"The deepest part of the Mariana Trench on Earth is only about eleven thousand meters deep, which translates to eleven kilometers," he mused. "If I were to dig through this tunnel, it would be akin to burrowing through seven Mariana Trenches. Just doing that simple calculation suddenly makes me feel even less motivated.
Besides the Mariana Trench located in the ocean, the deepest hole that humans have been able to dig is only about twelve thousand meters deep. What’s more, this hole was excavated during the time of the Former Soviet Union, and subsequent human endeavors have never reached deeper.
Now that I think about it, since the Spiritual Qi Recovery has already happened, might there be some bored Awakeners who’ve already dug through the Earth’s crust? Or maybe there are Awakeners with the ability to bore holes who, driven by scientific research, have been ordered by the Empire to dig through the crust?"
Thinking it over carefully, Zhang Yanhang felt that both possibilities were quite likely. After all, Awakeners, aside from hunting monsters in the Ashen World, were mostly idle most of the time.
Therefore, it would not be unusual for one or two out of the millions of Awakeners within the Empire to be idle, looking for something to do, or dreamers since childhood of penetrating the Earth’s surface.
Even those Awakeners who had read Verne’s "Journey to the Center of the Earth" might consider carving out a subterranean tunnel.
And following this line of thought, Awakeners who had read Da Liu’s "Earth Cannon" might similarly contemplate creating a straight passageway through Earth, to achieve point-to-point rapid movement and manufacturing of an actual Earth Cannon (a massive electromagnetic gun) that uses the Earth’s diameter as the acceleration range for ultra-long-range firing.
"But, after all, it is the Spiritual Qi Recovery Era, and even if the crust were truly dug through, it wouldn’t be very meaningful now. It’s not as if there are great treasures hidden underground left over from the last Spiritual Qi Recovery, right? Forget it, let’s not think about this. After all, even if the crust has been penetrated, it doesn’t have much to do with me.
So, I chose Option Two, to dig downward seventy-seven kilometers." Although seventy-seven kilometers was still an unimaginable number for an ordinary human, Zhang Yanhang was not too worried about failing the task. After all, once a choice was made, with the help of Multiple Choice, he was sure to complete the task.
However, because the option did not specify an exact time, there was still some uncertainty concerning time. It was possible that completing this tunnel would take up to a week. Yes, even though he hadn’t started digging yet, Zhang felt that he would need at most one week to finish the tunnel.
After making the selection, Zhang Yanhang checked his Energy Value and found that he hadn’t consumed much at all. "It seems that options simply providing direction aren’t really difficult tasks."
"Let’s start digging right away. I have roughly four days to spare for the excavation. Excluding time for sleep and rest, I have at least eighty hours to dig the tunnel."
Zhang Yanhang turned ninety degrees to his left, started his stopwatch, and immediately began to swing his fist with all his might against the Crimson Iron Ore Wall to his left. Thɪs chapter is updated by novel(ꜰ)ire.net
A series of explosions like bomb blasts echoed continuously as his fists hammered the wall at dozens of punches per second, creating a swath of cracks and shattered stones. Broken rocks and dust swirled into the air.
Chunks of Crimson Iron Ore constantly burst and ejected from the wall, most flying through the openings around his body and only a few hitting his skin. The impact, akin to bullet shots, could not even stir a ripple when confronted with the Energy Shield.
After a minute of continuous punching, Zhang Yanhang stopped his stopwatch and, using the Seeking Fortune and Avoiding Evil skill, inspected the distance he had covered. To his surprise, it was thirty meters. "The feeling isn’t bad. I can break through about half a meter per second, but that rate is still a bit too slow."
He did a quick calculation. If he could punch through half a meter of the wall every second, that meant he could only clear 1800 meters every hour. With the total depth of the tunnel being seventy-seven kilometers, it meant that even if he worked nonstop at this rate, it would take him a total of forty-three hours to complete the tunnel.
Not to mention that Zhang Yanhang couldn’t maintain his current rate of progress indefinitely. After all, if he were to dig a vertical shaft downward, the shattered pieces of Crimson Iron Ore wouldn’t scatter as they were now but would fall back in place after a brief rise due to gravitational potential energy.
This meant that after breaking a portion of the Crimson Iron Ore, Zhang Yanhang would first need to clear away that portion before he could continue digging further down, and this clearing task was, without doubt, more time-consuming than simply breaking the ore.
Even if Zhang Yanhang could pack these fragments into his Waist Bag, the bag had its limits and required packing things as a whole—he had to bundle up the debris before placing it in the bag. Otherwise, each piece of rubble would occupy an individual slot.
Additionally, because the tunnel needed to be dug vertically downwards, it would be impossible for Zhang Yanhang to swing his fists normally due to the structure of the human body when exerting force; it’s not as though he could handstand and punch at the same time, right?
Unable to fly or levitate in place, Zhang Yanhang had only two feasible ways to punch while handstanding: either balance himself with one hand on the ground while the other hand dug, which would more than halve his digging efficiency, or wedge himself with his legs against the tunnel walls to free both hands.
Using this latter method, while seemingly viable, would still result in decreased efficiency. After all, Zhang Yanhang wasn’t some climbing animal that could balance against the tunnel wall and make forward progress while rapidly punching—a task not easily accomplished.
Therefore, at this moment, Zhang Yanhang thought of a more practical method that would allow him to stand up while digging downward, which simply put, involved stamping his feet. He could shatter the ground by furiously stomping and thereby excavate the tunnel.
Well, one had to admit that this method wasn’t very feasible either.