Chapter 84: Energy Technology
"You're a though!" 's eyes went wide.
[Nuclear power stations have an upper power limit too.] explained helplessly.
[To fully activate it, every other piece of equipment in the would have to be shut down. As things stand, there's no need for that.]
Actually, ever since the system had given him more and more black tech, had felt that this "home" of his was increasingly struggling to keep up.
Every single one was a power hog. If he hadn't built that dam earlier, he would have been drained dry by now.
[So, , I asked you here to see whether you could research the principles behind this thing and try to make a "budget version."]
[It's fine if the performance is somewhat worse, as long as the power consumption comes down.]
As he spoke, projected the basic design blueprints of the " " generator onto the screen in front of .
stared at it unblinkingly for a long while, his expression shifting from excitement to confusion, finally settling on bewilderment.
Then he shook his head. "No, I can't understand it at all. The technological gap in between is far too large. This is even more absurd than asking Newton to build a lithography machine. I... I need time, possibly a lot of time."
[That's all right, take your time. There's no hurry for now. You can let me know whenever you have a lead.]
After soothing the somewhat deflated , turned his attention to his .
His gaze landed on the tech line representing the "Energy Core."
Behind " (Lv.1)," an entire grayed-out branch stretched outward, lined with several unlit nodes:
[ ]: Costs 3000 . Unlocks and blueprint x1. Spherical fuel elements and helium cooling loops, improved inherent safety, can provide high-temperature process heat.
[ ]: Costs 3500 . Unlocks and blueprint x1. Liquid fuel circulation, thorium-uranium conversion and breeding, extremely low waste output.
Branching out from these two parallel nodes are:
[ ]: Costs 5000 . Unlocks and blueprint x1. Liquid sodium cooling, hardened neutron energy spectrum, enables uranium-plutonium breeding.
[ ]: Costs 5000 . Unlocks and blueprint x1. Liquid lead-bismuth cooling, strong natural circulation capability, extremely long core life.
[ ]: Costs 6500 . Unlocks and blueprint x1. Helium cooling paired with a fast neutron spectrum, combining safety and breeding ratio.
On the other side:
[ ]: Costs 7500 . Unlocks and blueprint x1. Combines the advantages of liquid fuel and fast neutrons, with the theoretically highest breeding ratio.
And all of these nodes ultimately connect to a single node—
[ ]: Costs 12000 . Unlocks and blueprint x1.
A fusion neutron source drives a subcritical fission blanket, achieving energy multiplication and transuranic element transmutation, theoretically raising the upper thermal power limit by dozens of times.
This long string of grayed-out nodes stirred 's heart with excitement, yet also brought him some helplessness.
Every step was a major advance in the energy field, but every step also meant a massive investment of .
And spending that money now wasn't worth it. High-temperature gas-cooled reactors and thorium-based molten salt reactors both seemed to be directions that already had a great deal of experimental data before the disaster.
Maybe one day, if the relevant research materials were recovered, the first few nodes would unlock automatically.
Besides, right now he was just living off existing stockpiles even when it came to uranium, let alone thorium ore. Even if he built a molten salt reactor, there'd be nothing to feed it.
He might as well wait. After all, apart from that generator, there was no power shortage yet.
***
, .
took off her goggles and wearily rubbed her brow.
On the holographic projection in front of her, several recordings were playing in a loop—the ancient noble's battle footage, 's mutation process, tissue sections of District's aberrant flesh, and the full record of the being parasitized.
In addition, data related to the "ancient noble" and the aberrant flesh of District scrolled past below.
[Any new findings?] 's voice sounded.
"Plenty of findings, but even more mysteries." pointed at the two sample data sets on the projection. "First, we can confirm that the red from and the red growing from District's flesh are indeed the same thing."
"They're both embryonic larvae of the 'ancient noble,' and they complete their parasitism after entering a living body."
"But interestingly, this red and the flesh sample from District seem to have an 'antagonistic' relationship."
[How so?] grew interested.
"The red is more like a metacercaria parasitizing the flesh tissue. That mutated flesh is only the first-generation ."
"It's the other creatures that swallow the red who are the final hosts, and only inside the latter do they begin to develop."
[So?]
"So why do they have such a particular fondness for humans—or rather, animals that haven't mutated?" turned around and looked toward the camera.
"Have you noticed that all those red share one interesting core trait—they attract normal living creatures to eat them, but don't attract any zombies or animals."
[Yet the case of the being parasitized is enough to show that they're not incapable of infecting mutants. Quite the opposite—after infecting a , they become even stronger.] reacted quickly.
"So could it be that what they actually need are vessels with diluted ' '?" 's gaze sharpened.
[That monster disguised as once mocked that ordinary people's ' ' had all but vanished. Are you suggesting he was actually lying?]
"Exactly! I suspect that to them, humans aren't the 'vessels' they despise, but extremely precious, high-quality containers."
"Don't people always do the same? They habitually belittle what they crave, as if that would make it cheap and easier to obtain."
[So, preferred to parasitize children, perhaps because children's ' ' is even more diluted? But what would be the point of that?]
's tone carried puzzlement. He recalled the words had once said: "They merely slept along with the gods."
That tone had clearly carried unwillingness, not as if it had been voluntary.
The laboratory fell into silence.
looked down at the " monitor" on her wrist. The number on the dial remained steadily at 0.
" ," she suddenly looked up at the camera again, "do you think those could still be influenced and mutated by higher-tier monsters?"
"If the 'concentration' of ' ' can determine the degree to which one is affected by that unknown radiation," her voice slowed, "then could there exist people whose ' ' has completely vanished?"
"People who wouldn't be activated into mutation even if bitten by a ?"
[I can't answer that question.] 's electronic voice was honest.
[And I think it's necessary to remind you that it's still unclear whether bites or the fog-zone radiation of special third-stage mutants 'activate' something inside you or 're-grant' you the factors of mutation.]
"True..." deflated at once and stretched her arms. "But if the collective mutation at the very beginning of the disaster truly originated from some kind of radiation..."
"Then... what exactly happened that day? Where in the world would that source be? And what kinds of monsters and demons would be there?"
"And what kind of radiation could cause such a large-scale, simultaneous collective mutation in such a short time? Could it really be the so-called..."
[I don't know.] cut off her speculation. [These questions currently cannot be verified. We don't even have any valid data from the day of the disaster.]
[And besides, I think that as a researcher, you should be a bit more rigorous. Even if there is some source, it's only a special pollution source—absolutely not some vague mystical thing like a deity. Don't be led astray by those monsters' self-aggrandizing remarks.]
"I understand. I'm just curious—does that initial radiation still exist now?" looked down at the monitor on her wrist again.
[Unfortunately, this is something I designed after analyzing the special environmental data. Technology like this couldn't have existed before the disaster, and I have no pre-disaster raw data to compare against.]
"What a pity. To figure everything out, it seems we still have to understand what this so-called ' ' and the radiation really are." shook her head and stood up.
But before walking out of the laboratory, she suddenly thought of something and said: "But what if that radiation only lasted for an instant—could some people have been lucky enough to avoid it?"
"Then those people who should have mutated but didn't—what would they be like now? Would the ' ' inside them become active again?"
[I don't know.] said honestly.
"Sigh! Maybe no such people exist at all." laughed self-deprecatingly and turned to leave. "Forget it, forget it. The celebration banquet is what matters! Otherwise I'll be nagged again."
***
In the south, .
Rain, unending.
It had never stopped since the day the disaster broke out.
It was as if a hole had been torn in the sky, and the gray rain curtain had become the eternal backdrop of this city.
Fortunately, today's rain was red.
thought to herself that this meant the zombies outside wouldn't be too agitated. It was a rare window to go out, a chance to safely scavenge for supplies.
She deftly swept the last pack of instant noodles and a few cans from the supermarket shelves into her backpack. The poorly stored vegetables and meat had long since rotted.
Now, the only things that could fill a stomach were these fine products of the food industry with their long shelf lives.
The water outside was getting deeper and deeper. Streets on low ground had been completely submerged, and all sorts of indescribable things floated on the reeking red water.
The days ahead would only get harder.
shook her head, flinging those thoughts out of her mind. Don't think too far ahead—just get by one day at a time.
As long as she held on, she would definitely be saved.
After giving herself that encouragement, the girl zipped her backpack shut and rose to leave.
But at that moment, from the wall ruins buried under rubble on one side of the supermarket, a that had been covered by debris suddenly burst out, its rotten claws lunging straight for her ankle!
's heart jolted. Almost instinctively, a ball of orange-red flame ignited from thin air in her palm.
Then it precisely enveloped the 's head, instantly burning it to charcoal.
But the next second, the girl's body suddenly went limp.
She slumped to the ground, her face deathly pale, both hands clutching her temples.
"Ugh—ahh—!"
The next moment, she let out a pained cry and collapsed completely to the floor, clutching her head and curling into a tight ball.
Every muscle in her body tensed in spasms, veins bulged from the side of her neck up to her temples, and her face twisted into something utterly ferocious.
Deep within the distant gray clouds, several structures like the tentacles of a colossal beast flickered through the cloud layer and vanished, as if some enormous creature had swept across the cloudtops.
The rain fell harder.