Apocalypse Rebirth: 3000 million won at the beginning

Chapter 2235 The Effects of Sea Fog, Fields of Extinction!
Reporting was done at each level.

The news of the crop mutation at Plantation No. 1 outside the city was reported by Gong Gaonong and relayed directly to Ye Shi, the person in charge of the greenhouse. Ye Shi happened to meet Li Peizhen outside Minister Anya's office.

"Have Yao Ji and the others gone there yet?" Li Peizhen asked.

Ye Shi nodded and replied:

"They're probably already on their way. If you want to go, you can go now and maybe meet them at the entrance of the tunnel."

“Okay.” Li Peizhen turned around and walked downstairs.

As soon as Li Peizhen left the buffer city, she saw Yao Ji and his group at the entrance of the passageway leading from the edge city to the plantation outside the No. 1 city.

At that moment, Yao Ji and the others were queuing to enter the passageway, carrying some professional testing equipment. Upon seeing them, Li Peizhen quickly called out, "Yao Ji!"

Yao Ji heard Li Peizhen's call, turned around and saw Li Peizhen.

"Vice President Li, what brings you here?"

Li Peizhen walked towards them and explained as she stood beside them:

"Such a big thing has happened, I'll go and take a look."

"Ye Shi originally wanted to contact Minister An Ya, but Minister An went to the outer city for a weekly meeting and cannot be reached for the time being."

Yao Ji nodded, her face filled with worry, and said:

"I don't know what kind of plant mutation Gong Qingtian mentioned. I initially suspect that it may be closely related to the sea fog disaster."

“In recent months, the amount of D-elements in the sea fog has increased sharply. Although D-elements had never affected plants before, the plants are now mutating, and I can’t think of any other reason for this.”

"Sea fog?" Li Peizhen frowned slightly upon hearing these two words.

My heart skipped a beat. The reason why zombies are formed is because the Di element in extraterrestrial meteorites mutated with human viruses, forming the zombie virus.

The more Di element a zombie contains, the stronger it becomes.

The zombies lurking beneath the sea fog are far more powerful than those of the past. It is said that news has come from the front lines that a large number of powerful Vajra zombies have appeared.

"I don't think so. Didn't the Zombie Research Institute give a report? The zombie virus only infects mammals?" Liu Fei, an agricultural expert next to Yao Ji, asked doubtfully.

Li Peizhen glanced at him; what Liu Fei said wasn't wrong after all.

But that was so long ago.

Liu Fei had been working in the agricultural department of the base, dealing with greenhouses all day long, and didn't know much about the situation outside.

The zombie virus can now infect not only mammals.

The zombie squid that appeared a few days ago is not a mammal, and there are also zombie sea monsters that have escaped from the ocean, many of which are not mammals.

Hearing Liu Fei's words, Yao Ji sighed and said:

"You should listen to the broadcasts from our base more often. Don't stay cooped up in the greenhouse, oblivious to what's happening outside. The zombie virus can infect more than just mammals now."

Liu Fei's face paled, and he was speechless for a moment.

A logistics staff member standing behind Li Peizhen initially had some reservations about Li Peizhen cutting in line from behind.

But when he saw the gold badge pinned to Li Peizhen's chest, he awkwardly scratched his head and dared not say anything more.

A gold badge—only Level 1 personnel can wear that.

He's only a level four staff member, which is far below the level of a level one staff member.

Moreover, the young woman who cut in line appeared to be a high-ranking official in the Ministry of Agriculture.

The group lined up and entered the passageway below.

This wasn't Yao Ji's first time visiting Plantation No. 1 outside the city, so they hopped onto the tracked cart with practiced ease.

The deep and narrow passageway, with the incandescent lights on the cave walls above flickering, is straight and seems to have no end in sight, giving one the feeling of being in a time tunnel.

The people on the railcar had different expressions, all extremely worried about the mutated plants in the plantation outside City 1.

Time flew by, and half an hour passed.

Li Peizhen and Yao Ji's group finally arrived at the exit of the plantation outside City No. 1.

Gong Gaonong and the others had been waiting there for a long time. When they saw Yao Ji and Li Peizhen, he quickly went forward to greet them.

"Vice President Li, Expert Yao, you've finally arrived." Gong Qingtian's face was full of worry, but his expression changed abruptly when he saw Yao Ji and the other person, as if he had seen hope.

Li Peizhen didn't exchange pleasantries with him and went straight to the point:

"Take us directly to the greenhouse where the problem occurred, let's go now."

"Yes, yes, yes, please follow me."

For Li Peizhen and her team, only by seeing them in person could they make a judgment; previously, it was all based on written descriptions, which made it impossible to make a concrete assessment.

A dozen minutes later.

Gong Gaonong led everyone to greenhouse No. 83 and asked Tian Fang, who had first discovered everything, to give a detailed report.

When Li Peizhen and Yao Ji saw the spots on the leaves and the shriveled potatoes, their expressions changed simultaneously.

Yao Ji looked at Tian Fang with a grim expression and asked:
"You just said that you discovered this situation a month ago, so why didn't you report it a month ago?"

Tian Fang replied awkwardly:

"I reported this a month ago. At that time, only a very small number of potato seedlings had problems. I reported it to my superior, Ma Qian."

Ma Qian's expression changed drastically, and he inwardly groaned in despair.

Yao Ji glanced at the bewildered Ma Qian and said, "If you had reported earlier, we would have discovered you sooner. You are seriously at fault this time!"

Li Peizhen stopped Yao Ji and said:
"Yaoji, the most urgent thing is to figure out why this problem occurred and solve it first."

Yao Ji thought about it and agreed. Although Ma Qian had made mistakes, the most important issue now was to solve the problem of crop growth.

Li Peizhen's expression shifted slightly as she looked at Gong Gaonong beside her and Yan Zhi, the senior agronomist in charge of the No. 1 city's outskirts plantation.

"Screen all greenhouses in the plantation outside City No. 1 to see if this situation still exists."

Once discovered, these problematic greenhouses will be immediately sealed off.

"in addition,"

"Seal off all the greenhouses where problems have occurred, and no one except the investigation team is allowed to enter or leave."

"Get it done now!"

Upon hearing this, Yan Zhi's expression turned somewhat solemn, and he nodded, saying:
"Yes!"

He has been a member of the Dazhangshu Agricultural Department for many years, and he came here from the southwest with Zhang Qiwu many years ago.

Many years later, he is now a high-ranking official in the Ministry of Agriculture, independently in charge of tens of thousands of acres of planting area in the No. 1 City Outside Plantation.

soon.

Yan then summoned all the senior agronomists under his command and assigned them the screening task.

"Everyone, the situation is urgent. I hope you can quickly screen the greenhouses under your responsibility. I'll give you two hours. After two hours, you must report the screening results to me."

Most of the senior agronomists' expressions changed upon hearing the news.

"Plant mutation? Holy crap, is that even possible?"

“The photos on my iPad do look different from typical plant diseases, but they shouldn’t be able to affect the entire plantation outside City 1, right?”

"I already said it could be a mutation, so it definitely is."

Yan Zhi looked at the murmuring crowd and said sternly:
"Stop talking."

He raised his hand, glanced at his watch, and said, "You have one hour and fifty-nine minutes left."

"If I don't get a result within two hours, my points for this month will be deducted!"

Upon hearing this, everyone rushed out of the agronomist's office lobby to contact their subordinates and instruct them to conduct a rapid screening.

Two hours passed in the blink of an eye.

During the two-hour period, Yao Ji used a soil detector to identify the four greenhouses that had problems.

The soil in these greenhouses contains more D-elements than that in other greenhouses.

From this result, she drew a conclusion:
Problems with crops grown in greenhouses are related to the content of dioxins.

Although Li Peizhen agreed with the result, she was puzzled as to why only these four greenhouses had problems.

“Yaoji, this doesn’t make sense. All the greenhouses in Plantation No. 1 outside the city use the fifth-generation intelligent greenhouse system.”

"The irrigation water has been treated, the ventilation system has been treated, and even the soil has been covered with insulating fabric. Why is it that only these four greenhouses have problems?"

Yao Ji pointed to the ventilation ducts above their heads.

"The filters in the ventilation ducts of these greenhouses that have problems haven't been replaced in a long time, and they no longer have the function of filtering." "Sigh, the main reason is that there has been sea fog in the last few months, and the sea fog is full of a lot of D-elements."

"I'm worried that if this continues, even if we make sure our greenhouses are well-sealed, the Di element can seep in everywhere, and the crops will still face the threat of mutation."

Li Peizhen looked at the ventilation ducts above their heads, a thoughtful expression on her face.

Tread-tap-

Just then, Yan Zhi rushed over.

"Vice President Li, Expert Yao, the screening results from Plantation No. 1 outside the city are in. We also found this mutation in 10 greenhouses," Yan Zhi said breathlessly, his expression grim.
Li Peizhen and Yao Ji exchanged a glance.

Neither of them was surprised by the result.

Even with only ten greenhouses, they considered it relatively few in their estimation.

Li Peizhen quickly issued the order:
"Replace the filters in all ventilation ducts inside the greenhouse of Plantation No. 1 outside the city."

"We also implement daily screening, and if any new greenhouses with crop mutations are found, we report them immediately."

Yan raised an eyebrow slightly and asked cautiously:

"Are these plant mutations related to the ventilation duct filter?"

Yao Ji nodded and said:
"Yes, that's what our investigation found, but we can't rule out other possibilities, so we need to continue to observe."

"Furthermore, you must issue a gag order to all agronomists regarding this matter, strictly prohibiting them from leaking this information. Anyone found doing so will be severely punished!"

She said this in a very serious tone.

Because if it involves food, then it's a big problem.

If this matter is allowed to spread, it could affect the stability of the entire base.

Yan Zhi realized the seriousness of the problem and nodded, saying:
"Yes, I will definitely warn my subordinates."

Yao Ji then left Plantation No. 83 with Li Peizhen.

This is a huge matter, especially since it involves Di element; the Ministry of Agriculture alone cannot solve the problem.

They need the support of the Ministry of Science and Technology.

The Zombie Research Division under the Ministry of Science and Technology must be the most knowledgeable about the Di element.

They need more information about the Di element, and more methods for detecting it.

The first outer city of Dazhangshu.

Below the administration building.

Yao Ji, Li Peizhen, and Ye Shi arrived here after a long and tiring journey.

While on the road, Ye Shi learned about the latest situation from Yao Ji and the other person. Faced with such a thorny problem, she was also a little flustered.

After all, this is a mutation, not the disease they had encountered before.

They had never encountered this situation before, so they had no experience to draw upon.

Outside the conference hall.

Two guards stopped Ye Shi and her two companions.

"The three of you are in the middle of a weekly meeting. We can discuss this after the meeting."

Ye Shi said with a solemn expression:
"We have a major incident to report. The matter is extremely serious. If you stop us, can you bear the consequences?"

The guards at the gate changed their expressions after hearing what Ye Shi said.

"Then I'll go in and inform them."

"No need." Li Peizhen walked over directly and pushed open the conference room door.

The guards dared not stop her and could only watch helplessly as she pushed the gate open.

The two people behind Li Peizhen followed and went inside together.

Those who participate in the weekly meeting are all ministerial-level officials.

Li Yu also participated in this week's meeting.

Inside the hall, a dozen or so high-ranking officials, at the ministerial level or above, were having a meeting.

The door was suddenly pushed open, and everyone's eyes were drawn to them.

An Ya, in particular, felt a pang of unease upon seeing Ye Shi and the other two.

There are guards at the entrance, and under normal circumstances, they would never let people who are not of a certain rank in.

Ye Shi and the other two were all from her Ministry of Agriculture, which indicates that a major change has occurred in the Ministry of Agriculture.

Chairman Li Hongda frowned slightly when he saw the three enter, stopped the meeting, and looked at them, asking:
"Is there anything I can help you with?"

After Yao Ji came in, she closed the door behind her.

The conference room is very well sealed off; once the doors are closed, you can barely hear anyone talking inside.

Li Peizhen looked at Li Hongda, then at her elder brother Li Yu.

He said in a deep voice:
"There's a problem with our greenhouses and our crops!"

A single word can startle a thousand waves.

The people in the conference room narrowed their eyes slightly and stared intently at Li Peizhen.

Li Yu's breathing became rapid as he asked:
"what happened?"

Li Peizhen quickly said:
“We just came from the plantation outside City No. 1. Our investigation revealed that crops in more than a dozen greenhouses in the plantation outside City No. 1 have mutated.”

Leaves develop brownish-yellow spots, and potatoes or sweet potatoes become shriveled.

"The whole thing was discovered a month ago by a junior agronomist named Tian Fang."

"Just now, Yaoji and I used a soil detector and found that the soil in the greenhouses that had problems had seriously excessive levels of D-elements. In the past few months, the sea fog has filled the air with a large amount of D-elements."

It is possible that elements from outside the greenhouse could be brought into the greenhouse through the air, water, or even the clothing worn by agronomists.

This leads to crop mutations.

Li Peizhen recounted the entire story, from the beginning to the end, and even the speculations made by their Ministry of Agriculture, in great detail.

After he finished speaking, the entire conference room fell silent.

The atmosphere froze, becoming extremely oppressive.

After a long silence, Maddie, the head of the zombie research department, broke the deathly silence and asked:
"Are you sure the plant mutation was caused by the Di element?"

Li Peizhen neither confirmed nor denied, replying:
“We have a lot of experience with diseases and even reduced yields in normal crops, but the changes in these crops this time are too strange. We have never encountered this before.”

At first, we only suspected it was related to D-elements, but after testing the soil, we found that the D-elements levels in the soil of the problematic greenhouses were higher than in the other greenhouses!

"Therefore, we make a rather rough judgment that crop variation is related to the element D."

"These crops are actually still alive and can continue to grow."

"The Di element will not kill the plant, it will only disrupt its reproductive development. The soil nutrient transport is also normal, but it is biased towards 'growing the body'."
In short, the crop's leaves are growing well, healthy, and tall. Apart from some brownish spots, there are no major problems in appearance.

But that's it!
The flowers can bloom, and the fruit can set, but it just won't grow big, or even grow at all. If it does grow, it's hollow inside, resulting in a shriveled fruit that's all show and no substance.

"We speculate that the plant may have been affected by a large amount of Dystolen, which caused the plant to mutate. The nutrient input channels of the young fruit were blocked. The fruit could form, but it could not fill out and become plump."

Ultimately, it can only stop developing, become shriveled, and hollow.

"This has resulted in a situation where there are seedlings but no harvest, and fruits but no fruit."

After hearing Li Peizhen's words, Ma Di's mind raced.

He also discovered that over the past three months, as the sea fog spread, the Di element permeated the globe.

This has also led to problems such as weakened immunity in a very small number of people within the base.

But perhaps because humans have been in the Dy element environment for too long, from small amounts of Dy element to large amounts of Dy element, the human body has gradually adapted.

Therefore, no internal mutations have ever occurred.

However, given that the concentration of doxyl in the air continues to rise and has reached an alarming level,

He was genuinely worried that people might not even need to be bitten by zombies; once the Di element in their bodies reached a critical value, they would directly turn into zombies.

This weekly meeting was also discussing this issue: whether to continue further research on the zombie cure, solve the side effects of the zombie cure, develop a brand new zombie vaccine, and then administer it to the entire population.

Unexpectedly, this topic was not finished being discussed at the weekly meeting just now, and no detailed plan had been formulated.

The crops at the Ministry of Agriculture's site have also been affected by the increased presence of the Di element, resulting in mutations!
Moreover, the direction of the mutation was unexpectedly incapable of yielding results.

This will lead to a gradual loss of crops!
This was nothing short of devastating news for them!
This is bad news that makes things even worse.