Chapter 300

Zhao Jianguo's pants pocket was still hot.

He stood on the light floor of the technology building, his fingers touching the component he had picked from an old device. It was neither metal nor plastic, its edges glowing with a faint blue Light Pattern. Just moments ago, when he entered, the thing had been still, but now it seemed to have been awakened by something.

The four characters "Go Home" on the wall had just vanished, when a transparent interface suddenly appeared in mid‑air, white background with black text reading: 【Check-in Successful, Reward: Global Positioning System (initial Permission)】.

"What the heck?" Zhao Jianguo muttered, pulling the component out and holding it up to his eye.

The blue light suddenly spread out, laying a spherical projection on the floor, with Earth's outline in the center, dozens of light points flashing on it, distributed in different places—some brighter, some dimmer, as if signal strength varied.

He reached out and tapped a point over Africa. The display jumped, revealing a subsurface structure diagram that showed the water layer's position. Just as he was about to look closer, the image jolted and several light points went out.

"What's going on?" he frowned.

No sooner had he spoken than footsteps sounded. The triplets followed Su Qing in through the side door, each clutching a bunch of small experimental bottles and jars.

"Dad, this room has set up a cultivation chamber for us!" Zhao Xing led the way, eyes shining, "Give me that hybrid rice you talked about—hurry!"

Zhao Chen walked behind, head down, watching the data stream appear on her wrist. "Air humidity automatically adjusted to sixty‑eight percent, carbon dioxide concentration stable—ideal for rapid plant growth." She recited it like a memorized line.

Zhao Yang said nothing, just pressed his palm against the wall. A few seconds later he lifted his head: "This building… is breathing."

Su Qing didn't go into the laboratory, but stood at the doorway watching the kids work. "Don't go overboard—I'll call you when it's Meal Ticket time." She turned to flip through the wall‑mounted auto‑generated storage cabinet, looking for something to hold water.

Zhao Jianguo pocketed the component and followed them into the experimental area.

The cultivation chamber was already active, its nutrient solution glowing faintly. Zhao Xing placed the rice seeds inside, Zhao Chen connected a thin wire to her temple, saying the emotional resonator could still be useful a bit, while Zhao Yang crouched nearby to record the numbers.

"The roots are starting to fork." Zhao Yang read the data on the screen, "Current fluctuations… a bit odd."

Zhao Chen stared at the main control screen: "It isn't just growing randomly; it's responding to some frequency."

"What frequency?" Zhao Jianguo asked.

"Water's." Zhao Xing suddenly looked up, "Can't you hear it? It's 'listening' for underground water—where there is water, it grows toward."

The screen popped up a new alert: 【Unauthorized sensing detected, positioning module overloaded】.

The alarm sounded, twice as loud as before.

The Earth projection shuddered violently, a black ripple spreading around the previously dark dots like ink dropped in water. Zhao Jianguo hastily pulled out the component and pressed it against the wall, trying to sever the connection.

The black pattern receded a bit but did not disappear completely.

"Cut the power!" he shouted.

Zhao Chen immediately unplugged the wire from her head, Zhao Xing shut off the cultivation chamber's power, and Zhao Yang flicked the main switch.

The alarm stopped.

The projection returned to calm, but the map now showed several red zones marked "signal shielding".

"Who did this?" Zhao Jianguo said quietly.

No one answered.

At that moment Su Qing entered carrying two cups of water, saw something was wrong, set the cups down, walked over to Zhao Chen and glanced at her notebook. "What did you three just do?" she asked, her tone not harsh but carrying a reminder.

"We were just planting rice." Zhao Xing protested, "It finds water on its own—how can that be our fault?"

"But it linked to the main system." Zhao Chen pointed at the log, "I only opened low‑frequency monitoring, and it ended up reverse‑connecting to the positioning network."

Zhao Yang leaned back in his chair, closed his eyes for a moment: "That black thing… isn't aimed at us. It's afraid we'll find water."

"Afraid?" Zhao Jianguo looked at him.

"Exactly." Zhao Yang opened his eyes, "It panicked, like a person suddenly having their wrist grabbed."

The room fell silent for a few seconds.

Zhao Jianguo felt the component in his pocket; its temperature had dropped a little, but it was still slightly warm.

"Fine." he said, "Then let's not look for it for now."

"Huh?" Zhao Xing exclaimed, "You just got a hint of discovery and you call it off?"

"Not calling it off." Zhao Jianguo looked at the three children, "It's just a different approach. You did well today, really well. But this isn't simple—someone doesn't want us to see the world clearly."

"Who doesn't want that?" Zhao Yang asked.

"I don't know." Zhao Jianguo shook his head, "But for now we're in this building with a system, tools, and your three brains. Let's take it slow."

Su Qing lightly patted Zhao Chen's shoulder: "Let's eat first. Your dad's right— the road must be taken step by step."

Zhao Xing said nothing with her mouth, but opened her notebook again and secretly copied the recent data. Zhao Chen sat back in her chair, pulled up the alarm log again, and enlarged the waveform diagram of the interference signal. Zhao Yang didn't move, merely placed his hand on the wall again, as if sensing something.

Zhao Jianguo stood before the projection, gazing at the red zones.

They were distributed across Africa, South America, and Central Asia—all severely arid regions.

He suddenly thought of something and said quietly, "If this rice can really find water… then it's not just about farming."

No one responded.

But Zhao Chen lifted her head and glanced at him.

On her screen, the waveform diagram was slowly changing. That black noise seemed to have acquired a rhythm, as if it were imitating their earlier signal.

"It's learning." she said.

Zhao Xing leaned over to look: "Learning what?"

"Learning how we connected." Zhao Chen traced a finger across the chart, "Next time we try, it probably won't be frightened off—it'll just intercept us directly."

Zhao Jianguo fell silent for a moment, then turned to Su Qing: "Take them to get something to eat. I'll stay here and have a look."

Su Qing nodded, pulling the two reluctant kids toward the door. Zhao Xing walked on, glancing back, muttering, "I'll just change one line of code…"

After the door closed, Zhao Jianguo took the component out and placed it in his palm.

The blue light glowed a bit brighter.

He spoke to the air: "System, can you lock the positioning function so it's only usable locally?"

The interface popped up: 【Area‑lock mode can be set, requires binding a biometric key】.

"How do we bind it?"

【It is recommended to use triplets' brainwave joint authentication】

He sighed.

He couldn't avoid the children.

Just as he was thinking, the part in his pocket suddenly vibrated.

He lowered his head to look, and a blue-light grid was seeping out from the surface, spreading along the floor, quietly connecting to the distant Main Control Console.

A new command was automatically input:

【Activate Water Source Resonance Simulation Program】

The Earth on the Projection lit up again; this time it didn't trigger an alarm. But the black lines at the edge of the red zone moved again, slowly contracting toward the center, as if surrounding something.

Zhao Jianguo reached out to try to break the connection, but found his action was a beat slow.

His fingers were still ten centimeters from the control panel, when a line of text popped up on the main screen:

"Found you."