The old man nodded, agreeing with his nephews judgment.

The circle of rocks didnt look quite right at first glance, and it was strange that the young mans tracks disappeared here.

It cant be a special secret base, can it.

The old mans curiosity was increasing.

Some idlers were like this. When they saw something strange, something they didnt quite understand, they would try to figure out what was going on.

Otherwise, it would feel uncomfortable like an itch they couldnt scratch.

The middle-aged man first installed the hidden camera, and then picked up a stone on the ground, hitting the rock wall hard. After hitting it for a while, many fragments broke off of the stone in his hands, and there wasnt even a scratch on the rock mass.

Its so hard. Finally, the middle-aged man pulled out his phone and took a picture of the rock mass. I know a friend who studies geology, Ill have him see what it is.

The old man agreed and said, Its getting interesting. That kid must be keeping a secret.

I think so too. The middle-aged man scratched his head. And the potted plants Uncle, you said he brought a lot of potted plants over, but I didnt see any of them.

Could it be behind this stone door? The old man pointed to the front of himself.

The middle-aged mans eyes glowed. That kid dug a cave out here, and then brought a lot of potted plants in-is it used to convert oxygen? Then where would the light come from? Converted from electricity? And where does electricity come from?

Some people had a wild imagination and it just happened to be quite reasonable.

The old man shook his head. Not sure, maybe theres another use for it. Now that the cameras are installed, lets go.

Okay. The middle-aged man held out his phone. Ill send the picture to a friend and let you know when I hear something, Uncle.

Sorry to trouble you.

Thats fine, I was rather curious anyway.

The two left the area.

For the next few days, Roland was either getting intimate with Andonara or learning etiquette in the game.

And in reality, after buying the flat, he hired someone to decorate it and purchase furniture.

Since the place was intended to be used as a teleportation point, the decoration and furniture were only used to spruce up the place.

It was as simple as possible and only cost him about ten thousand yuan. The simple renovation didnt take much time, but even so, it took Roland nearly twenty days.

At this point, the older man and his nephew, once again, came to the rock formation. There was an additional fellow with them.

He was a svelte, thin, middle-aged man wearing glasses.

This man was a friend of the fat middle-aged man, a geology expert.

Geology isnt for studying rocks. Studying rocks is just a skill we have. The pictures you showed me dont look like anything valuable, the middle-aged man with glasses explained seriously. Like the mountains here in our little town, theres nothing left to study. Old Tai, let me tell you, its not for you ordinary people to say whether a stone circle is weird or not because you havent seen many weird rocks in geology, most of them are What the hell is this.

At this time, the middle-aged man with glasses also finally noticed that something was wrong.

The stone circle in front of him was too strange.

He went up and touched it: Well its smooth, not like its been weathered, but like a synthetic rock slab.

The old man asked next to him, What is a synthetic rock slab, and what is it for?

A building material, for the most part, brought to the local brick pavers. The man in glasses kept touching the rock mass in front of him. I just havent seen such a strange synthetic slab of stone.

The middle-aged man had retrieved his camera, and he asked, It looks synthetic to me too. Whats the difference between a normal synthetic rock slab and this?

The materials are relatively fixed. Synthetic rock slabs are made with only a few varieties of materials; I can tell just by touching them. The man with glasses said with an odd expression, But this is completely different. I need to take some back and study it.

Cant chisel it, its hard. The fat middle-aged man put his camera away and said, Why dont you bring a perforating machine next time.

That works! The man with glasses touched the rock circle, and some light rose in his eyes.

The old man laughed. If you figure something out in your research, tell us, okay? Little Tao.

Continuing to touch the rock body, the man with glasses gasped. He was curious but didnt care too much about it. He just wanted to know what material it was made of to synthesize it.

The three men left the mountain.

By the next day, the man with glasses took two students with a perforating machine, dug out a piece of rock as big as a fingernail, and then drove for three hours to the geological institute in the provincial capital.

He went to an acquaintance and had the slab that was as big as a fingernail sent directly to the examination room.

Then he sat and chatted with his old friend.

Haitao, I heard that youre doing geological research on ancient tombs of the Ming Dynasty in a small town in the south. Did you get this stuff from an ancient tomb? the old friend, who was already bald, asked with a smile.

No, its a very strange rock mass found on the mountain, said the svelte man with glasses. His real name was Zhao Haitao. We took two portable perforators up there at the time, the kind made in Germany, and it was only logical that the needles should be hard enough, but the needles of both perforators were brokenone snapped and one went crooked-before they dug out this bit of rock fragment.

Those who could work in the geological institute had a level of achievement, and the bald middle-aged froze when he heard this. That hard? Its not a special synthetic rock slab, right?

Zhao Haitao shrugged. Who knows! Lets see the test results.

The two then chatted for quite a while, and about two hours later, the results came in.

A certain researcher, with an odd look on his face, handed the two men data sheets, one for each of them.

After reading it, the two men were stunned.

Touching the top of his smooth head, the middle-aged man of the institute was completely baffled. Could it be a mistake! This is all a very common clay composition. How can it be compressed into a stone slab? And whats more outrageous is that this hardness is almost on the level of diamond; impact strength and fracture toughness are also high, and all together, this is close to the special tungsten-chromium alloy, right. The two German-made perforating machine needles are made of tungsten-chromium steel. If the data is combined, it is even harder than tungsten-chromium steel. Zhao Haitao took a deep breath. No, Old Huang, immediately dispatch a few people to go with me and get that rock back. This thing may change our understanding of materials. I understand. Ill go with you.

Two small cars, a bus, and a truck then headed directly for the small city where Roland lived.

It was supposed to be a three-hour drive, but they managed to rush there in two hours.

Then a bunch of people jumped off the bus and truck with tools and went up the mountain in great numbers. Under the leadership of Zhao Haitao, they found the rock body and dug out the two-meter-diameter, two-meter-long cylindrical rock.

It was only two meters long because Roland used this to seal the door, and the long passage at the back was all turned back into normal mud.

Several researchers with detectors also probed the mountain for a while and found nothing special. There were no metals detected, just what seemed to be a small hollow.

On the southern border, there were many underground caverns, and they were a hundred meters deep underground and had no impact on the environment, so no one paid attention to them.

Nearly thirty people surrounded this cylindrical rock body dug out from the mountain and struck it, every one of them amazed.

These geologists had seen many things.

But it was the first time they saw such a strange rock mass that was harder than special steels. This stuff is definitely synthetic.

Zhao Haitao circled this stone pillar a few times and concluded, It is difficult to form something so perfectly shaped and so strange. I just dont know if it was made by the ancients or by modern people.

Test it. The bald Old Huang patted the stone pillar. Such a big piece, its at least eight tons. Fortunately, we got a truck. Otherwise, it really couldnt be transported back.

Now Im wondering how we can get it down the mountain without tools. This thing is round-push it down the mountain? someone joked.

Do you want to get people killed? Zhao Haitao said angrily. This thing weighs nearly eight tons, and rolling it down, the potential energy converted to kinetic energy, with the ruggedness of the mountain, the speed can definitely break more than more than twenty meters per second. Not to mention touching people, theyll shatter on the spot-even a building would be penetrated.

The person who spoke smiled embarrassedly and said, I was just kidding.

You cant just joke around when youre doing research, Zhao Haitao grumbled. The other party wasnt his student or his subordinate, so he couldnt say much. Go ask the professional excavator to come over, get the stuff down the mountain, and then transport it back to the geology bureau and test it slowly. At nearly nine oclock in the evening, the cylindrical stone was finally brought back into the geology bureau.

Then a large group of researchers carried out various tests on it.

More astonishing data was laid out in front of them.

This thing is simply a miracle. Zhao Haitao covered his head. Its composition is the soil and minerals that are very common in our area. The composition is so varied that no matter how you look at it, it should just be a clump of dirt, but it is bonded into a rock. There seems to be a force that made it look like this.

Bald Old Huang brought two cups of coffee and placed one in front of Zhao Haitao. Drink first, I guess well be up all night today.

Has it been reported?

Its been reported Our boss (meaning the leader) called the higher-ups and explained the data. The people above were baffled and questioned whether we took the data of special steel by mistake. Speaking of this, Old Huang laughed. After the boss repeatedly assured that this is true, they said theyd immediately fly here overnight. I reckon theyll arrive in the hours of the early morning. Anyone who looks at this data will be baffled. Zhao Haitao took off his glasses and took a sip of coffee. I was originally just curious, but I didnt think that I would actually catch a big fish.

How did you find this thing? Old Huang was a little envious, regardless of whether the research afterward would have anything to do with Zhao Haitao or not.

An acquaintance said there was strange stuff for me to look at

Zhao Haitao suddenly remembered something and took this opportunity to call his friend. Old Tai, are you asleep? Didnt you tell me before that there was a young man who acted oddly, do you remember what that young man looked like?

I havent seen him, just my Uncle, and he was just curious, afraid that young man was doing something bad over there.

Zhao Haitao continued, I remember that you set up a hidden camera. Didnt you get a picture?

No, it seems he hasnt been to the mountains since I talked to Uncle that day.

Really, so you cant find him?

I remember Uncle saying that the young man seems to have bought a penthouse in one of the neighborhoods near the park. When the time comes, you can ask Uncle to take you to look for him and maybe youll run into him.

Okay, thanks.

After hanging up the phone, Zhao Haitao was a bit puzzled. I wonder if that young man has anything to do with this rock.

But he soon put it behind him and continued to study the rock.

Researchers had an inexplicable mania for such discoveries.

It always felt uncomfortable when they couldnt figure out what was going on.

For that reason they were willing to eat less and sleep less, just making sure that they had enough calories for thinking and that they wouldnt die.

But Zhao Haitao didnt study the rock for long before it was secretly sent to the general bureau of geology in the capital.

Without something to study, Zhao Haitao felt lost, and then he found his friend Tai Moumou who connected him to the nosy, curious old

man.

The two then spent three days staking out the neighborhood and finally saw Roland.

At this time, Roland was carrying some food towards his new house, and then in front of the entrance to the building, he was blocked by the two men.

As soon as Roland saw the old man, he started frowning, thinking how annoying it was that this man was chasing after him when he wasnt even going to the mountains anymore.

Looking at Rolands annoyed look, the old man smiled and said, Young man, its not me who is looking for you. Its this professor who is looking for you.

Zhao Haitao did have the title of professor.

As the old man spoke, Zhao Haitao was a little surprised as he surveyed Roland.

He had taught several classes of graduate students and knew a thing or two about young people. He had a feeling that this young man in front of him seemed to have a very unique aura that fascinated him, yet he didnt dare to get too close.

Roland turned his eyes to Zhao Haitao, his face full of suspicion.

Sorry, let me introduce myself. I am Zhao Haitao from the geology bureau of this city, and I heard from old Mr. Tai earlier that you seem to have something to do with a strange

rock?

What rocks? asked Roland, full of confusion.

His mental power was now so strong that it was easy to control his emotions.

This. Zhao Haitao took out his phone, opened the picture, and handed it over. Oh, this thing. Roland nodded. Ive seen it several times when I was playing in the mountains. Isnt it the decorations made by those workers who were contracted for the construction of the park?

Zhao Haitao kept his eyes on Rolands, and when he saw that the latter spoke with an even tone and a solid and direct gaze, he felt that Roland was probably telling the truth.

Sorry to bother you. Zhao Haitao put away his phone.

He then turned to leave. The old man felt a little unconvinced but followed.

Roland turned around and went into the building

On the way back, Zhao Haitao received a call from Old Huang: Haitao, something big has happened. The testing from above has come up with the result that the strength of that rock mass can replace deck plating!

What! Zhao Haitao, who was driving, hit the brakes abruptly, then immediately pulled over to the side of the road and shouted into the phone, There is no mistake, right.

No mistake. Orders have been given from above to search that mountain with all our efforts to see if we can find a second rock mass like that.