The legend of Tiga

Chapter 2288 The Road to Breaking the Situation
What does it mean to linger on in a state of near-death experience?

They stay underground, living in sealed caves, and carry out oxygen, water, and carbon cycles to minimize external influences.

This is not a pipe dream; it is already a mature technology that has been successfully tested and applied on a large scale in space, on the moon, and on Mars.

Delta Force, Carlos Lunar Base, and Mars City are all examples of recycling various materials, with extremely low demand for external resources, enabling them to maintain self-sufficiency for a long time.

But
That's a scale of thousands, even tens of thousands of people.

But Earth has a population of 10 billion.

It has to process tens of billions of liters of circulating water and millions of tons of waste every day. The demand for oxygen circulation is in the trillions, not to mention all kinds of garbage generated in daily life. It's a mountain of waste every day.

This is an extremely large number, and an unimaginable amount of terrifying workload.

The bigger challenge is figuring out how much space to excavate and how many underground cities to build to accommodate so many people.

Even if the above difficulties are resolved, there is still a major problem to face: the monster.

Whether it's the Specia chimera or the monsters of Earth itself, their movements cause earthquakes and landslides. If they are affected so much when they are on the other side, the impact and destruction would be doubled if they were underground. How many times can the special ion membrane of a sealed city withstand the impact of a monster?
Furthermore, attacking monsters underground can create a more powerful shockwave than an impact on the surface. You might end up shattering your own side instead of killing the monster.

and also
Just thinking about it is full of problems, and each one is more difficult to solve than the last. This is just a concept in my mind before it even begins. When it is actually implemented, the difficulties encountered can be ten times, or even a hundred times, more than I had imagined.

Megumi looked up and said to Staff Officer Miyazawa, "At this rate, how much time do we have left?"

Staff Officer Miyazawa adjusted his glasses and said, "Based on current model calculations, at this rate of decline, oxygen concentrations will begin to decrease in less than a year. Animals will also begin to lack food due to insufficient energy supply from plants, and as for humans..."
In extreme cases, it could last for three to five years on the surface; however, detailed calculations by the mainframe computer are needed to determine the exact duration.

This is a summary of the research department's report. More detailed statistical analysis is needed to build a more comprehensive model and arrive at more accurate conclusions.

Now, we're just giving everyone a general overview of the situation so that everyone understands the seriousness of the matter.

In short, it boils down to two words: lack of oxygen and hunger!

However, these two problems are not insurmountable. For oxygen deficiency, there are atmospheric modification systems. The atmospheric modification systems deployed on Mars have proven to be sufficient to support sealed spaces for 100,000 people. As for hunger, apart from extreme methods such as artificially synthesizing carbon dioxide, there are also artificial greenhouses. The largest vertical farm on Mars has a total height of more than 30 floors, and each floor can accommodate five layers of cultivation racks. Therefore, under the same conditions, the planting area of ​​a vertical farm is more than 100 times that of traditional agriculture.

This method of growing massive amounts of food in a limited space is perfect for space colonization. After all, a space city is not like one on the surface of a planet; the area is bought with money, and every square meter is extremely precious. It is no exaggeration to describe it as priceless.

But as the saying goes, just because a problem can be solved doesn't mean it doesn't exist. Meeting the needs of 10 billion people is no simple matter. Besides, if possible, who would want to burrow underground and live like a rat in the dark, barely surviving?

After a long silence, someone finally spoke up: "We still need to break down the barrier."

Nobody bothered to see who said this correct but meaningless statement.

Everyone knows they need to break through the Sphia Barrier, but the key is how to do it.

We all witnessed the sturdiness of this thing last time. When Max Cannon and Tiga, along with hundreds of fighter jets from around the world attacked together, the firepower was enough to shatter even a city, but it failed to damage the Softia Barrier in the slightest.

So, if it could be broken, would we have waited until today?

They had already unleashed a barrage of artillery fire, shattering the barrier around Sphia.

Ultimately, the problem is insufficient firepower.

Seeing the somber atmosphere in the room, Director Fukami, seated at the head of the table, spoke up, asking, "How are the projects progressing?"

"Most are nearing completion, and those that are progressing rapidly are already in the testing phase and will be put into use soon," Chief of Staff Shiina said, turning his gaze to Chief of Staff Nagumo opposite him.

Chief of Staff Nagumo pretended not to see it and nodded, saying, "No problem, we can complete it on schedule."

"That's good." Director Fukami forced a smile and said with a grin, "Things aren't that bad, everyone doesn't need to worry so much."

“That’s right,” Chief of Staff Miyata continued, “Although the situation is critical, we still have enough time to deploy a response strategy. The situation is not that serious.”

Come to think of it, although human technology has not developed to the point of easily traversing galaxies, the power of the Max cannon is renowned throughout the universe and has been certified by the Mechanical Island. If all restrictions were lifted and all efforts were made to build it, hundreds of Max cannons could be produced in a few years. If we did not consider continuous use and only needed to fire one shot, the number could probably reach a thousand.

With so many Max cannons firing at once, let alone asteroids, even Earth would probably be blasted to smithereens, let alone the mere Sphia Barrier.

Thinking about it this way, it didn't seem so terrible after all. The atmosphere in the room immediately relaxed considerably, and the sounds of discussion gradually rose up.

Following this, each department took turns to speak and report on their progress at this stage:

The logistics department reviewed the status of material reserves and inspected and maintained shelters around the world. This was no simple task. After the 'Dark Ages', TPC attached great importance to the construction of shelters. When rebuilding cities, the requirements for underground facilities such as underground parking garages and subways were raised several times to make them reach the level of shelters, so that people could hide inside and live there for at least a month or even longer when they encountered a crisis.

However, people tend to forget things easily, especially after the 'Dark Ages' when the Earth was at peace for a long time. People gradually forgot about the crisis, and the importance they attached to the shelters naturally dropped several levels. They were not only ignored, but also treated as a mere formality.

Therefore, this inspection unsurprisingly uncovered shoddy construction projects and substandard projects, all concentrated in the last few years. It is clear that although technology has advanced and society has developed, humanity has retained an ancient 'tradition': once those in power loosen their grip, those below immediately begin to engage in fraud.

Fortunately, there is enough time and a chance to make up for these mistakes.

Next, we will report on our research on the Sphia virus and the cosmic bacteria Dali. We discovered the unique structure of these two new viruses and bacteria, which is unlike any virus or bacteria that humans have ever discovered before. This has broken people's understanding of bacteria and viruses and made people realize that there are bacteria outside of bacteria and toxins outside of toxins. Things from the universe are different.

The explanation given by relevant scientists is that "the universe is full of radiation. Stars, neutron stars, black holes and other objects are constantly releasing high-energy rays and strong radiation. Radiation can change cell structure, and viruses and bacteria are no exception. If they are exposed to radiation in the universe for a long time, it means that they are constantly mutating. Therefore, it is normal for these two types of viruses and bacteria from the universe to have such a structure."

Energy is the source of all things, including viruses and bacteria. On Earth, bacteria and viruses obtain energy by invading cells. However, in the universe, the vitality of viruses and bacteria is far more tenacious than that of cells, which means that bacteria and viruses may be able to survive in places where cells cannot.

However, without cells, bacteria and viruses would have no energy source. But the universe is filled with various rays and radiation, which contain endless energy. Life will find its own way to survive, so evolving the ability to absorb energy from rays and radiation is consistent with the theory of evolution.

After all, rays and radiation are essentially energy transmitted in the form of waves or particles in the space station. And the size of bacteria and viruses is indeed quite suitable for feeding on such extremely small objects as particles. And to eat, you need a mouth and a digestive system, so it's not unacceptable that the cosmic bacteria Dali turned into a little monster.

This conclusion is not just a guess by scientists, but is based on facts, namely the 'Eibron cells' extracted from meteorites by humans in the past.

The discovery of this substance shattered people's understanding of the cellular environment, confirming that cells can still survive and even develop 'monster-like' abilities in the vacuum of space, high-energy environments, and under strong radiation, which is simply unbelievable.

The discovery of the Sphia virus and the cosmic bacteria Dali fills a gap in biological understanding, proving that life is no longer limited to habitable planets and confirming that bacteria, viruses, and cells can survive and reproduce even in the harsh environment of space.

Life-bearing planets no longer seem so precious in the universe, or rather, people's definition of life-bearing planets only applies to human survival and should not be extended to all life in the universe, since humans cannot survive in high-energy and strong radiation environments.

Well, that's not necessarily true. Maybe it'll mutate?
On the other hand, if we remove the fear of the Sphia virus and the cosmic bacteria Dali and look at them with normal eyes, they are just new pathogens. This is not uncommon in history. There have been several global pandemics in the course of human development.

The reason why the Black Death, the Spanish flu, and many other pathogens were able to spread globally and cause massive deaths and injuries is that they were all new pathogens. The human immune system did not have the corresponding antibodies, so it was caught off guard. But once the immune system understood the new pathogens, it could easily defend against and kill them, turning these feared new pathogens into common fevers and colds.

The Sphia virus and the cosmic bacteria Dali are now new pathogens, the only special thing about them is that they come from outer space. The human body is even less adapted to them. The special drugs and antibodies developed by the medical department are to fight against them on behalf of the human immune system before the immune system remembers them.

According to the latest experiments, both the Sphia virus and the cosmic bacteria Dali have shown an assimilation ability that is different from that of previous Earth pathogens.

Previously, pathogens that appeared on Earth would invade the human body and then multiply through cell factories. However, the Kosfia virus and the cosmic bacteria Dali are different. Although these two pathogens also take control of the cell factory and produce 'themselves' after invading cells, they also modify the cells in the process.

This situation is remarkably similar to that of Ebloon cells. The reason Ebloon cells turn humans and animals into monsters is that they modify the host's body so that it can grow to enormous size under abundant electricity. The infection of the Sphia virus and the cosmic bacteria Dali also exhibits the same 'modification'.

This makes scientists wonder if the Sphia virus and the cosmic bacteria Dali, like Eblon, could also cause people to become monsters.

This speculation came true after the incident at the Future Science Research Center. The cosmic bacteria Dali transformed into the cosmic behemoth Dali and hollowed out the giant seed of the alien that Chiba Makoto called Monera.

This has made scientists extremely wary, because it is far more aggressive than the cosmic cell Ebron, completely disregarding the life or death of the host and only focusing on 'modification'.

This means that the mortality rate of the Sphia virus and the cosmic bacteria Dali far exceeds that of the cosmic cell Ebloon. The only saving grace is that these three things are not very infectious. They are not even as infectious as the flu virus, let alone the rotavirus. Otherwise, the human population on Earth would probably have died several times over.

Of course, it's too early to open champagne now, because people haven't yet figured out how it spreads.

Without understanding the mechanism, we cannot cut off the transmission route or prevent it, which is very bad. What if they have a long incubation period? Everyone still remembers those 'virus nests' that were discovered not long ago. They were all extremely terrifying. Even more terrifying was the huge nest in the sewer, which had hundreds or thousands of egg sacs. If it hadn't been discovered and destroyed in time, who knows how many terrifying monsters it would have bred.

Because of that enormous lair, TPC has been investing a great deal of manpower and resources, under the guise of cleaning up sewers, to survey sewers, caves and other places in major cities around the world, in fear that there may be other such enormous lairs breeding terrifying monsters.

Don’t be afraid of 10,000, just be afraid of the worst!

If there's nothing there, everyone can rest assured. But if there is something there and it's not cleaned up in time, there will be consequences.
It’s scary to think about it.

Besides these, there are also effective drugs and vaccines. Once we develop them, we won't be afraid of them anymore. Whether it's made into medicine or injections, or simply added to food or water, they will be completely eradicated and pose no threat whatsoever, let alone allow humanity to relive the Black Death of the Middle Ages.

(End of this chapter)