Will the kemonomimi encounter Alien Ranch Story?

Compared to these, the two- or three-story buildings seemed less conspicuous. In the open space, a group of Ursus workers wearing blue work clothes were checking the status of a weather balloon. Soon, the huge balloon slowly floated into the sky.

"Charge Sensing Deployed!" The pink-haired girl gripped her staff tightly, surrounded by intricate cables and equipment. Tiny charges traveled along the cables into the weather balloon, spreading outwards. Originium particles and atmospheric charges in the atmosphere seemed to come alive, spreading further and further.

The girl's pink tail exploded layer by layer under the effect of static electricity, but the staff still managed to transmit the collected charge distribution information to the workstation under the tent not far away.

"Okay, do you need to rest for a bit, Susie?"

"It's alright," the pink-haired girl smiled shyly. In the entire weather team, her education level was the lowest—high school dropout.

She was selected only because Originium Arts is so special, so she cherishes this job. Unlike others who dropped out of school due to infection, her reason for dropping out was very practical: poverty.

With the father unemployed, the family relied entirely on the mother's meager income from baking bread to support eight children, making it impossible for her to continue her studies at the sorcerer's academy.

On the other hand, in this new era, although there are more and more warlock positions and many places need qualified warlocks, the salary of warlocks is much lower than in the past. In comparison, the still high cost of learning makes it extremely poor value for money.

He then found a job as a messenger, but the problem was that this dangerous but well-paid job didn't last two years. With the signing of the armistice agreement and the turmoil in the international community, especially with the expansion of Kazdel's little donkey network, the messenger's job became unstable.

There's no way around it; compared to messengers who have to traverse the wilderness to deliver information about natural disasters, the weather forecasts from the combined forces of Kazdel, Letania, Ursus, Victoria, and Da Yan are not only accurate, but also damn fast!

Kazdel obtains information from space, and then the five countries analyze this data and images to predict the possible locations where natural disasters may occur. Except for some mistakes in the early stages due to a lack of experience and technology, the accuracy is now very high.

Almost as soon as the natural disaster cloud showed even a slight sign, the city evacuation alarm would sound, and at that time, more than 90% of the messengers were still on the road, riding their bicycles.

If this service weren't so expensive, causing some poorer border cities like Goraton and Pingkton to still rely on messengers, she estimates the unemployment rate would be several times higher.

However, all of that is in the past. As a member of the meteorological team at the polar expedition outpost, there is no need to worry about unemployment.

"Susie, come to the lobby, your family is here to visit you." The pink-haired girl, who was chugging a sweet drink containing Oripathy inhibitors, spat it out. After hurriedly apologizing to the staff who were covered in the spray, she ran away in a panic.

"Honestly, it's so messy and frizzy. Clothes are hard to dry in this kind of place!" a staff member complained, but didn't seem too angry.

This outpost, located at the northernmost part of the Kosiché concession, was more of a rear base than an outpost. Exploration teams set off from here, continuously exploring northward, bringing back artifacts from the early inhabitants, various plant and animal samples, and rock samples, in preparation for further polar exploration.

Due to the limited road network, the main mode of transportation for various supplies still relies on vehicles. The entire base is still under continuous expansion and will become a large-scale integrated base capable of docking land-based ships and launching and recovering large transport aircraft, rather than just an ordinary outpost.

"Wow~" The Gretel family looked in surprise at the spacious and orderly work hall, where staff members wearing uniforms of different colors—blue (technical), yellow (engineering), and white (office)—moved in an orderly manner through the various passageways and staircases.

The skylight cover was opened on this fine day, and the bright sunlight streamed into the hall through the reinforced glass, as if a beam of holy light was shining on the indoor garden in the central lounge area.

The mischievous toddler climbed to the fountain in the small garden, curiously watching the few finger-sized ornamental koi in the water, seemingly preparing to scoop one up to take a look. However, this behavior was quickly stopped by his mother.

"Mother!?"

"Ah, Sissi!" Mrs. Gretel grabbed her daughter and looked her up and down. "You seem to have lost weight!"

"No, no, right?" Susie looked blank, because she had been planning to lose weight recently due to the high-calorie, high-sugar food here.

"It's so good to see you safe and sound."

"Why are you all..."

"It's nothing, it's nothing. I was just worried about you working here in Ursus, so I came to visit you." However, these words could not fool his daughter. Their dirty clothes, the obvious burn marks on their skirts, and the old wounds on their older brother's face all indicated that things were not so simple.

"What happened at home?"

"No, no, we'll be back soon," Mrs. Gretel said hurriedly. "We received the money you sent back earlier. I thought you were doing something dangerous here."

Because it was such a huge sum of money, a fortune the Gretel family had never seen in their entire lives, it was especially precious in this era; otherwise, they wouldn't have had the money to come here to visit their daughter.

However, precisely because the amount of money was so large, Mrs. Gretel's mind was filled with a multitude of unpleasant thoughts almost instantly, and she felt compelled to come and see what her daughter was doing before she could feel at ease.

"It wasn't that dangerous, was it?" Susie scratched her cheek. It was impossible to say there was no danger. Working with the weather team meant being at the base every day. Fieldwork was commonplace. On her first day, she was quite frightened by a snow crab. Luckily, the captain pulled her away. Otherwise, Mrs. Gretel would probably have received another sum of money and a death notice.

However, after getting used to it, she wasn't so nervous anymore. Most of the time, the danger wasn't high. After all, she wouldn't be allowed to do high-risk exploration work, and even if she did, there would be vehicles and various forms of protection.

"What do you do here?" the older brother asked seriously. "Why do you get such a high salary?"

"Um, I'm a meteorologist's assistant, responsible for surveying the shape of clouds and the electromagnetic distribution of the atmosphere. It's a very complicated job, and I have to take extra classes regularly. But it's much more fulfilling than my previous part-time job."

"Okay, that's good." The older brother's expression relaxed a bit; it didn't seem like a strange job.

After all, with the elements of a Filin girl, a Ursus hunky guy, wasteland, and wilderness, you could easily put together seven or eight gigabytes of material suitable for a legal affairs channel by replacing any of them with the Filin girl, Ursus hunky guy, wasteland, and wilderness.

"Are warlocks paid this much here?" Mrs. Gretel asked curiously. Back in her hometown, warlocks' salaries had decreased by more than 50% year-on-year.

"Uh, it's not that high. It's mainly because the subsidies for polar exploration are high. Ah, I've been saving money diligently!" the girl hurriedly explained. This money mainly came from exploration subsidies, which she had saved up by going on numerous field missions.

"By the way, what happened at home? Did they not receive the money they sent back?"

“Received, received…” Mrs. Gretel hesitated, but finally the eldest son spoke up, “It’s mainly because those Gauls have started causing trouble again recently, wanting to secede from Victoria.”

"But what does this have to do with us?" Living far from politics and even the city, the girl's impression of these international events was limited to fleeting glimpses she saw on TV when she got home from get off work.

"..."

"They've been vandalizing and attacking all Victorians, and not only that, but Letania and even our facilities have been attacked. So, Mrs. Gretel must have encountered some Gallic radicals, right?"

"you are......"

"Hello, I'm the head of the local technical team, you can call me Kugen." The man in the standard blue jacket reached out and shook hands with the eldest son of the Gret family.

"Hey! Is anything alright at home?"

"It's okay, it's okay, everything's fine."

"This is not the place to talk. Besides, you've come all this way. According to our customs, we should eat first."

“Eat, yes, eat first.” Mrs. Gretel was clearly trying to avoid the question. The outpost’s mess hall was no different from any other Kazdel mess hall, with tapestries in the Sarkaz style decorating the walls. However, on the pillars, there was a very Ursus-style bear head plaque, and the roaring bear inspired awe at first glance.

"This is the prey we caught when we arrived. It took three turret bombs to take it down. It was tough to deal with. But thanks to this guy, the surrounding wild animals don't dare to come near."

Wild animals are generally very alert, and once such predators are taken down, nothing daring to approach the base is left. However, wild animals are also generally forgetful – soon, the base’s abundant food scraps and warm buildings attract the bolder small animals.

Those two-legged creatures have endless food and warm little dens, so what's the harm in taking a look? — That's probably what most of the small land animals in the breeding area of ​​the base are thinking now, right? And what about those two snow leopards that come to freeload every day but won't even let you pet them?

"Oh, right, Susie, we brought you a lot of local specialties, including your favorite kind of cookies!" Mrs. Gretel seemed to just remember and hurriedly took the gifts out of her duffel bag. Her other siblings had also prepared local specialty gifts.

Soon the dining table was piled high with boxes of all sizes. In the end, Kugen had to call a few people to help move them to Susie's dormitory, but even that filled her dormitory to the brim.

"Speaking of which, Mom, what are your plans for the future? Why don't you stay here with us?"

"Stay...stay?" Mrs. Gretel hesitated. She was still very wary of Ursus. After all, it was hard for a generation that had grown up listening to horror stories about Ursus to change their prejudices.

"But where will we live? And what about the family business?!"

"Let's move here too. I heard they're building a new town a bit south, and they'll probably need bakers there too, right?"

"Is that so?" Mrs. Gretel was slightly tempted. Although she was reluctant to leave her homeland, in the face of the pressures of life and money, all obstacles could not ultimately become obstacles if moving here could really make a living.

"Besides, I don't need to spend much money here. I should have enough money saved to open a shop, right?"

"No, no, no, we can't accept it. You're a girl out there, you need the money more than we do!"

"But...but I really can't spend any of it." The main problem is that she doesn't have much of a spending habit and isn't particularly interested in consumer goods.

The poor girls couldn't afford to buy sweets like the Kazdel and the Castor from the northern farms—they had that luxury because their families owned land and their parents had regular jobs, and the transfer of assets within the family meant they had nothing to worry about.

Even with meals in the canteen, provided clothes, and dormitory accommodations, and without spending money in the southern towns, her allowance and salary combined were quite substantial.

“How could we not be able to spend it all!” Mrs. Gretel didn’t believe a word of it, assuming her daughter was lying to reassure them. Soon, their food arrived—a very ordinary Arctic meal, served on metal plates.

The main course consisted of two whole wheat breads. The bread with 15% tequila flour was completely different from Victoria's bread, and it tasted a bit bitter, but it was more filling.

The plate contained a standard three-dish meal with a soup, two meat dishes and two vegetable dishes, plus a small jar of salted lard, a favorite of the Ursus people, to neutralize the bitterness of the bread. The dishes were braised pork with potatoes, stewed pork with peas, and pickled cucumbers. The soup was a standard Ursus favorite, borscht, all of which were high in sugar and oil.

In places near the poles, no one finds this kind of food cloying. When you've been wading through knee-deep mud and snow in sub-zero temperatures of -40 degrees Celsius for most of the day, braving howling winds, only this combination of foods can restore your energy.

Or perhaps, after standing motionless outdoors for hours, holding a metal staff, conducting meteorological surveys and data collection, only a hot bath and this kind of scalding hot food can keep one from feeling like a corpse about to completely cool down.

For the Gretel family, this food could hardly be called coarse. After all, given their economic situation, they could only afford the cheapest potatoes and low-quality mixed flour to eat on a regular basis. Occasionally, when business was good, they would be rewarded with some homemade wild berry jam.

"This is too much, too much. Actually, just bread would have been enough. We brought jam." Mrs. Gretel felt that this meal was a bit expensive. There was meat, soup, and vegetables, but the bread didn't have sawdust or acorn flour in it. It didn't seem like something an ordinary worker could afford for a day's wages.

"No, it didn't cost any money." Susie was a little surprised. Wasn't eating in the cafeteria free? It wasn't like we were eating at a private kitchen on the second floor. She brought her family here precisely because the meals were free. It wasn't that she didn't want to spend money, but she felt that her mother probably wouldn't accept such a waste.

"The cafeteria provides free meals, so Mrs. Gretel doesn't need to worry too much."

"Oh, I see. This is what you usually eat?"

"Um... we don't eat like this every day." Occasionally, we'll have some good stuff. For example, when the exploration team unexpectedly catches some prey, we'll have some good stuff like vegetable and venison soup or oven-roasted crab.

"Phew~" Mrs. Gretel let out a long sigh of relief, and was no longer so reserved. "Sissi, it seems you've really found a good job. You must work hard and be diligent. The world is not doing well these days, and you can't lose a job like this!" She had initially had a lot of opinions about her daughter working here, but now she didn't. After all, in this world, such treatment was rare.

However, we still need to think about moving here. But Susie is planning to take them to visit a small town in the south, so maybe she'll change her mind?

"Oh, I almost forgot, I have class next!" After spending some time with her brothers and sisters, Susie suddenly remembered that she had class.

"Mom, you two sit here for a while, I have to go to class!" The girl ran off in a hurry, and after a while she came back like a gust of wind, grabbed her staff and ran off again. "Honestly, she's already working, and she's still so reckless."

"There's no other way. She has the lowest educational background here, so she has to take classes with the newly recruited employees." Otherwise, she wouldn't be able to do the job at all and would just be used as a human wet tool.

"Unloading time! New ingredients have arrived!" A horn blared outside the cafeteria, and a Kazdel heavy-duty refrigerated truck pulled up. The movers dumped vacuum-packed pork legs and beef onto the ground, quickly piling them into a wall of meat.

The canteen staff drove over with a forklift to pick up the meat products and put them into the freezer. In addition to meat, there were also fresh vegetables and fruits. These things were no cheaper than meat, and might even be more expensive.

The Gretel family was stunned by the scene. They had never seen a mountain of meat before them in an instant. Now they understood why the cafeteria food was so good even when it was free. Mrs. Gretel had another reason to convince herself to move.

Chapter Two: Preparations for Polar Exploration

Chapter two

The source of Kazdel's space information has always been a mystery. Theoretically, they had an astronaut and a satellite in space that could quickly obtain relevant weather images. However, the strange thing is that the subsequent launches all failed.

If the previous ones were all fake, then these real remote sensing images and satellite images cannot be faked. If they are real, then all the previous launches failed. It is hard to believe that the Kazdel people, who could successfully complete a high-difficulty launch on their first attempt, would frequently fail in low-difficulty launches.

The establishment of this natural disaster forecasting system was a last resort, since it is difficult to get these five countries to reach any other consensus. Only natural disasters, which have a huge impact on everyone's production activities, would lead to this kind of intelligence sharing.

Of course, the high cost of such forecasting services cannot be ruled out. After all, when an industry is profitable, even if its products seem unreliable, it can still attract a large number of investors.

However, high-resolution images taken from the moon can only be used for large-scale analysis. They are fine for identifying natural disasters that warrant the evacuation of cities, but they are not suitable for accurate local weather forecasts.

This will have to wait until Kazdel launches a new weather satellite. In fact, Kazdel's satellite launch schedule is already full; the only problem is that the number of successful launches is zero.

In this context, the work of the meteorological team becomes crucial in polar regions where lunar photographs are difficult to cover. They need to provide necessary intelligence support to exploration teams and small reconnaissance teams entering the polar areas; otherwise, it would be difficult to return alive from a blizzard in such a desolate place.

With attention drawn to the launch site in the south, the exploration activities in the north did not attract much attention. Of course, Da Yan and Ursus knew some of the inside story. Ursus and Da Yan also chose the space program, but Rembito and Letania chose the refuge program.

The reason is that Letania does not trust Kazdel and Ursus, while Rembiton has a greater advantage in building shelters than in space exploration—Rembiton has no shortage of underground tunnels and even dungeons that can be easily repaired and occupied.

In addition, they have connections with the underground Durin tribe, and they can use these underground cities of the Durin tribe to successfully survive the disaster—of course, I'm referring to the first wave of disaster.

Underground shelters can indeed survive about fifty years of solar storms, and then about 100 years of super winters, but after that, it's still a dead end.

During the solar helium flash, the sudden drop in temperature would cover the earth with an ice layer at least 10 kilometers thick. Their shelters would have to meet interstellar standards, meaning that water and oxygen would be completely self-sustaining, and births and deaths would be strictly controlled, allowing them to eke out a living in narrow underground spaces.

In contrast, it would be easier for the Agorians to survive this phase of the apocalypse if they were to establish an underwater base, because the water under the thick ice shell could maintain a certain temperature, and there were also a large number of aquatic organisms and various geothermal algae that produced oxygen and food.