Chapter 139: Growth of Blue Sea’s Military Strength
At 7:30 in the morning, Zhang Xiongyuan, an agricultural expert from Velvet Star, arrived at the Institute of Science and Technology.
As an elderly man with a combat power of only 3, he was extremely particular about maintaining his health. His daily routine basically consisted of traveling between the research institute and the residential complex.
Zhang Xiongyuan only ever took the bus routes he was familiar with and only walked along roads he frequently used. He never tried new foods, fearing that one day he might accidentally trip or choke on a mouthful of water and end up returning straight to the embrace of his God.
Ever since arriving in this world, Blue Sea had moved most of its research departments into this enormous, newly constructed, pure-white enclosed building in order to better disguise itself as a [Company]. The department Zhang Xiongyuan was responsible for had been moved here as well.
This forced him to rearrange his schedule. He had originally gotten up at six every morning, but now he could sleep until seven because he lived directly in the employee dormitory of the new Institute of Science and Technology.
Wake up at seven, wash up and get himself ready, then walk from the dormitory to the institute cafeteria at 7:30 and start work precisely at eight.
Perfect!
At this moment, Zhang Xiongyuan happened to run into one of his subordinates at the entrance. The two of them simply headed toward the Agricultural College’s branch cafeteria together while discussing the day’s work.
“The substrate ratio in Experimental Field Five needs to be adjusted a little more. Let’s add three portions of modified carbon and see if we can stabilize the pH…”
“Experimental Field Three is showing very good results. It might be because we added modified zeolite. We can continue investigating in that direction.”
The stretch of the Broken River Wasteland occupied by Blue Sea contained vast expanses of land.
Mixed into this soil were small amounts of radiation and accumulated metals, along with various strange chemical toxins that had somehow settled there who knew how many years ago. All of this made it extremely difficult to grow crops. Sometimes, they could even manage to grow crops that were so heavily contaminated that they were completely inedible even after reaching maturity.
But as the saying went, this was pollution.
And as long as something was pollution, there were always various methods that could be used to remove it.
Pollution was merely a matter of elements becoming spatially misaligned. Zhang Xiongyuan and the others’ job was to manually readjust the distribution of those elements, select the harmless ones from the wasteland, and reconfigure the soil into a layer suitable for cultivation.
So far, they had made fairly good progress. Although they still couldn’t turn the wasteland into fertile farmland, at the very least, the fields treated by the Agricultural College were producing yields three times higher per mu than the original wasteland.
Their next goal was to increase that to five times, or even six or seven times.
Zhang Xiongyuan’s body might only have a combat power of 3, but his brain was remarkably durable. After finishing his meal with his subordinate, he put on his work clothes, intending to begin the day’s work in high spirits.
However, the moment he entered the tiered experimental fields, he found that a group of people weren’t starting work as they normally did. Instead, they were all crowded around the window, looking down.
Zhang Xiongyuan: ?
Slacking off at work?
This was a first.
If Blue Sea residents were running small businesses of their own or working for private companies, they might indeed slack off and slacken their efforts from time to time.
But once they worked for the government—or rather, for the entire civilization—not a single Blue Sea resident would be lazy.
Their God had not issued any divine revelation, but they all understood it in their hearts: paving the way for all of Blue Sea was what their God desired.
So it was common to see that when a researcher from the Inner City failed to produce results, no one—from their superiors to their subordinates—would blame them.
Even the person themselves could confidently thump their chest and declare:
—If I couldn’t do it, that’s because I wasn’t capable enough, not because I didn’t work hard enough.
At first, Zhang Xiongyuan was a little unused to this work environment where everyone was genuinely dedicated to their jobs.
But after spending more time in it, he had to admit—
This kind of work environment was really comfortable!
Anything he assigned would be completed by each team on schedule.
And whenever someone achieved a breakthrough, the rewards from above would practically arrive the same day.
If someone felt unwell or wanted to take leave for some reason, their request would almost always be approved instantly.
So comfortable!!
Therefore, seeing everyone—who was normally so diligent—doing something other than working for once, Zhang Xiongyuan couldn’t help becoming curious as well. He walked over and, imitating the others, rose onto his tiptoes to look through the glass.
The newly constructed, enormous Institute of Science and Technology had originally been built so that the Moon Silk people wouldn’t discover the truth about the Safe City if they entered.
As a result, there was no glass at all in the public areas. Only places like the Agricultural College’s branch, which needed natural light as a point of contrast and was occupied entirely by their own people, had large panes of glass.
At this moment, Zhang Xiongyuan looked through one of those large windows and saw the scene outside.
“Whoa!”
The elderly man with a combat power of 3 let out a quiet gasp.
Outside the Institute of Science and Technology, one giant vehicle after another had assembled. Large numbers of Blue Sea soldiers, completely covered from head to toe and wearing helmets that concealed every trace of their identities, were lining up to board the vehicles.
Parked beside them were rows of cruise motorcycles that had been carefully modified in the style of Moon Silk Star, giving them a distinctly post-apocalyptic look. On either side of the front crash bars of each motorcycle, a Moon Silk Star cut-down fusion rifle was mounted.
A long alloy spear was strapped to the rear seat, while beneath the spear lay a thickened machete.
My, how things have changed in just a few days.
The last time he’d seen the cruise motorcycles, they had looked completely ordinary. Now, they had been transformed into something that practically screamed, Put someone on one of these and they can ride around hacking through enemies like chopping vegetables.
Above the formation were the Blue Sea people with four wings, already arranged in formation.
And above their heads were three large military aircraft that were clearly different from the ones they’d had before. Their wings were loaded with grenade launchers, packed one after another beneath them. Their overall lines were sleek and streamlined, immediately giving off the impression that they had been designed for highly efficient combat on Moon Silk Star.
Zhang Xiongyuan’s gaze instantly locked onto those aircraft.
In a peaceful society, plenty of people might not have much interest in military hardware.
But in the apocalypse, when you saw your own civilization possessing equipment this formidable, regardless of who you were or how old you were, you couldn’t help but stop and take a few looks.
He didn’t just watch. He couldn’t help asking:
“Those are the new fighter aircraft modified by the Aerospace Industry Department, right?”
Everyone’s attention was fixed outside, and no one even turned around to see who had asked. A young man simply answered,
“Yep. Those are the ones.”
They had already heard that the Aerospace Industry Department had acquired an abandoned airship and joined forces with the Shipbuilding Department, using whatever usable components they had obtained to modify several fighter aircraft.
They hadn’t expected the modified fighters to be ready for missions so soon.
Zhang Xiongyuan couldn’t help sighing with emotion as well. He couldn’t help feeling a little regretful that he was already old. Something like going on missions aboard a fighter aircraft was something he’d never have the chance to experience.
—Though even if he weren’t this old, with his combat power, he probably wouldn’t have had the chance anyway.
Zhang Xiongyuan watched the scene with undisguised envy. But as he watched, he suddenly felt that this combination of vehicles, soldiers, and fighter aircraft… looked strangely familiar.
His mind immediately returned to the time when he was still on Velvet Star, when he and his students had been trapped inside the university.
Back then, Blue Sea had used a configuration similar to this one to fight its way through the zombies, bringing him and his students all the way back to their base.
If Blue Sea’s military capabilities back then had been rated at 10…
Then its current military configuration could absolutely shoot straight up to 500.
Thinking about it this way, Zhang Xiongyuan couldn’t help feeling an overwhelming sense of pride at how much Blue Sea’s military strength had grown after passing through several worlds.
Ah, so much time had already passed in the blink of an eye.
Back then, Blue Sea had still needed people to physically push roads into place.
But now, if they returned to Velvet Star, Blue Sea’s residents could probably stand on top of the zombies and dance around—whether it was dancing or even pole dancing, with the zombies serving as the poles.
Zhang Xiongyuan watched the vehicles disappear into the distance with a nostalgic look in his eyes.
However, when he saw the enormous fighter aircraft flying behind them, its underside loaded with densely packed gun barrels, the corner of his eye couldn’t help twitching.
With that kind of firepower, they could probably blast a mountain apart, couldn’t they?
Just who were they going to rescue that was so difficult to save?
