This Game Is Too Real
Chapter 669: That is a piece of "living" land!

Chapter 669: Chapter 669: That is a piece of "living" land!

Among the many institutions of the Alliance, the funding for scientific expedition teams is undoubtedly among the top ranks.

Not just because the institution takes on over thirty percent of the players’ tasks, but also because each time they pick up good stuff from the relics of the pre-war civilization, the tangible enhancement to the Alliance’s hard power is clear for all to see.

Shelter No. 404, browsing room on Floor B4.

Yin Fang was excitedly describing to Chu Guang the treasure he had salvaged from a heap of trash they had dragged back from the Bull and Horse spaceship.

"It’s a palm-sized fragment! When our researchers found it, it was stuck on a piece of space elevator’s carbon nanotube material, nearly slipped through the cracks."

"If my guess isn’t wrong, this thing should be a structural material from some kind of small or medium-sized spacecraft. What’s certain is, even during the Era of Prosperity, this was something quite advanced, a pity only such a small piece is left..."

"Since there’s no reference material, I took the liberty of naming it myself. What do you think of the term ’Ceramic-Steel?’ Currently, our laboratory has decoded its molecular structure and material makeup. We’ve been able to replicate it in the lab, though industrial production might still pose some difficulties."

As he spoke, Yin Fang used the holographic computer pen’s projected light beam to show Chu Guang the shape of the material and the data he had just collected.

Guessing that Chu Guang probably wouldn’t understand, Yin Fang deliberately used the most commonly produced armored steel of the Alliance and A3-grade aerospace aluminum for comparison.

With these reference points, the material’s properties became much clearer.

Its weight lay between armored steel and A3-grade aerospace aluminum, but its hardness surpassed both, while also exhibiting heat resistance and anti-oxidative properties that neither of the others had. Most astonishingly, its toughness and resistance to mechanical impact even surpassed that of general alloys!

If this material were to appear in the 21st century, it would likely be mistaken for something fallen off an alien spaceship.

After all, the chemical bond properties and crystal structure of ceramics inherently lack the independent "slip system," making them unable to resist deformation like metals.

Yet this Ceramic-Steel material retained the hardness of ceramics while displaying metal-like characteristics.

For the material science of the 21st century, not to mention the production process, even the most basic theoretical part was an unestablished enigma.

Even the Era of Prosperity, which could manipulate gravity, did not see widespread use of spacecraft applying this material. It was this rarity that fueled Yin Fang’s excitement.

Chu Guang didn’t expect to understand the material’s principles nor did he see the need to.

Technical matters were naturally for specialists to handle; he just needed to know this material’s uses, performance, and production costs.

After a brief overview of the material’s properties, Chu Guang immediately turned to Yin Fang and asked,

"What about using the processing center on Floor B7? Can it produce this stuff?"

Yin Fang cleared his throat slightly.

"When I spoke of laboratory preparation, I was referring to that processing center... otherwise, we could at best stop at analyzing the material’s properties."

Chu Guang laughed awkwardly.

"I see... Then if we use the equipment at the processing center for production, roughly how much output can we expect? Is there a chance we could apply it to our power armor or even tanks?"

Seeming to have anticipated Chu Guang’s question, Yin Fang made a helpless gesture and said,

"If we were to equip it on a small scale, I think there shouldn’t be a problem. Although this stuff was designed for spacecraft, it’s not limited to just that. As long as you can accept the cost, it wouldn’t be a problem not just for power armor and tanks, but even for exoskeletons."

Hearing Yin Fang’s answer, Chu Guang smiled and said,

"As long as it works well, the cost is no problem."

The Alliance currently lacks neither electricity nor minerals; how expensive could it possibly get?

Even more so, this part of the cost could be transferred onto the players.

For example, making the upgrade to ceramic steel armor a paid content!

Take the Alliance’s self-developed "Xiaguang" power armor for instance, which costs one million silver coins per unit. If players are willing to shell out an additional 500,000 silver coins for optional equipment, the armor’s breastplate can be upgraded to ceramic steel, increasing both damage resistance and durability by 50% each!

Of course, the specific increase has to be tested at the weapons testing range, but the general idea is there.

Watching Chu Guang, who had already begun planning how to apply the archaeological findings to the Alliance Army, Yin Fang cleared his throat and spoke.

"The ceramic steel armor is just one of the technologies we recovered from the Southern sea area. We’re currently considering how to design a more economical production process. You really don’t need to be so anxious. The technologies we’ve discovered are far more than just ceramic steel. In my estimation, we can at least retrieve ten Level D technologies that we don’t possess from this batch of ’junk’—and that’s a conservative estimate!"

"Not only that, but investigating the ruins of the coastal cities in the Brocade River Province can also help us reconstruct the lifestyle and production methods of people from the Era of Prosperity, experiences and knowledge beyond engineering. Many things are worthy of our reference, which will require ample time to reveal."

"...What I’m saying is, establishing an outpost at the Baiyue Strait was a stroke of genius, but what we’re doing now is not enough. We should increase our efforts to develop the Southern sea area, where there surely are many treasures still hidden that we haven’t discovered."

Pausing, Yin Fang continued to speak to Chu Guang.

"To support the work of relic excavation, I hope that you can allow our research team to set up an inspection station at Potato Harbor, so we can directly sort through the salvaged items and materials collected from the area... That way, we also save the precious capacity from bringing back a bunch of garbage, which would require us to sift for gold amidst the junk."

"That’s a good idea," Chu Guang nodded in approval. "Coincidentally, the residents of my refuge made the same suggestion, hoping that the research team could establish a branch at Potato Harbor to provide technical support to the local exploration teams and salvage ships."

For instance, having the Academy’s experts filter through targets worth exploring, making a priority list of exploration targets and striking off the list those targets that clearly lack value.

Previously, players in the area would haphazardly choose landmarks worth exploring based on experience, bringing back anything they found without regard to its usefulness.

Deploying some highly skilled researchers to the area to support the players’ exploration efforts could certainly increase the efficiency of relic-hunting and reduce the workload.

At the very least, it would prevent situations like mistaking toilet seat covers for welding rings and bringing them back.

After listening to Chu Guang, Yin Fang immediately nodded in agreement.

"No problem, I’ll select some personnel, and when they’re ready, it will be your responsibility to send them over."

Chu Guang smiled and said,

"Rest assured! Although we can’t provide you with a research ship like those of the Academy, arranging a research airship is definitely doable! You can leave whenever you’re ready—"

"And bring our people along too!"

Before Chu Guang could finish, the voice at the door urgently interrupted him.

Silver-haired Heya, like a gust of wind, blew through the open swing door, whirling in from the corridor outside the viewing room.

Looking towards the door, Yin Fang noticed the excited expression on Heya’s face and knew without guessing that this guy must have also found some significant clue.

Chu Guang lifted an eyebrow with interest, about to ask her what had happened, but as she sat down on the couch beside him, she eyed him eagerly and couldn’t wait to speak out.

"A major discovery! Based on the fungal strain samples brought back by the residents of your refuge from the north coast of Baiyue Strait, we compared them with samples collected from Brocade River Province and found 173 overlapping genes and 677 similar features... but that’s not the main point. We compared several key genes responsible for expressed traits, and now we can almost confirm, Brocade River Province is the origin of the Nago species!"

Hearing this, Yin Fang looked at her in shock and then frowned,

"Brocade River Province is the origin of Nago? Are you sure?"

Although Yin Fang wasn’t particularly skilled in the field of biology, the situation in Brocade River Province could be understood without an extensive knowledge of biology.

The wild growth of Nago assimilates all organic life into its puppets and forms a vast domain resembling a plague of horrifying fungi.

It exhibited many characteristics similar to the mutated slime fungus of Qingquan City, such as the release of "baozi," and the indiscriminate erosion of organisms, among others.

If Nago truly originated from Baiyue Province, then that place should have long since become a breeding ground for Nago’s reproduction. How could the Alliance possibly establish outposts and even settlements there?

What’s more, he hadn’t found any traces of Nago’s mycelium on those scraps recovered from Baiyue Province?!

Looking at the doubtful Yin Fang, Heya took a deep breath and nodded seriously.

"I’m almost one hundred percent certain... I know what you’re puzzled about, we’re just as confused as to why the rampantly expanding Nago in Brocade River Province behaves so unremarkably in the climatically more suitable Baiyue Province. But the fact is, as surprising as it sounds! What’s even more surprising came afterward when we immediately discovered while researching the genetic material of the primitive strains that the Nago Primitive Strain itself is a species formed by the natural hybridization of a Gaia slime fungus with an Earth fungus!"

"Formed under natural conditions?" Yin Fang’s eyebrows knitted together as he pinched his chin, deep in thought.

Heya nodded earnestly and continued.

"Previously, we speculated that Nago was a variety developed by the Torch Church after improving the local fungi using the gene bank obtained from the lair in Qingquan City. Now it seems our conclusion was incomplete. The most primitive Nago strain is a combination of a mutated slime fungus and an Earth fungus, and they simply replaced some of the genes artificially!"

This sounded somewhat convoluted. Chu Guang, who had been listening to the two of them discuss, tried to understand it in his own way.

In simple terms, the original Nago is the "child" of Gaia and Earth, carrying both the alien gene A and gene B provided by a type of Earth fungus.

Upon discovering Nago, the Torch Church realized that it could help them achieve their Heaven plan, so they improved it.

For instance, by artificially cultivating it, they inserted gene A1 obtained from the lair in Qingquan City into the original Nago strain’s A-B combination.

Now, the strains overflowing in Haiya Province and the southern part of Brocade River Province are the highly aggressive A-A1-B type, or even simply the A1-B type.

But then again...

What difference does it make?

Chu Guang slightly furrowed his brow, just about to voice the confusion in his heart. However, just as he was about to speak, a sudden flash of realization exploded in his mind.

The A gene!

Where did the original A gene come from?!

Seizing this detail, Chu Guang almost subconsciously blurted out.

"Is there a lair in Baiyue Province?!"

Or was there one before?!

No sooner had the words left his mouth than two pairs of eyes turned to look at him in unison.

"A lair in Baiyue Province... was there one before?" Yin Fang was momentarily stunned, but it only took a second for him to catch on, muttering to himself with a frown, "So that’s it..."

"Exactly! That’s the first inference we made from that specimen! There may be a lair of mutated slime fungus in Baiyue Province! And this could very likely be the reason why the survivors disappeared from that province!" Heya looked at Chu Guang in disbelief, her face expressing amazement, "I can’t believe it, you actually guessed it!"

Chu Guang rolled his eyes and leaned back on the sofa.

"Do I look that dumb? Just get to the point, where do you think this lair might be?"

"Right here!"

As she spoke, Heya took out a test tube filled with dark green liquid from her pocket and shook it in front of them.

Yin Fang was startled by her action and sprang up from the sofa.

Chu Guang wasn’t scared by her actions, but when he saw the test tube she was holding in her hand, he paused for two seconds before speaking.

"Right here... What do you mean?"

"It’s this thing in my hand! The extract of the Nago Primitive Fungus Strain! This is the Lair of the Baiyue Province!" Heya proudly curled her lips, her bright eyes filled with incredulity and fervor, "Those guys are simply geniuses!"

Trying to understand her disjointed speech, Chu Guang massaged his temples with a bit of a headache.

"Wait a second... Who are ’those guys’ you’re referring to?"

"Of course, the slime fungi!" Heya said excitedly, "Do you remember? The variants we’ve seen before, no matter the type, most are like the ones in the Qingquan City center or like Xiaoyu. They all share one characteristic: a Lair and a group of progeny entities, and all individuals share a single Consciousness Entity!"

Yin Fang swallowed hard.

"I know... And then?"

Heya continued to speak rapidly.

"The Lair of Baiyue Province is an exception! It neither chose to parasitize nor to engage in symbiosis or assimilation, but rather it became them!"

"...Became them?" Chu Guang’s pupils dilated slightly as he was vaguely guessing something.

Variants possess an incredibly strong ability to adapt to the environment, not only being able to flexibly change themselves to fit their surroundings but also adept at copying and learning from Earth’s native species.

Take the Qingquan City Lair, for instance.

That one had accumulated a vast amount of combat experience in fights with humans and had learned to power human armor using biomass energy.

And that’s not all—

It had also mimicked monsters and Claws of Death, powerful Variants of the Wasteland, spawning powerful, special progeny entities.

This is actually quite easy to understand.

The objects of mimicry for the Variants were never just humans or human civilization; their true imitations were of the ecological system itself.

And humans and their civilization are just parts of this system.

In most cases, humans wielding the tools of civilization can gain the upper hand in natural selection, even though some ridiculously strong Variants exist in the Wasteland.

Therefore, in most cases, the mimicry of humans by Variants is more prevalent, and they even infiltrate the levels of society and ultimately civilization.

However, Baiyue Province is an exception.

For whatever reason, the local survivors had all but disappeared, replaced by a rich variety of species and more intense natural selection.

So it was almost obvious—

As "colonizers," what the Variants would choose as their primary target for mimicry.

"That’s right!"

Heya looked at Chu Guang with piercing eyes, confirming his unspoken guess with a nod.

"Not just the Nago, but also the grass there, the trees, and the Variants in the woods... Every living thing in Baiyue Province is an extension of that Lair! They all carry genes from Gaia Planet!"

"I can’t confirm for the time being whether the Lair of Baiyue Province has a unified Consciousness Entity like the Lairs in other regions, but its progeny can no longer be referred to as progeny entities. They are separate species with independent consciousnesses!"

"It has completely become them; that land is truly ’alive’!"

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