Chapter 26: Rover No. 1
Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio
Chen Jin understood Zhang Nan’s words. Because Zhao Xin would soon be promoted to a father, he could not race cars anymore. He also could not do other dangerous activities. This unruly wastrel would have to return home to the roles of a “good husband” and a “good father.” Zhao Xin, this carefree and uninhibited 25 year old man had to become more reliable, more mature, and pay more attention to his little family unit.
Or perhaps… When his child has grown up and learned how to listen attentively, Zhao Xin would proudly narrate the vibrancy of his youth. Within the wors.h.i.+pful gaze of his child, he would look forward to the grandiose moment when he received the epithet of “Race King.”
As he thought of this scene, a s.h.i.+ver ran through Chen Jin’s body. A voice in his heart shouted, “I don’t want this! It’s too scary!”
On the contrary, Zhao Xin, who was sitting across the dining table from him, remained unaffected. He even picked up some food with his chopsticks for Zhang Nan.
…
It was way beyond Zhao Xin’s expectations. Chen Jin, who had expressed that he wanted to learn some car repair skills, actually persevered for seven days in a row in the auto center garage. He had a very proper att.i.tude for learning that had no fear of hards.h.i.+p or exhaustion. As he conducted his learning seriously, he successfully realized the goal of rapidly entering the industry. Moreover, he even helped Mentor Sun repair a faulty Tesla Model-S on the sixth day. To that end, he contributed a lot of effort.
Mentor Sun had a major overhaul of his impression of Chen Jin. Privately, he told Zhao Xin, “I’ve seen more serious students than him when it comes to learning how to drive. But as for learning how to repair cars, there are not many as serious as him amongst my students…. Boss, didn’t you say that his family is rich and he’s only here for fun?”
Opening and closing his mouth, his eyes wide with surprise, Zhao Xin spread his hands out helplessly and said, “How would I know? This was not his style in the past.”
On the 8th day, Chen Jin stopped regularly going to the auto center.
In Haierfa, he had thrown himself fully into the vigorous work of remodeling an agricultural machine into an expedition vehicle. Actually, this work consisted of some difficulties. The biggest challenge was, how would he transport that agricultural machine from the City of Tereese to the campground?
At more than 10 tons, one of those machines weighed about 10 times that of a pa.s.senger sedan. How would he get such a c.u.mbersome object back to the campground? After some careful thought, Chen Jin adopted two solutions: One was to increase the number of exploration squads from two to four; The second was that the total number of robots would be increased to 20.
Each robot could carry 200 kilograms. It followed that the 20 robots could, as a group, carry an object weighing seven or eight tons. In addition, the combine harvester might be heavy, but it was also composed of several modules. He could disa.s.semble the lighter modules and transport them separately. With the exception of the engine and the transmission control module, the robots could carry the rest of the modules back to the campground. As for the remaining parts like the tires, cha.s.sis, engine, transmission box, etc., that could not be easily dismantled…. They weighed in at around five or six tons. These were pulled by Blue Angel leading in the front and more than 10 robots pus.h.i.+ng from the back. Using this method and more than two days, the machine was slowly brought into the campground.
After Chen Jin had completed his studies on car repairs and returned to the campground, the separate modules from the combine harvester were laid out in front of him. However, there was a price to pay. The robots, including Da Li, had basically used up all of their power. Blue Angel’s power charge had also dropped below safety levels. All of them were queued up beside the charging post, waiting to be charged.
Following which, Chen Jin was faced with even more challenging work. How would he repair and remodel this combine harvester with a length of nine meters, a height reaching four meters, a width of four and a half meters, topped off with a total weight of 13 tons? Chen Jin spent about half a day coming up with and deciding on a plan of action to remodel it.
The first step was reduction. He would take down the harvesting unit from this machine. For example, the harvest drum on its front and the conveyor belt and thres.h.i.+ng unit in its middle could be dismantled. Most of the units for harvesting could be eliminated. After a round of reduction, the weight of the combine harvester would drop to 10 tons.
The grain tank at the rear was modified into a big cargo storage area that could hold a huge number of items. It would make his exploration process more convenient. In addition, he installed an excavation bucket on its front. If he met with any obstacles on the road, he could clear it away. This would increase the ease of the vehicle’s pa.s.sage.
He also installed a cable pulling system, an emergency first-aid kit, a water pump and fire extinguis.h.i.+ng unit, a standby generator, and so on. All of these required additional installations and preparations to increase the safety coefficient when exploring outdoors.
Hence, for the next half of the month, Chen Jin’s focus at work was fully engaged in remodeling the expedition vehicle. Using a large amount of energy and money, he finally completed the repair and remodel of the expedition vehicle. An expedition vehicle named “Rover No.1” was laid out in front of Chen Jin. After spraying a layer of silver paint on its exterior, he was completely finished. Rover No. 1 was enormous, imposing, elegant, and infused with a modern, industrial aesthetic.
He let out a long breath of relief. With both hands on his waist, Chen Jin felt a deep sense of accomplishment, and he was overwhelmed with emotion. In this half a month of remodeling Rover No.1, he had to solve numerous problems, both big and small.
For example, the problem of finding matching tires. The four original tires of Rover No.1 had long decayed past the point of utility. He could not find a whole and working tire for replacement. Thus, he had to purchase them from Earth.
The problem was that the tires used by Rover No.1 had a diameter of one and a half meters, but the portal only had a diameter of one meter. It was impossible to squeeze a whole tire through.
At this time, Chen Jin could only seek advice from Zhao Xin. He asked if there was a type of tire that could be a.s.sembled from many smaller parts into a large tire.
Zhao Xin shook his head, “Um…. I don’t think this type of tire exists.”
Mentor Sun interrupted from the side, “I’ve heard of a type of tire; it’s not composed of several parts but is a.s.sembled using thin loops of tire material that are stacked together to form a large tire.
“Yes yes yes, this is the type of tire that I want!” Chen Jin was extremely delighted. With the guidance of Mentor Sun, he was able to get into contact with a factory that manufactured layered tire materials that could be a.s.sembled into a large tire. He made his request to the factory.
However, the factory did not manufacture the tire layers in the measurements that Chen Jin required. Unless it received an order worth $2,000,000 or more, it would not begin production of a new model. “I’ll fork out $2,000,000! But I want it ready in five days!”
Manager Song of the factory was stumped. Gritting his teeth, he thought, wasn’t it only money? He’s got money! Finally, he beat his chest as he guaranteed, “I a.s.sure you, you’ll see your product in five days!”
After five days, the tire layers of a suitable quality were successfully manufactured and Chen Jin brought it to the campground. Twining the loops of tire layers together, he made a large tire with the required measurements.
Using a specialized industrial-strength glue to piece the layers together, the weight of the tire would not differ too much from a normal tire. Moreover, he would not have to worry about the tire blowing.
To date, the modification of Rover No.1 was basically completed. As he drove one round in the crater, it felt very stable and was very responsive to speed changes. It would definitely satisfy the fancy of people who loved to drive large-sized vehicles.
But, a new problem followed. A power shortage. There were a total of 100 high efficiency batteries in the battery chamber of Rover No.1. It had 10 times as many batteries as Blue Angel! It could charge more than 3,600 kilowatts an hour. No matter if he let Rover No.1 have all the power from the 30 kilowatt charging post, it would still take five whole days for a full charge.
However, the robots needed power too. He could not let Rover No.1 have all the power for charging. He had to resolve the power shortage issue immediately!