Cataclysmic Era: I can unlock the tech tree

Area FN1 of Plant B.

Wearing protective clothing, Lü Yongchang ran breathlessly to the area Zero had mentioned.

Just as he was about to look for the so-called A2 breeding cage, he heard a series of hurried footsteps behind him.

"Yongchang!" Mao Zhengzhi's voice came.

Because of the protective suit, his voice sounded particularly muffled: "I heard from Zero that one of the white mice has woken up?!"

Lü Yongchang nodded slightly, but did not turn around. He simply searched among the pile of cages on his own.

"Quick, Zero said it's a size A2 cage, help me find it!"

Mao Zhengzhi nodded slightly and quickly bent down to search.

……

A few minutes later.

Mao Zhengzhi took a small iron cage from the shelf in front of him.

Inside the cage, a small white mouse was jumping around and scratching at the cage.

"Unbelievable..." Looking at the energetic little white mouse, Lü Yongchang took a deep breath, his eyes filled with amazement.

Through this little white mouse, he once again felt the miracle of life.

With slightly trembling hands, Lü Yongchang took the cage from Mao Zhengzhi, held it up to his face, and gazed at it intently.

The white mouse stopped scratching at the cage and stared at Lü Yongchang.

"God bless the Xia Kingdom... no, God bless the Human Alliance!"

Realizing his slip of the tongue, Lü Yongchang quickly corrected himself with a smile, saying, "After the experiment is over, I'm going to keep it in my office!"

"From now on, it will be called Aurora!"

Mao Zhengzhi's eyes flickered slightly: "The Latin goddess of dawn?"

Lü Yongchang nodded vigorously, his smile widening: "Not bad!"

"It gave me a glimmer of hope for humanity to achieve long-distance interstellar travel!"

As he spoke, Lü Yongchang raised his head and looked up at the deep night sky once again!

It probably won't be long before he'll be able to go into space again!

The scene of his last flight aboard the Xuan Nu No. 1 was still vivid in his mind; that magnificent picture kept flashing in his dreams.

"So, Yongchang, what should we do now?" Mao Zhengzhi raised an eyebrow, interrupting Lü Yongchang's reflections.

Interrupted from his thoughts, Lü Yongchang slightly pursed his lips and turned his gaze back to the feeding cage in his hand.

"What else can we do?"

"Get ready for blood test!"

"Today, I'm going to find out why it woke up!"

Mao Zhengzhi: "..."

"Ahem, Yongchang, you'd better take it easy."

"I'm telling you in advance, we've already brought all the lab rats here. Unless a miracle occurs anytime soon, this will be our only test subject!"

Lü Yongchang: "..."

……

A few hours later.

The little white mouse Aurora huddled fearfully in the corner of her cage, her tiny black eyes filled with terror.

Squeak squeak squeak! (Do you know how I've spent the last few hours?!)

"How's it going? Have the results come out yet?"

Lü Yongchang's voice came from afar.

Upon hearing this voice, Aurora shrank her small body even further.

"Some results are in!" Mao Zhengzhi's voice was full of excitement.

"Just as we suspected, Aurora has an unknown antibody in her body."

"This antibody completely neutralized all those proteases!"

Lü Yongchang snapped his fingers lightly, his eyes gleaming with excitement: "Great!"

"Have the antibodies been isolated yet?"

Seeing Mao Zhengzhi nod, Lü Yongchang's eyes shone with even greater excitement.

"Quickly, go and test the effects of these antibodies!"

As he spoke, Lü Yongchang gestured towards the fifteen experimental mice lying on their backs in the cages in the distance.

……

Mao Zhengzhi carefully pushed a little medicine from the syringe into the white mouse in front of him.

Because the number of antibodies is currently scarce, they have to use them sparingly.

As for the tens of millions of lab rats outside... well, it's all up to fate.

Thinking of this, the light in Mao Zhengzhi's eyes dimmed slightly.

As a biologist, although he knew that these mice would eventually die in the laboratory, he felt a deep sense of guilt when he thought about how he had personally killed nearly 100 million mice.

"Slap!" Lü Yongchang reached out and gently patted Mao Zhengzhi on the shoulder.

As the one who made the decision, he understood Mao Zhengzhi's mental state better than anyone else.

He sighed softly: "You don't need to feel guilty. After all, it was my order."

"If, if there truly is such a thing as fate, then this debt should be repaid by me!"

Mao Zhengzhi shook his head with a somber expression, but did not say anything.

"Don't worry, after the experiment is over, I will apply to the Speaker of the Council to have a monument erected for these mice," Lu Yongchang said solemnly. "Human civilization must never forget them!"

Hearing this, Mao Zhengzhi's expression of guilt lessened somewhat.

He opened his mouth, wanting to say something more, but his attention was drawn to the scene before him.

"Yongchang!" Mao Zhengzhi exclaimed in surprise, "Look! He's awake! Mouse number 1 is awake!"

Lü Yongchang quickly looked at the feeding cage in front of him.

Sure enough, the white mouse labeled number 1 twitched its paw slightly, and its little black eyes opened.

In just a few seconds, mouse number 1 had turned over and started sniffing around in its cage, its nose tucked up.

Lu Yongchang smiled slightly: "Not bad, it seems this antibody can indeed solve this strange protease inside the Martian fungus!"

……

While waiting for the remaining 14 mice to wake up, Lü Yongchang sat down in a chair and slowly closed his eyes.

Driven by his will, he entered the technology tree system space once again.

The white light spread rapidly, illuminating a previously dim cursor.

[Hibernation Technique: Initial Mastery!]

Then, a point of light extended out from the cursor.

Seeing this, Lü Yongchang was slightly taken aback.

besides?

After hibernation technology, what other technologies are there?

The light gradually dimmed, and a cursor with only about 10% brightness appeared in front of him.

[Overweight State Balancing Technology: Deep Sea Mode]

Lü Yongchang subconsciously focused his attention on the cursor.

A wave of dizziness washed over me.

That familiar feeling made Lü Yongchang panic.

Good heavens, is he going to faint again?!

Surely not?!

Perhaps because the system was continuously strengthening the brain and body, the dizziness lasted for a few seconds before slowly disappearing.

As the dizziness subsided, a sudden realization slowly surfaced deep within his mind.

So that's the technology...

Starting with Xuan Nu I, spaceplanes, or starships, have become increasingly faster and faster, and their acceleration capabilities have also become increasingly stronger.

With the help of anti-G suits, professionally trained astronauts and pilots can withstand an acceptable maximum G-force of approximately 12G.

However, the G-value that the average person can accept is only around 3-4.

This is a bit too small for interstellar travel.

Even if future starships could indeed reach 1% or 10% of the speed of light, the acceleration time required would be unimaginable!

Moreover, prolonged exposure to high G-forces is extremely harmful to the human body.

A few minutes might be bearable, but if the time is extended to days, months, or even years, I believe no one can endure it.

Therefore, humans need a technology to balance internal and external pressures under conditions of hypergravity.

This refers to the deep-sea mode provided by the system.

The so-called deep-sea mode is actually somewhat similar to breathing underwater.

This technology has actually been studied for some time.

Perfluorocarbon (PFC) liquids.

It has an extremely strong oxygen-dissolving capacity.

Therefore, some people have tried to use this liquid to replace air for "underwater breathing".

But the reality is cruel.

Perfluorocarbon liquids have an extremely high density compared to air.

Even with a large lung capacity, if a person cannot expel all the fluid from their body, they will quickly die from pneumonia and a series of complications.

After sorting through the knowledge points in his mind, Lü Yongchang sighed slightly and slowly opened his eyes.