Chapter 352 - 349: Why Not Create It With Your Own Hands...

Kom Ombo.

Inside the new employee dormitory area of the Gobi Desert New District.

Over five hundred temporary workers had already moved in. Although there were no large villas, based on the grand promises made by the team leaders, they all believed that as new hires, they weren't yet qualified for such benefits.

Especially as they watched the various infrastructures of the Gobi Desert New District improve day by day, they naturally didn't feel like the Homo Sapiens Company was trying to fool them.

About seven kilometers south of Kom Ombu City.

A highway extending from the Gobi Desert New District was rapidly pushing southwest.

Under the scorching sun, a dozen pieces of professional equipment were hard at work on the road construction site.

Since this area was all desert, gravel desert, and stone desert, large-scale construction could begin as soon as they received official approval from Egypt, with no need to negotiate land acquisition with the locals.

Casue, driving a large tracked bulldozer, flattened a small sand dune ahead. He then instructed Tis, a temporary worker in the passenger seat, teaching him how to quickly get familiar with operating the equipment.

On the cleared ground, another heavy-duty roller compacted the roadbed back and forth.

Not far behind, salt bricks transported from the Gobi Desert New District's mixed-salt processing plant were being laid on the roadbed one by one by forklifts. Each was a massive brick, 30 centimeters thick and 2 meters long by 2 meters wide.

A single row consisted of 10 large salt bricks, with a gap of 3 to 4 centimeters left between each one.

But after 10 rows were laid, a dozen temporary workers, led by a New Human team leader, quickly installed a row of 40-centimeter-high iron plates at the front.

A mixer truck and a pouring vehicle cast a special type of cement onto the surface of the salt bricks, quickly forming a layer of gray slurry.

This was an organic cement formed by mixing 85% sand, 10% calcium oxide powder, and 5% nutrient paste with seawater.

The main feature of this cement was that it didn't require many raw materials. The sand could be sourced locally, and if sand wasn't available, small stones or shale could be used instead.

All it needed was nutrient paste, calcium oxide, and silicon bacteria, which greatly reduced the amount of transported materials.

To construct a building of the same volume, the ratio of material required for ordinary cement, Coral Cement, and this organic cement was 10 to 8.2 to 1.5, respectively.

In other words, for a construction project of the same scale, using organic cement as the raw material could reduce the input of industrial building materials by about 85%.

A 3-centimeter-thick layer of slurry quickly formed on the surface of the salt bricks where the organic cement was poured. Because each salt brick was propped up on four ordinary bricks, there was also a 3-centimeter gap at the bottom.

The organic cement slurry therefore enveloped the salt bricks. The slurry, containing silicon bacteria, rapidly consumed the nutrient paste, secreting large amounts of calcium carbonate and silicates, which then bonded the surrounding sand together.

This bond was not the simple adhesion of ordinary cement, but a bond at the molecular level, transforming the sand into a single, solid rock slab.

The role of the salt bricks in this process was simply to act as a filler and internal support structure.

Although the annual precipitation in the Sahara Desert is only around 20 to 150 millimeters, the occasional downpour could indeed dissolve some of the salt bricks, hence the need for a protective layer.

The shell formed by the organic cement, however, had excellent strength and wear resistance.

The silicon bacteria needed about five hours to consume all the nutrients in the slurry. Once the nutrients were gone, the sand in the slurry would be completely bonded, and the silicon bacteria, their job done, would activate their self-dissolution mechanism and disappear.

After eight hours of hard work, they had laid 1,200 meters of simple highway.

The sun sank in the west. In the distance, on the Nile River, numerous boats sailed toward the horizon in the afterglow of sunset.

Although work on the site had stopped for the day, the two hundred-plus members of the construction crew didn't return to the Gobi Desert New District, resting on-site instead.

Parked beside the construction site were 60 large living-support vehicles.

These included 25 dormitory vehicles, 10 refrigerated storage vehicles, 5 ambient-temperature supply vehicles, 5 methane storage vehicles, 5 freshwater storage vehicles, 2 kitchen vehicles, 2 shower vehicles (with water recycling systems), 2 toilet vehicles, 1 communications vehicle, 1 medical vehicle, 1 power generation vehicle, and 1 office equipment vehicle.

Casue led his team back to the camp.

He brought his nine temporary workers onto the team's dedicated dormitory vehicle. "Everyone, go shower first. We'll eat together after."

"Okay."

They opened their lockers, took out their personally numbered clothes, and headed for the shower vehicles.

People were already bathing in the two shower vehicles. These custom-built vehicles resembled double-decker buses, with six individual shower stalls and one laundry room on the upper level.

Some people chose to eat first instead of showering, so there were only about twenty-odd people in line.

Casue sat on a small stool and opened a cold bottle of Coke. The higher elevation here offered a view of the distant Kom Ombu City and the Nile River.

The crimson sun was already more than halfway below the horizon.

"Captain Casue, will the company really give us houses?" Tis asked, gazing at the last rays of the fading sunset.

"Tis, what's that over there?"

Following Casue's finger, Tis looked. "Where? Isn't that just Kom Ombo?"

Casue took a sip of Coke. "Do you know why the company is investing in building the Gobi Desert New District?"

"Why?" Tis scratched the stubble on his jaw, confused.

"Because we are going to build a new world."

A flicker of confusion crossed Tis's eyes. "Build a new world? What does that have to do with getting houses?"

"You're very confused? Then why aren't you confused about your old life? Why aren't you confused about the kind of life you'll live in the future?"

Completely bewildered, Tis quickly took a swig of Coke to get some sugar.

Casue's gaze was profound as he looked at the distant city. "Kom Ombo is a city of the old era. The Gobi Desert New District is the new world. You shouldn't be asking when you'll be given a house, but rather, you should be creating all of this with your own hands."

Tis couldn't quite wrap his head around it. "But aren't we building a highway right now? Where would we find the time to build houses?"

"Why do you think like that? You should see yourself as part of the company. You're building the highway, while other people are building houses, producing daily necessities, and growing crops. We are all one entity. As long as you work hard at your own job, you will naturally get everything."

Tis mulled over Casue's words.

Casue smiled and continued, "This is why we're building a new district. The red tape of the old world only gets in the way of building our new world."

"But..." Tis started to object, then stopped.

Because he suddenly realized his old life had indeed been constrained by all sorts of rules and regulations. And those constraints hadn't brought him wealth; on the contrary, they had made his life quite difficult.

The others also grew pensive.

If those rules and regulations couldn't bring development and a better life, then they themselves were a mistake.

'Why else would our lives be so hard?'

Tis struggled internally for a moment. "But can the company really give us a good life?"

"It's perfectly normal for you to have doubts and worries. But right now, you should choose to believe in the company. Give it your all, and see if the company makes good on its promises."

Beneath Casue's calm exterior was a heart filled with fanatical confidence.

Confidence and fanaticism were the defining traits of them, the New Human employees.