Chapter 361 Sunda Ancient Land

The Java Sea, between Borneo and Java Island.

Deep beneath its surface, a massive underwater tunnel cut through the Java Sea, connecting Borneo and Java Island.

Li Qingye was inspecting the construction of the company's underwater bases in the area.

Wu Yebao, the manager of the Java Branch, stood beside him, presenting the entire project.

"Since the company acquired the various offshore oil and gas fields that were previously sold, we have now built eight large-scale underground city-bases in the Java Sea."

The holographic map before them was completely different from any standard map of Southeast Asia published by ordinary press.

Thanks to technological advancements, Homo Sapiens Company's internal definition of usable land included large swathes of shallow seas.

And so, Homo Sapiens Company in Southeast Asia had incorporated all the surrounding waters into its development plans.

The development of the Java Sea region was currently being handled by the Java Branch.

Li Qingye gazed at the circled area on the map: the Sunda Ancient Land. This was the shallow sea zone currently under development by Homo Sapiens Company.

The so-called Sunda Ancient Land refers to the landmass that appeared during the last ice age. Back then, a huge portion of the world's water was locked up in ice sheets, causing sea levels to recede.

The sea level at the time was 80 to 100 meters lower than it is today.

As a result, the Sunda Ancient Land was exposed, connecting it to the rest of Southeast Asia as a single landmass.

The entirety of the Sunda Ancient Land encompassed the Malay Peninsula, Sumatra Island, the Malacca Strait, Borneo, Java Island, the Java Sea, the waters around the Natuna Islands, and the waters around the Siam Bay (Siam Lake).

Its total area was approximately four million square kilometers.

Currently, 95% of the Sunda Ancient Land fell within Homo Sapiens Company's sphere of influence. The company was leveraging its technological superiority to secretly build cities hidden beneath the sea.

These cities were all built beneath several hundred meters of rock, with nearly a hundred meters of water above them, making their defenses even stronger than some land-based facilities.

After all, modern missiles couldn't penetrate several hundred meters of rock after having to first pass through nearly a hundred meters of water.

Water has a powerful decelerating effect on high-speed projectiles. Under normal circumstances, bunker-buster missiles are incapable of piercing the seabed rock layer, as their kinetic energy would have already been completely dissipated by the water.

Of course, Li Qingye was well aware that if war truly broke out, it would most likely devolve into a volley of nuclear strikes.

But seawater could also suppress the destructive force of a nuclear detonation. It was especially difficult for a nuclear strike to be effective in waters deeper than 1,000 meters.

America and the old Russkies had conducted all sorts of underwater nuclear tests in the past. Even the Big Ivan, a bomb rumored to be capable of shifting tectonic plates, couldn't destroy a target more than 3,000 meters below the sea's surface.

Li Qingye could already feel the surging undercurrents in the world. The rise of Homo Sapiens Company would inevitably lead to heavy losses for the other major powers.

Although the majority of the powerful figures pulling the strings behind the scenes were cowards who clung to life, humanity always had a way of producing a few "mutants."

If someone couldn't handle the blow and decided to try and take Homo Sapiens Company down with them, it was a definite possibility.

There were madmen everywhere.

Therefore, last October, Li Qingye had secretly convened a management meeting to discuss how to deal with other powers lashing out in desperation.

After much discussion, they had formulated a total of five plans.

They were the Ice Domain Plan, the Gui Palace Plan, the Ancient Land Plan, the Abyss Plan, and the Netherworld Plan.

The Ice Domain Plan was the Antarctica base.

The Gui Palace Plan was to construct a Moon Base and establish a permanent human presence on the Moon.

The supporting infrastructure for this plan currently consisted of five aerospace bases: the Hongsawaddy Branch's Hu Gang Aerospace City, the Luzon Branch's Cianlan Aerospace City, the Ceylon Branch Aerospace City, the Suez Branch's Harij Aerospace City, and the Mad Branch's Northern Aerospace City.

The underwater city in the Java Sea that Li Qingye was currently inspecting was part of the Ancient Land Plan.

"You've all worked hard."

Wu Yebao shook his head. "It's all for the company."

"Have the 'staircase cities' for this area been planned out?"

"We've planned a portion of them, but there aren't many. So far, we have only identified two suitable locations."

Li Qingye looked at the holographic map and immediately understood the Java Branch's difficulties.

Although the Javan Region had the Java Sea, which covered over 800,000 square kilometers, the sea itself was not suitable for building staircase cities. The reason was simple: the Java Sea was too shallow.

Staircase cities could not be built on the continental shelf. This was a safety precaution, as high-yield nuclear weapons could still cause significant damage in shallow seas.

The deep-sea area near the Java Branch, however, was in the Ceylon Ocean to the south. Moreover, Java Island's location on a tectonic plate boundary also made it unsuitable for constructing underground bases.

Therefore, their only option was to expand toward the Wangkasi Strait, in the direction of Sulawesi Island.

The staircase cities in the deep-sea zones were the core of the Ancient Land Plan, serving as special safe houses.

If war broke out in the outside world, people could quickly take the subway from the continental shelf cities and evacuate to the much safer deep-sea staircase cities.

Thus, the underwater cities of the Sunda Ancient Land had to be surrounded by enough staircase cities to temporarily accommodate hundreds of millions of employees.

Of course, Li Qingye had a very clear purpose for the staircase cities: they were to be safety shelters.

The staircase cities didn't need many residences or amenities, because the vast majority of employees who entered would be forced into hibernation inside life-support pods to reduce the base's resource consumption.

As a result, the staircase cities could be designed to be extremely compact. After all, people in hibernation didn't need to move, eat, or bathe; a space of a few square meters was all they required.

Each staircase city could shelter at least one million employees and sustain them in life-support pods for about three years.

The three-year limit was mainly due to the side effects of hibernation in the life-support pods.

Currently, hibernation was only guaranteed to be side-effect-free for up to three months. After about half a year, minor muscle atrophy and memory loss would begin to occur.

If it exceeded two years, the muscle atrophy would worsen, and individuals would lose 20-30% of their memories, along with suffering from aftereffects like memory confusion.

By the third year, the body would essentially reach its limit. If they weren't awakened and rehabilitated, their lives could be in danger.

Therefore, it was best to awaken someone from forced hibernation within three months.

As someone who frequently underwent hibernation himself, Li Qingye had a profound understanding of the technology.

But for the sake of survival and stability, this type of hibernation was also essential.

After all, if war broke out, all sorts of civilian infrastructure would be affected. Putting non-combat personnel into hibernation would reduce resource consumption, allowing the vast majority of resources to be concentrated on the military effort.

After inspecting the underground city-base, Li Qingye didn't linger. Instead, he took the subway to the eastern coast of Borneo.

The eastern coast of Borneo faced Sulawesi Island across the Wangkasi Strait.

Over a dozen staircase cities were planned for the seabed of the Wangkasi Strait. Two were already complete, and the others were under construction at a rapid pace.

However, Li Qingye hadn't come here to tour the staircase cities, as he had already inspected one on the floor of the Sulu Sea near the Luzon Islands.

This time, he came to eastern Borneo mainly to inspect the 9th Shipyard of the New Luzon Shipbuilding Group.

The shipyard had only been established last October and was primarily engaged in the manufacturing and R&D of special-purpose vessels.

The subway didn't connect directly to the shipyard, so Li Qingye got off in a nearby city and took a minibus to the facility.

The shipyard was situated on the side of a mountain peak. Some of its workshops were at the foot of the mountain, while others were built into the mountain itself.

Just as he walked into the shipyard, Li Qingye saw a familiar figure.