Chapter 1149 - 1137: Analysis (Part 3)

Chapter 1149: Chapter 1137: Analysis (Part 3)

Indeed, according to common sense, there’s absolutely no way Bluetooth can transmit over a distance of several kilometers.

But since it’s already been done in reality, Li Zhong believed there must be details they didn’t know.

After all, the world is big and full of skilled people; it wouldn’t be surprising if someone had mastered some special technology.

However, Li Zhong worked in scientific research; a rigorous attitude was a must for people like him.

So for Li Zhong, things had to be scientifically verified.

After carefully piecing together Tang Xiaoquan’s later answers and the relevant process, Li Zhong rubbed his chin and muttered, "Xiao Guo, you know, I thought about it, and that scoundrel’s method might actually be feasible."

"What!?" He suspected his ears were malfunctioning. It was one thing for that layman Tang Xiaoquan to spout some half-baked nonsense, but now his own elder brother Li Zhong was chiming in to back him up. That was really hard for Li Guo to accept: "Bro! I didn’t mishear you, did I? You’re saying that method is workable? You’re talking nonsense! Let me ask you, what kind of Bluetooth can support communication over several kilometers? If Bluetooth were that badass, why would we even bother with those base stations!?"

"Heh, Xiao Guo, don’t rush to a conclusion. Listen to my explanation first." Unhurried, Li Zhong looked fully confident.

Seeing that his elder brother didn’t seem to be joking, Li Guo took a couple of deep breaths, suppressed the restlessness in his heart, and forced himself to be patient: "Fine, go ahead. I’d like to hear this brilliant insight of yours."

"Well... cellphone communication base stations are necessary, that much is true."

"Yeah, exactly. Right now the problem is all the base stations everywhere have collapsed. Xiaotang just said that over in WH, there’s no signal on their phones. I’m not wrong, right, Xiaotang? That is what you said, isn’t it?"

"Yeah! That’s what I said." He hadn’t expected his question to spark a quarrel between the Li brothers, which made Tang Xiaoquan feel a bit awkward stuck in the middle.

But in order to get answers, he chose to keep listening.

"Look... the problem lies right here!"

With a meaningful line and a deliberately drawn-out tone, paired with just the right expression, Li Zhong instantly piqued the interest of both Guo and Quan.

"What problem? Bro, stop keeping us in suspense and get to the point."

"Heh." Li Zhong gave a calm smile and nodded. "When we think about a problem, we tend to rely on habitual thinking. The moment we mention ’base stations’, our subconscious reflex is to think of those towers set up by mobile companies, right? But don’t forget, as long as conditions allow, why can’t a cellphone itself serve as a base station?"

"A cellphone itself as a base station?" Turning Li Zhong’s words over carefully, Tang Xiaoquan was completely confused, not quite following, but Li Guo vaguely caught onto something.

"If my analysis is correct, this Bluetooth communication is essentially using phones as base station nodes for transmission. Normally, when we use Bluetooth to send messages, it’s just two phones talking to each other. The maximum range is within 10 meters. Now, imagine this: if you line up ten phones, spacing them 10 meters apart as nodes, what would the effect be?"

As soon as he heard this, Li Guo immediately understood: "You mean the Bluetooth transmission is basically a network formed by chaining together a bunch of phones?"

"Exactly! The Bluetooth range of a single phone is limited, but once you connect these points into a line and form a Bluetooth network, you can expand the signal without limit."

"That sounds right enough! But the problem is, how did the guy who built this network get his hands on so many phones, and what’s used to maintain and manage the relay platform?"

"That brings us back to the flyer that Quan mentioned earlier. Clearly, the person running this network realized the same problem you just raised, so he spread flyers widely throughout the city. And phones are everywhere. I believe anyone who saw the flyer would definitely want to use their phone to contact the official organization. That’s one of the ways this person expanded his Bluetooth network." Holding up one finger, Li Zhong went on:

"But a network can’t run relying solely on these individual nodes. You need a relay station to maintain and route the traffic so the signal stays smooth. So my guess is, besides mobilizing the Survivors in the city, he must have set up relay base stations in major buildings. That’s not hard either; he just needs to get some portable base stations or high-power Bluetooth equipment."

"Fake base stations!" As soon as he heard this, Tang Xiaoquan immediately thought of those scams frequently mentioned in past news reports.

Some criminals would use illegal channels to purchase fake base stations, then move around banks and other consumption venues. By blocking and impersonating official base stations, they’d send fake messages to users, tricking them into taking the bait and profiting off them.

If even Tang Xiaoquan could understand this, then Li Guo naturally grasped it even more clearly. After savoring his brother’s words and analysis, he nodded to himself. "Makes sense! Using Bluetooth as nodes, then pairing it with mobile portable base stations for conversion and support... Now I really want to meet the developer behind this. He’s a real genius!"

The technology itself wasn’t that difficult. If this had been in the past, no one would have felt it was anything special at all.

After all, there were too many ways to make a phone call; people had no reason to use such a cumbersome and unsafe communication method.

But in the current apocalypse, things were different. Things that used to be the simplest had now become incredibly troublesome.

So, after analyzing the reality of this Bluetooth network, the Li brothers were both genuinely impressed.

At this, Tang Xiaoquan twirled his hair between his fingers. "This person is no ordinary guy! But I think, to set up a network this big, there’s no way it was done by just one person, right?"

"In theory, one person could do it, but under current conditions... it’d be difficult. What, from the look of you, Quan, did you think of something else?"

It had to be said, after spending quite some time together, the Li brothers had gotten a much deeper read on Tang Xiaoquan.

Just from seeing him play with his hair, Li Zhong knew the other man must have made some new discovery.

"Heh." Grinning, Tang Xiaoquan felt a bit embarrassed at having his thoughts seen through. "I was just thinking about what kind of person would be so invested in building a project like this. If it’s purely for communication, hand-held radios are enough. Worst case, just set up a vehicle-mounted radio. Why go to all this trouble?"

"Yeah, that is a bit odd. But judging from the fact that they require registration to use it, it seems like the other side intends to organize and bring the city’s Survivors under one umbrella."

"Exactly!" Stopping what he was doing, Tang Xiaoquan tapped his finger on the table. "Li Zhong, you and I are on the same wavelength. I think building this network is probably just their first step. Next, they can use the information resources they control to contact the Survivors one by one. As long as they want to, they can easily gather the scattered Survivors together! Don’t you think so?"