I live in the Martian wilderness!

He walked through the equally cramped but fully functional airlock of the Skywatcher, opened the inner hatch, and finally sat in the spacious and bright cockpit.

"Xuan, release the docking lock with Candle Dragon One and release the [Sky Patrol]."

[Command confirmed. Docking ring unlocked... External charging port disconnected...]

"Click—"

A soft metallic sound of separation was heard as the Sky Patrol completely detached from the mothership, becoming a fully independent unit.

Meanwhile, the massive ramp of the No. 2 cargo bay of the Candle Dragon 1 had been slowly lowered, laying out a steel runway leading to the unknown on the red land of Mars.

The massive Mars rover, Skyrocket, was awakened and slowly drove down the ramp. This was the first time it had left its tracks on the red planet.

Six enormous, porous tires made of shape-memory alloy pressed two clear tracks into the plain covered with fine red dust.

Gu Yu piloted the Sky Patrol, a vessel worth eight billion, without the slightest excitement; his mind was solely focused on the mission.

Outside the panoramic porthole lies the unchanging vastness and desolation of the Utopia Plain.

The cockpit he was in was actually a safety core completely devoid of physical windows, encased in thick composite armor.

The panoramic window in front of him is actually a virtual display wall made up of countless flexible OLED screens seamlessly spliced ​​together.

It projects the images captured by dozens of cameras outside the vehicle in real time at a 1:1 scale, creating a 360-degree view without blind spots.

The ground was as flat as a red carpet, stretching all the way to the distant horizon where it met the distant sky.

Apart from a few huge craters in the distance, there were no landmarks in the field of vision that could serve as reference points.

At 10:17 a.m., after nearly half an hour of driving, Gu Yu arrived at the first candidate site, 4.3 kilometers away from the landing site of "Zhulong-1".

This is a vast expanse of black basalt, resembling a black ocean that solidified instantly millions of years ago.

"Mysterious, the vehicle is in autonomous driving mode. Activate the laser rangefinder to perform a 3D scan of the crack entrance."

"Command confirmed."

Two delicate mechanical arms protruding from the front of the vehicle, like the antennae of an insect, flexibly reach towards the edge of the crack.

The scanner on the armhead emitted invisible laser beams, capturing the entire shape data of the entrance within a minute.

"Scan complete, generating 3D model... Model generated."

Before Gu Yu's eyes appeared a three-dimensional model, accurate to the millimeter, composed of countless green data points.

[Conclusion: The crack exhibits an irregular shape, wider at the top and narrower at the bottom, with a compatibility of less than 40% with the command module. Furthermore, multiple unstable suspended rock masses exist within it. Rejected.]

"As expected, proceed to point two."

The Sky Surveyor restarted and traveled 6.5 kilometers eastward, arriving at Point 2, located at the edge of the radius.

The landscape here is completely different, consisting of layers upon layers of darker red rocks.

The mountain ridge is covered with holes and depressions sculpted by wind and sand over millions of years.

The second candidate site is a huge wind-eroded cave located on the leeward side of a ridge, with a perfectly semi-circular entrance, which looks very promising.

"Stop fifty meters from the cave entrance," Gu Yu ordered. "Activate the ground-penetrating radar and perform an intensity analysis of the internal structure of the cave and the surrounding mountains, scanning to a depth of one hundred meters."

[Radar scanning in progress...]

The ground-penetrating radar on the bottom of the Sky Survey vehicle began to operate at maximum power, and the invisible electromagnetic waves penetrated the ground surface, feeding back the underground scene layer by layer.

Before Gu Yu's eyes, the internal structure of the mountain was clearly presented in a manner similar to a CT scan.

[Warning: The cave and mountain are composed of highly porous sedimentary rock with numerous structural micro-fractures, resulting in insufficient overall strength. There is an unpredictable risk of collapse. Rejected.]

"Next." Gu Yu's tone remained calm.

Time was passing silently, and the countdown of sixty-six days hung over his head, each heartbeat causing it to drop a little further.

At 2:30 p.m., when the Sky Surveyor arrived at the last candidate point No. 3 on its way back to the Candle Dragon No. 1, the energy reserve of the Star Sea battery pack inside the vehicle was 96%.

The short journey, coupled with a few high-powered equipment operations, was almost negligible for this marathon runner.

But four hours of fruitless effort began to leave Gu Yu feeling somewhat weary.

This candidate site is an inconspicuous entrance to a collapsed lava pipe, almost half-buried in sand, only 7.2 kilometers from the landing site.

It is located in a rocky area, and if "Sky" hadn't discovered it from orbital images, Gu Yu might have missed it while driving by.

[Scan the entrance outline and perform a matching analysis.]

Gu Yu issued the same instructions as before, but this time he added, "At the same time, use ground-penetrating radar at full power to detect water ice signals within a 50-meter radius underground."

He didn't have high hopes. After two seemingly perfect candidate sites were rejected in succession, what surprises could such an inconspicuous earthen cave bring?

"Scan complete...Model comparison in progress..."

On the dial, the percentage of energy reserve seemed to stand still, slowly and relentlessly remaining at the 96% mark.

Gu Yu had already begun planning Plan B in his mind. If he found nothing today, he would have to expand the search area by half to twenty kilometers tomorrow, even if it meant taking on greater risks.

Just as he was about to order the return voyage, Xuanjian's voice suddenly rang in his mind, carrying an almost surprised tone.

[Match successful! Captain! The alignment of the tunnel entrance with the command module is 94.7%! The error is within a controllable construction range! The rock mass is basalt, with an extremely stable structure!]

Gu Yu clenched his fists to control his impulse. Before he could speak, Xuan Jian's next words struck him like a thunderbolt.

"Captain! Please look at the GPR profile from the ground-penetrating radar! At a depth of 18.2 to 22.5 meters below the pipe, a highly reflective layer completely different from the surrounding basalt layer has been detected!"

A colorized radar cross-section instantly appeared before Gu Yu's eyes. Beneath a yellow area representing rock, a thick blue dividing line appeared.

[Inverting the calculation of the dielectric constant of the reflective layer...]

[Calculation complete. The average dielectric constant of this material layer is 3.15, which perfectly matches the dielectric constant of 99.8% pure solid water ice in the database!]

[Preliminary assessment indicates it is a high-purity underground frozen lake, over four meters thick, with reserves potentially reaching tens of thousands of tons!]

On the holographic screen, a beautiful blue area representing water ice was clearly displayed, like an oasis in the desert!

Shelter, and water.

On this desolate planet, the two cornerstones of survival were found simultaneously in his backyard, less than ten kilometers away!

"Xuan, mark this place and name it... 'Land of Encounters'."