childhood Fun" by Shen Fu.
As for Ban Xia, who often burrows into grass burrows, she sometimes sees a dense swarm of mosquitoes and covers her face with her clothes and runs away.
When she patted down the last shovel of earth, it had already turned dark. She built a small grave mound for the Bengal Tiger not far from Building 11. By killing this tiger, there won't be another Bengal Tiger in Qinhuai District for a long time, as Bengal Tigers have vast territories. As the saying goes, two tigers can't share one mountain; the other tiger could at least be in Pukou District or even in Chuzhou City.
After finishing all this, her arms were so sore she couldn't lift them anymore.
"My arms are so sore, I've been digging all day with just a military spade. It's really tiring." Ban Xia sighed. "BG4MXH, when can you send me an excavator?"
"How would I send an excavator?" Bai Yang rolled his eyes. "Time capsules aren't omnipotent. Where can I find a capsule big enough to fit an excavator? The largest time capsules available on the market are just tens of centimeters long. Anything bigger wouldn't be a time capsule, but a safe, OVER."
"Then create a super — big safe and put the excavator into it! I believe in you, you can do it!"
"Such a big safe can't be bought; it needs to be custom-made," Bai Yang said. "It would cost a lot of money, and we don't have that much, OVER."
"You're supposed to be saving the world, young man! You could find that … uh … bank—"
"Bank, OVER."
"Right, the bank. Ask the bank for money!" Ban Xia said. "Ask for a million, is that enough? If not, ask for ten million."
"Are you asking me to rob a bank? Miss, I'm just a poor high school student. If I march into a bank to rob it, the clerks will laugh at me," Bai Yang said. "So what if I'm saving the world? Besides, making a safe big enough for an excavator would weigh tons and would need a heavy-duty helicopter to airlift it and bury it underground. You wouldn't be able to dig it out by yourself, so you would need a heavy-duty helicopter, which means we would need another safe to fit the helicopter, and then an even heavier helicopter to transport that. It's endless, OVER."
"Oh…"
The girl squatted on the chair, pouting.
The limits of a time capsule, Bai Yang hadn't figured them out yet, but both he and his father knew it wasn't omnipotent. The Grand Filter isn't foolish, a small boat might attempt to smuggle through, but thinking a cruise ship could do the same is treating them as blind.
In Bai Yang's view, the first limiting factor for the time capsule is definitely its size.
Time capsules can be enlarged appropriately but not indefinitely.
When it becomes too big, it would surely be detected by the Grand Filter.
The three laws of Time Slow Delivery defined conditions for him. Zhao Bowen once said, as long as you adhere to these three laws, you can avoid the Grand Filter, no matter what you intend to do, you'll need to move within the boundaries they set.
"BG4MSR, we've discussed for a long time today and decided to upgrade your contact methods, OVER."
There was a pause on the other side.
"Eh? Is it that... image transmission?"
"That's a separate system. These two plans are independent and being advanced simultaneously, establishing an image transmission link would allow radio transmission of more and larger data, building a remote control system would allow you to maintain contact even when outside," Bai Yang explained. "Uncle Wang heads the remote control system engineering team, while my dad heads the image transmission system engineering team, OVER."
"Wow." The girl was somewhat amazed. "That's a grand setup. Who is in the remote control system engineering team? And who is in the image transmission system engineering team?"
"There are two people in the remote control system engineering team," Bai Yang answered. "The leader is Uncle Wang, and the member is me."
"And the image transmission system engineering team?"
"Also two people, OVER."
"Your dad is the leader, and who's the team member?"
"Still me, OVER."
Three people forming two teams, it must be said that the Reverse Future World-saving Amateur Radio Emergency Communication Command Center has a long name but short manpower, perfectly reflecting the characteristics of a grassroots organization where one person works and two people watch.
"Does this mean I'll be able to see your world?" Ban Xia got excited. "That's amazing, Nanjing City of 2019! 2019! Can you show it to me?"
"Of course, and we likewise need you to show us Nanjing City of 2040, OVER," Bai Yang replied.
"No problem!" The girl jumped up from the seat. "Whatever you want to see, I'll show you... But building these two systems won't be easy, will it?"
Her voice suddenly lowered.
"Can I do it?"
"We're still researching the specific plan, but we will adhere to three basic principles," Bai Yang detailed. "The first is simplicity, it must be simple enough for you to operate independently; any too complex proposals are outright rejected. The second is stability; the components used must still function normally twenty years later. The third is safety; it must not interfere with the normal operation of Station 725. We have experts who will provide you with full technical support. Don't worry, miss, anything that can be managed, we'll take care of it for you, OVER."
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The following day.
October 27th, a Sunday.
When Bai Yang woke up, Wang Ning and his father were already arguing in the living room. He lazily picked up his toothbrush and towel and walked into the bathroom, hearing the heated argument outside.
"Have you ever used it?"
"Yes, I was the main controller when I used it, frequency 439.675, offset minus 9, sub-audio 88.5, I remember it clearly."
"Is it analog or digital?"
"This is not right, this is absolutely wrong, do you have a schematic? Find one and let's look at it!"
"Damn, where do we find a schematic for this antique now?"
"Ask in the group chat."
"Who has this stuff?"
"Does TZM have it? Or maybe ask STD… that guy always has everything…"
Bai Yang finished washing up and came out to have breakfast, greeting the two men.
Old Wang and Dad nodded to him, wished him a good afternoon, and continued arguing.
"Here, I found one, is this it…"
"This is nonsense."
The table was set with soy milk and Shao Mai; Mom had already gone out to buy groceries. Bai Yang sat down, touched the cup, the soy milk was somewhat cold, he took a sip, glanced towards the sofa, and noticed a foam box by Wang Ning's feet with a familiar black amateur radio shortwave station on it.
Icom725.
He blurted out: "725? Did you guys get another 725?"
"We got it second-hand from a colleague." Wang Ning nodded, "It's used as an experimental rig for analog."
Just like in aerospace engineering, it's always necessary to have a backup rig identical to the mission rig on the ground. If something goes wrong with the mission rig in space, solutions can be immediately tested on the backup. Wang Ning had the same idea, to try any method first on this inconsequential 725 radio to ensure it's safe and feasible, then move it to the BG4MSR's rig.
Note, at this moment, Wang Ning and Bai Zhen had not yet realized that Bai Yang and BG4MSR were using the same 725; this key point would only be discovered when Zhao Bowen returned. Although Old Wang and Bai Zhen knew that BG4MSR also used an Icom725 radio, the same model as Bai Yang's, their rich experience as old HAMs unwittingly led to a misjudgment. In their eyes, the Icom725 was just too classic an amateur radio. Just in Nanjing City alone, you couldn't count the number on two hands, it was like the Nokia 1100; you have a Nokia, and the person you're talking to also has a Nokia, there's nothing strange about that.
Bai Yang grabbed a Shao Mai and stuffed it into his mouth, chewing on the cold Shao Mai, he mumbled, "What should we do next?"
"We need to rig a relay next." Wang Ning said.
"Let BG4MSR get an analog relay first." Bai Zhen nodded, "Then we can buy one exactly like the model she finds."
"Can the relay be sent through a time capsule?" Bai Yang asked.
"It's going to be difficult, pure analog relay stations are a bit large, have you seen one?" Wang Ning gestured with his hands, "It's as big as a desktop computer's main unit, metal casing, quite heavy, no time capsule could fit it."
"Try to make a custom one?"
"You want someone to make a time capsule out of steel pipes?" Wang Ning considered for a moment, "First off, it's hard to find such thick steel pipes, the readily available seamless steel pipes on the market have a diameter of just a few centimeters to a dozen centimeters. To fit a relay station inside, you need at least a diameter of over thirty centimeters, almost as thick as an oil pipeline... you'd need to weld a capsule that thick, do you know how heavy it would be?"
"How heavy?"
"At least forty kilograms." Wang Ning answered, "A forty-plus kilogram capsule, a smooth huge cylinder, how would you even transport it? You can't even move it, let alone surreptitiously bury it following a double-blind principle."
Bai Yang choked up.
He, too, was prone to making elementary mistakes that overlooked practical operational feasibility.
"Let's keep overly complex plans as Plan B, an alternative option." Dad said, "Actually, it's easier for a relay station to be found over there than for us to send one, because relays are hardy and no one wants them."
"Where is Nanjing's relay?" Bai Yang asked.
Dad and Old Wang simultaneously pointed out the window, their gazes crossing over layers of apartment buildings.
"Not far, just on Zijin Mountain."
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"Huh? Zijin Mountain?"
Ban Xia was a bit surprised.
"Yes, it's on Zijin Mountain." Bai Yang said, "Relay stations are generally placed high up, like on mountains; Nanjing's 430M relay is on Zijin Mountain, OVER."
"Hasn't it broken down over the past twenty years?"
"According to Uncle Wang and my dad, they say relays are extremely durable. They are originally designed to operate unattended, and also they don't have batteries, so they don't break down easily." Bai Yang scratched his head, "And they're not valuable or attention-catching, there's a high chance you'll find it, OVER."
He spread out a rough map in front of him.
The map was drawn by Wang Ning, detailing the exact location of the relay station.
Bai Yang turned it over and over, then opened the map on his smartphone on Amap; Wang Ning's map was even less reliable than Amap.
He looked at the map while instructing BG4MSR, telling her to look for a stick—not a Korean, but an antenna, precisely the antenna of the relay.
Ban Xia responded with multiple "Hmm, hmm, hmm, hmm, hmm, hmm."
Reverse Future World-saving Amateur Radio Emergency Communication Command Center decided to use the next week to upgrade Ban Xia's communication devices, transforming a fixed amateur radio into a mobile phone capable of taking photos. Once the upgrade was complete, Ban Xia would be able to transmit a large amount of image data here, allowing Bai Yang and the others to directly witness that destructed world.