I can upgrade the shelter

Chen Xin is not one to procrastinate; he and Qin Lan went straight from the train station to the "Drilling Expert’s" home, intending to ask him for help in drilling a deep geothermal well to construct an Energy Tower.

The "Drilling Expert’s" home is located at the foot of a mountain in the suburbs, and due to its location, the snow here is not that deep and has been cleared, allowing Chen Xin to see that this place was originally a courtyard akin to a small factory.

The courtyard and factory seem abandoned, but the snow has been cleared to allow Chen Xin and Qin Lan to enter from outside and see the clearly added protective gate in the courtyard.

Behind the protective gate might be the "Drilling Expert’s" shelter; it appears that, like Chen Xin, he opted to dig a living space into the mountain, effectively utilizing the mountain as a protective layer for the shelter.

Chen Xin and Qin Lan contacted the "Drilling Expert" via radio in their Power Armor, and soon he opened the protective gate, appearing before Chen Xin and Qin Lan.

"Been a long time, ’Expert,’" Chen Xin greeted the "Drilling Expert" while scrutinizing this friend he hadn’t seen for about a year.

The "Drilling Expert" is a middle-aged man nearing forty. In Chen Xin’s memory, he was initially a very prosperous person who maintained himself well, although he worked on sites like a foreman, he was always cheerful and warm, like an elder brother in the survival group.

However, the "Drilling Expert" now looked much thinner and noticeably aged, his once-black hair now graying at the temples. Clearly, the past year and more had placed many pressures on him to cause such a change.

Nonetheless, the "Drilling Expert’s" cheerfulness and warmth hadn’t changed; he eagerly greeted Chen Xin, saying, "It’s the writer! It’s been ages, welcome, welcome! What brings you here? Come, hurry inside to sit!"

With that, he welcomed Chen Xin and Qin Lan into his shelter.

Although similar to Chen Xin’s shelter, both being spaces dug into the mountain, the "Drilling Expert’s" place is a bit different—he didn’t dig a tunnel like Chen Xin, but directly dug the shelter along the mountain wall.

While this slightly reduced the protective capability, the construction difficulty was much less and the cost relatively lower, making it a more economical and practical method.

After Chen Xin and Qin Lan entered the shelter and sat down, Chen Xin finally stated his purpose: "’Expert,’ do you still have your drilling equipment? I need you to drill a deep well."

"A deep well? How deep do you want it drilled?" When talking about his area of expertise, the "Drilling Expert" showed the confidence fitting his name: "My drilling equipment is still here. With some maintenance, it can start work. I’m not boasting; my drill can easily handle hundreds of meters. How deep do you want? Three hundred or five hundred?"

Hearing the "Drilling Expert" say so, Chen Xin shook his head, smiled, and said, "Not three hundred or five hundred, but three thousand. I want to drill a well three thousand meters deep."

"Three thousand meters?! You aren’t kidding, are you, writer?" Hearing Chen Xin’s request for a well three thousand meters deep, even self-proclaimed "Expert" couldn’t help but shake his head: "A well of three hundred to five hundred meters; I can drill easily, but three thousand meters... that’s really not doable."

Seeing the "Drilling Expert" say it’s not doable, Chen Xin wasn’t surprised, instead earnestly asking him, "Why do you think it’s not doable? Is it due to your drilling machine or your expertise?"

"Both. I’ve never drilled a well that deep, and my drill can’t handle it either," the "Drilling Expert" shook his head helplessly and gave Chen Xin a deep look, finding his request quite unreasonable.

However, despite this, the "Drilling Expert" still explained to Chen Xin: "Although I call myself ’Drilling Expert,’ I’m really just someone who helps drill wells; you know the Xiang Province here—if you drill down fifty meters and find no water, it’s considered a dry area. The few deep wells drilled before were on the mountain, owing to the thick soil layers, we drilled a few wells of hundreds of meters."

But now you ask me to drill a well three thousand meters deep, not to mention my machine’s maximum drilling depth is only one thousand meters, and the issues that could arise at such depth—I have no experience with them!

Drilling isn’t like other things; if drilling straight down hits rock layers, that’s manageable. But if we hit a water layer or magma, this well could be wasted."

The "Drilling Expert’s" real name is Cao Daren, which is why he gave himself such a nickname, and due to the one-letter similarity with ’Tiger of the Major Crimes Unit,’ he prefers others to call him by his nickname.

Even though he dubbed himself "Drilling Expert," Cao Daren is very self-aware; drilling isn’t like drilling other things. As long as the drill bit is hard enough and the rod is long enough, any depth can be reached, but various problems can arise that aren’t solvable just by using hard drills.

Blowouts, overflow, stuck drills, well leakage, well collapse... Since he started in this industry at the age of twenty and within those ten-plus years, Cao Daren has encountered various issues. He knows deeply that every meter the drill advances underground increases the chances of problems.

A well three thousand meters deep isn’t something that can be drilled easily.

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After listening to Cao Daren’s points, Chen Xin considered them for a while before saying to Cao Daren: "If I can help you with the drilling machine issue, can you attempt to drill a well three thousand meters deep?"

"It’s not just the machine issue; I’ve never drilled a well so deep before!" Cao Daren responded with a bitter smile, not unwilling to help but truly aware of the dangers a well three thousand meters deep could pose.

However, faced with Chen Xin’s gaze, he still pondered before replying: "If you, the writer, can get me a professional deep well drilling machine, I might give it a try. But I can’t guarantee reaching that depth, and I can’t do it alone, you’ll need to find me some helpers."

Upon hearing Cao Daren say this, Chen Xin knowingly nodded, realizing—as he had anticipated—that directly drilling a deep well to reach the deep layers to extract geothermal heat isn’t feasible.

For now, the most appropriate approach seems to be drilling a shallower geothermal well first, establishing the Energy Tower, and then enhancing the well depth by upgrading the Energy Tower, thus extracting deeper geothermal resources.