Because of Julian's outstanding performance, he was named an outstanding youth and went to other provinces and cities to give lectures.
The day after he left, he received a mysterious phone call.
As international competition intensifies, there is an urgent need to find Rare Earth Elements (REEs) deposits and break through foreign blockades.
Director Harris finally remembered me. "Liam, I remember you said earlier that you suspected there was rare earth under a certain mountain. I ordered you to take people there to explore and try to get the results in the shortest possible time."
"Julian has been putting you down these days, and I know you're feeling bad. You have to seize this opportunity. The budget is tight and needs to be cut back. If you can't produce results, I'm afraid..."
I understood what he was not saying. If I couldn't find the rare earth deposits this time, I would have to pack up and leave.
The destination is deep in the Shiwanda Mountains, where the environment is complex and filled with miasma.
The team members who were traveling with me complained one after another.
"If only Julian was here, he could just ask his Mountain God brother, and we wouldn't have to go through so much trouble to explore."
"That's right. Some people are incompetent themselves and want to make us suffer together!"
Without saying a word, I told everyone to pack up their equipment and head deeper into the mountains.
Maybe everyone believed in Julian's "The Midas Touch" so much that they were very lazy and just casually picked up a few daily clothes.
On the second day after we arrived deep in the mountains, someone suffered from hypothermia. I gave him my thickest clothes and led everyone to take him to the hospital.
But that teammate still couldn't make it and closed his eyes forever.
Director Harris came in person and ordered me to continue exploring for mineral deposits. He would properly handle the follow-up matters.
Although the remaining teammates had some resentment towards me, they took it seriously this time and accompanied me in the exploration in a down-to-earth manner.
We slept in the open air and worked non-stop for a whole month before finally discovering an ion-adsorption type ore 3,000 meters below the surface, a rare earth deposit that is a bottleneck for our development.
I wrote the exploration report overnight and couldn't wait to hold a video conference.
But when the video was connected, the screen showed a conference room full of expert leaders.
Julian stood at the front and talked.
"3,000 meters deep in the mountains, there are more than 470,000 tons of medium and heavy rare earths such as praseodymium, neodymium, dysprosium and terbium..."
After finishing his speech, he faced everyone with tears in his eyes as he felt guilty.
"I'm sorry. If I hadn't come back so late, I wouldn't have watched our teammates who fought side by side die."
Listening to his words, I felt the blood in my body freeze and my mind went blank.
Every word he reported was exactly the same as the report I typed out word for word.
I don't know how I hung up the video.
All I know is that at that moment all my teammates were furious.
"I told you to wait, Julian, but you insisted on coming to explore. Now look what happened. You've sacrificed a life in vain."
"Liam, you are so crazy for your own reputation! You tied us up here for a month. Do you know that my wife is giving birth and I can't be with her."
"I didn't even get to see my grandfather for the last time. It's all your fault!"
They hated me so much that when we returned to the door of our unit and saw the wreaths and the angry families of the deceased, they chose to remain silent and stand by.
"Bastard, give me back my son, give me back my son!"
"Why did you insist on taking my son into the mountains when we already have the help of the Mountain God?"
"Didn't you dream that my son came to claim your life?"
"You scum, why doesn't Mountain God take you away!"
