Will the kemonomimi encounter Alien Ranch Story?

Although the entire working time is short, it is enough to exhaust a person's physical strength and enthusiasm.

"One serving of herb-baked fish, please." Cheng Shan took out her meal card and swiped it.

Frozen fish has become a common meat in the Arctic, and when paired with frozen lard and very fatty smoked pork, it forms the main meat dish in the operatives' meals. Beef and mutton, on the other hand, are generally supplied to positions such as pilots and are not part of their daily diet.

Slightly sour grilled fish marinated in a sauce made with chopped herbs, lemon zest, and onion is not unfamiliar to Cheng Shan; in fact, given Cheng Shan's family background, this is a fairly common type of food.

These fish are marinated in advance; the chef only needs to take them out of the box and put them on the electric grill, and they will be ready in a few minutes.

Given the large appetites of the people of Terra, the grilled fish dish is not just about fish. It should actually be called a grilled fish set meal, which also includes fried rice made with mutton fat and hot sauce, a large amount of mashed potatoes fried with lard, and whole chilies. A big plate of this is enough to quickly restore one's energy and make one feel warm.

Besides this, there are also rice balls made with mutton fat, mutton, beans, and cured meat. Of course, compared to the rice balls in Dongguo that only contain pickled plums and a little sesame, these rice balls are much more substantial.

The ratio of meat to rice to oil is almost 1:1. Shape it into a very firm long strip, wrap it with a layer of seaweed, put it in the oven and bake it. The oil inside will be completely integrated with the rice. Then take it out, cut it into pieces, sprinkle some sesame seeds, pepper and other seasonings and it's ready to eat.

To be honest, the taste was really strange. For Cheng Shan and most of the Da Yan people and the operators from the East, it was not something they were used to eating. However, for the Ursus and Sarkaz people, this kind of food, which was like eating with their hands, was acceptable.

Moreover, even these people wouldn't be picky eaters at times like this, because this thing is similar to cut cake, very solid and heavy, and can provide an explosive amount of calories. To ensure appetite, a lot of spices and seasonings are added, so even a lump of shit wouldn't taste too bad.

"When will this ever end?!"

"The snow will stop in two days... probably." Cheng Shan stuffed a piece of fish into her mouth. The fragrant grilled fish restored her energy a little, while the Ursus girl opposite her was dealing with a large piece of roasted pork. It was a really big piece.

It was a piece the size of an adult's head, cut into an accordion-like structure and baked. The bright orange fat was overflowing, and it looked like food that could make you gain ten pounds. But in Winter's opinion, it was still a little insufficient. He felt that he should also get a few pieces of big rye bread, spread with a thick layer of butter and lard, to make it more substantial.

There's no way around it. Anyone who had to do manual labor for four hours in the freezing cold of -74 degrees Celsius could eat a whole bowl of this stuff and still manage to devour a dozen or so steamed buns. Otherwise, after a couple of times, they probably would have really died.

"Two days!" Winter showed a look of despair, which meant that she had to work two more shifts. This kind of work, hanging under the ship in the cold wind to remove ice, felt like it would shorten her life by ten years every time she did it!

Chapter Sixty-One: The Giant Wall and the Future

Chapter 61

The conclusions reached by Fengxue and Chengshan were similar: by the morning of the third day, the blizzard had gradually subsided. Although there was still a light snowfall, it was no longer enough to affect their operations. However, the Arctic Beast was almost half covered by snowflakes, which required the use of various tools and equipment to shovel away the snow piled up on the sides. Then, they had to bypass the engine factory, which was now just ruins, and head towards the curtain.

"The temperature is -57.6 degrees Celsius, which is still within an acceptable range." Cheng Shan raised his staff, checking the external weather data and temperature. The other members of the meteorological team were also busy on the deck, where the weather had cleared up a bit, launching balloons and various detectors in order to plan the next steps.

The others were clearing snow from the side. Not to mention the Sarkaz, even the Ursus had never seen a blizzard of this magnitude. The engineers inspecting the walking structures on one side even had to dig snow tunnels to get to work.

Bulldozers moved back and forth on the deck, pushing the snow off the deck and then spreading de-icing agents to speed up the melting of the snow. Even the secondary guns, the melt-thaw guns, joined the snow and ice removal work at low power, clearing away the frozen ice and snow bit by bit, turning it into a puddle of water, which then re-frozen into ice in the cold wind.

It took an extra day, until the light snow had completely stopped, before the Polar Beast finally set off again. According to the weather team's forecast, the next week or so would be sunny, but of course, the standard for sunny weather was that there would be no blizzards like the previous two days.

After passing through the aerospace engine factory, which was left with only a large crater after being hit by a meteorite, the Polar Beast's journey from then on was a smooth road, literally a smooth road. There was nothing along the way except for the vast white snowfields—no crystals, no vegetation, and no evil spirits.

It was this tranquility that gave the people of Da Yan a false sense of security, leading them to believe that all the evil spirits were concentrated in the south, and that further north was just a dead city and ancient tombs. As a result, they started digging around the dead city, attracting a large number of monsters.

As the distance shortened, some things began to appear on the snowfield: tiny crystals floating in mid-air as if defying gravity. Upon closer inspection, one could see that there were electric arcs connecting the crystals, indicating that they were not completely suspended in mid-air.

"The Originium effect field is extremely high, and the activity of Originium particles is extremely high. Everyone, put on your radiation protection gear!" It's truly a blessing that the Great Yan people are safe. Back then, the Originium particles were in an energy-absorbing state, and their external radiation was at its lowest point. But now, after the blizzard, the Originium particles have gained enough energy from the environmental heat and entered a radiation state. The environmental Originium radiation can now infect people with Oripathy from a distance.

"Buzzing~" As they drew closer to the aurora-like curtain of light in the distance, all electronic devices, especially those made of Originium, emitted a buzzing white noise, causing the images to shake and blur. Multicolored rays of light spread across the sky to both sides, and the atmosphere overhead was torn apart by strong Originium radiation and solar irradiance, creating a huge hole. The deep dark blue sky emitted a mysterious glow.

This is the Curtain. No one knows what lies beyond the Curtain. The aurora curtain, hanging low to almost touch the ground, obscures everyone's view.

What's behind that?

"I don't know either. I know what there used to be, but now... according to the Great Yan people, behind the curtain is still a snowfield." The lifeless snowfield only has a lot of huge pits of unknown purpose, and then about a hundred kilometers ahead, you can see the towering city walls.

Unfortunately, this city wall, which is even larger and more magnificent than the Great Yan's Great Wall, has been severely damaged. Signs of collapse can be seen everywhere. The largest collapse opening is large enough for two Great Yan land ships to sail in side by side.

"Beyond the giant wall lies the Dead City, but we have a clear objective," the doctor said, pointing to a corner of the Dead City map. "We'll go in via the Great Yan route. This is the Gravity Antenna Array. Mr. Xia, have you brought your communicator?"

"It's all set up, I just need to put it on, but I'm not sure if it will work."

“It’s never a bad thing to give it a try.” The professor sighed. “Our gravitational wave transmitter is enormous, so we can’t make it that small. Power and capacity are also issues. We haven’t asked about that before. Is it really possible?”

"Uncertain, but most likely no problem." After all, it's just the gravitational antenna itself that's broken; replacing it will solve the problem. Although this kind of thing requires a gravity casting furnace and superheavy elements, it's not a particularly important component. Theoretically, it's the kind of thing that can be ordered and delivered to you by courier in five days from anywhere with internet access.

"However, the reflectors and resonators need to be installed at the top of your transmission tower, and then the control module, encoding module, and so on, as well as the converter that converts gravitational waves into superdimensional signals, all need to be installed. To be honest, the workload is huge, and it may involve the entire transformation of the transmission tower. Is there enough time?"

"If that's all there is to it, it shouldn't be a big problem. After all, all you need is the device that generates gravitational waves, right?" In other words, just disconnect the input and output ends and connect it to the new device. There might be problems with long-term use, but it's fine as a temporary distress signal transmitter. The bigger problems are in other areas.

"So, I have to confirm again that your home planet is definitely sending a rescue team?" Although Old Xia is a big shot in both Kazdel and Terra, and Terra's rescue team would definitely go if something happened, the Doctor hasn't forgotten that this guy is just a nobody in his civilization with a monthly salary of less than 4000.

"Moreover, is it certain that your home planet will send a large-scale rescue team and allow the Terrans to relocate? Or rather, a portion of the Terrans?"

"Probably, unless they are really too far away, and by the time they arrive we will have been blown up by the sun or the construction period is not long enough for everyone to evacuate." Planetary colonization is not a difficult task. For the Covenant, as long as they don't treat the Terrans as human beings, or rather, they don't treat them as human beings for the time being, it's fine.

Prepare hundreds of millions of capsules, then find a manufacturer that produces virtual linking devices to produce hundreds of millions of simple devices. Put the Terrans who are willing to immigrate into the capsules one by one, inject nutrient solution directly into their veins, and throw them into virtual reality for training and necessary educational screening.

It's like transporting sardines; in that case, two large immigrant motherships could haul them all away in one trip. Essentially, even if Terra's total population is less than 10 billion, or even if Earth's original population was 70 billion, a single East African Rift Valley-class transport ship could haul away all the sardines in one trip.

Without a stargate, the Terrans would only need to sleep in their capsules on the ship for 3-4 months, and when they woke up, they would be in a safe new star system. If the Covenant did not intend to take them in or not take them all in, the remaining people could be unloaded on the spot. As for how they would survive in the local area, that was another matter.

"Well, if your spaceship can really move that fast, then this method of transportation is indeed feasible." The doctor didn't think it was inhumane to stuff people into cans and haul them away like sardines. He was joking; with the countdown to the apocalypse moving forward every day, thinking about humanitarianism at this point would be a sign of a problem with his brain.

Moreover, optimistically speaking, it might not even be enough to fill an entire immigrant mothership, since not everyone is willing or qualified to board, right?

"So, the second question is, what are the requirements for becoming a Star Covenant citizen? If this trip goes smoothly, I'll need to start preparing in advance."

Since the other party is an advanced interstellar civilization, and one that is severely lacking in a dominant ethnic group and population, it naturally wouldn't mind absorbing fresh blood. However, this doesn't mean that the other party will accept anything, no matter what. There must be some kind of assessment process.

Therefore, targeted review in advance can greatly increase the probability of yourself and your allies joining, and the more people join, the greater your say will be in a sense, and the more favorable conditions you can negotiate.

These favorable conditions weren't about privileges or anything like that—the professor hadn't even considered that—but rather conditions like not being enslaved or forced into hard labor, and preserving certain cultural traditions and history.

According to Terra's traditions and his experience, when it comes to the entire race seeking refuge, the best outcome would be to avoid being sold into slavery. Even if the entire population of Terra were to be mobilized, the Doctor never considered actually entering the Covenant's political arena and core of power; that was unrealistic—those living under someone else's roof should be realistic and do things that are appropriate for their status.

"I don't know. I was born, so how would I know what the requirements are?" Old Xia rolled his eyes. "In the worst-case scenario, your next generation will be born. Of course, the probability of you retaining your rights to raise and educate your children is very low, really low, unless you complete social changes within a few months, which is also unrealistic."

"Indeed..." Social care has many problems, but the doctor doesn't feel he has the ability to bargain on this issue. This is a price that the shelter has to pay.

"However, the fact that they are human cannot be changed. Although my equipment considers Terrans to be a subspecies of human, I don't know what the authorities think." Old Xia was telling the truth, but at least his relatives don't need to worry about this issue; they automatically receive green cards.

"You have never absorbed any alien races?"

"There have been vassals, but no absorption. However, many have gone extinct. If we include those that went extinct unintentionally... if we count by civilization, the number should be in the four digits. If we count by race, it's a bit less, because some civilizations may be gone, but their populations are still alive."

To be honest, the doctor really didn't want to ask what "unintentional extinction" meant, and even had a guess, but still felt a little unsure.

"So, please relax. If we were truly extinct, we wouldn't be speaking to you so calmly; I would have already taken action." Old Xia rolled his eyes. "You don't think it's difficult for me to cultivate a DNA virus that can infect the entire world within a few dozen weeks and wipe you all out, do you?"

It's really not difficult, in fact, it's very simple. For people in this line of work, massacres are practically their job. Pesticide skills can create large-scale lethal poison gas, gene editing skills can create all sorts of deadly plagues, and they can even create modified lethal plants like those in Resident Evil.

Moreover, these are the most complex solutions. The truly simplest solution is... "The simplest method is to cultivate a plant fungus that targets all your crops, spread it, and soon, famine will completely overwhelm you."

"In interstellar warfare, this is just a routine method. So, there are advantages to staying in the cradle as an infant." That is, you don't have to face the cruel world and fierce competition of the adult world. Even if you die, you die without knowing why and don't have to suffer the pain of dying.

"So, what if your home planet can only provide you with limited assistance, and for some reason, the ship can't arrive in time or can't arrive at all?" Kal'tsit asked another question, one that the Doctor hadn't considered before.

After all, everything is based on the premise that the Star Alliance can overcome all difficulties, only needing to consider the other party's own wishes and subjective thoughts, without taking objective factors into account.

What if the other party is indeed prepared to come to the rescue but is unable to arrive or arrive in time due to various reasons and objective factors? "Then have them send me the shipping box, and I'll fix the network," Old Xia rolled his eyes.

"At the very least, delivering the printer and updating my device certification should be fine, right? Then it's just a matter of launching the Ark from the simplest container and making a normal escape. As long as we survive the first wave of the outbreak, it's not like they'll never come back. Even if we can't launch a large spaceship for some reason, a small spaceship should be fine, right? Then we can transport some necessary equipment over, complete the first round of repairs and work on the Ark, and then find a safe planet to dock it temporarily."

"Can't ants move a whole bunch of people? And all I need to do is download the hibernation pod blueprint, then mass-produce hibernation pods, and it'll all be done with a little bit of ant-like movement, right?"

“Um…that’s true.” Kal’tsit thought about it and agreed. If the other party really couldn’t send any assistance at all, at least they could make contact and update Old Xia’s equipment blueprint library and equipment certification. If they couldn’t make contact at all, then they could proceed with the Ark Project normally, and this issue wouldn’t need to be considered further.

"So, what can you achieve after updating the blueprint library?"

"As long as there are raw materials, we can launch retro-style launch vehicles at a rate of about one per week. We can even print and manufacture small shuttles to send people into space in batches. The rest depends on how far you've progressed with your original Ark."

"Hmm..." "Ding ding ding ding!" The ship's bell rang, "Doctor, we've arrived!"

The snow-covered city walls stood like a mountain in front of the land-based warship, nearly 600 meters high. Even the warship looked like a black insect slowly approaching it on the white snow.

"Doctor, we can't get through. The Great Yan people didn't say they blew up the tunnel. If we take a detour, the ruins over there are too high; the land-based ships can't climb up."

"Is parking the only option?"

"Yes, we can only stop the boat at the entrance and go through the side gate," the navigator said awkwardly. The Great Yan people didn't reveal that they blew up the tunnel when they escaped. Of course, it's also possible that they didn't blow it up, but that the demons behind them accidentally caused it to collapse.

"Outside temperature -90 degrees Celsius, wind force 4. Fortunately, everyone is transferring to engineering vehicles to prepare to enter the dead city. Protective suits must not be removed throughout the entire process, and weapons must be kept in combat readiness!"

"What about the radiation?" The doctor looked to the other side. "Not ideal at all. 140 millisieverts. Once we lose our radiation protection, we will suffer irreversible damage and be killed very quickly."

"This is troublesome. It seems the reactor has truly leaked completely." The demons may have maintained some parts, but most of it was clearly unprotected. This was measured outside the giant wall, which itself is a huge radiation barrier. If it were inside the giant wall, the radioactivity would reach over a thousand millisieverts, which is a radiation intensity that is measured in seconds and can sustain life.

"Perhaps it's not that bad; at least the Great Yan people seem to be fine."

"It's also possible that those with problems are already dead. In any case, maintain the radiation barrier and protection, and do not leave the vehicle at will. Wait for further instructions." The entire exploration ship immediately sprang into action, opening the hatches and sending one transport vehicle and engineering vehicle after another out of the ship's hold. The personnel preparing to enter the dead city stepped into the vehicles with a death wish.

Meanwhile, the heavily guarded communication equipment was also packed into a specially modified armored transport vehicle in the middle of the formation, and protected by a small squad of elite guards.

"Let's go!" The convoy left the protection of the mothership and entered the small doors on both sides of the collapsed tunnel. These so-called small doors were 8 meters wide and 6 meters high, but compared to the tunnels that could be passed through by land-based ships, they could only be called small doors.

What did the cities of our ancestors look like?

"It's no different from any other modern city, with steel-framed buildings and glass curtain walls. In its heyday, it had a lot of projection screens and billboards. You might be tired of seeing this kind of scenery."

The doctor gave a brief introduction. For ordinary Terran bumpkins, the city might seem magnificent and dazzling. After all, most Terran bumpkins feel their eyes have been opened when they arrive in Lungmen. However, this obviously does not include people like Lao Xia.

Chapter Sixty-Two: The Dead City

Chapter 62

"The radiation level has not risen abnormally and remains at 170 millisieverts. It should be safe for radiation inside the giant wall. I suspect that it may have caused the explosion of something that shouldn't have been blown up when the Great Yan fled."

The radiation level did not rise further as the convoy passed through the small tunnels in the giant wall. In fact, it even decreased slightly after the convoy had completely passed through the giant wall. It seemed that the Great Yan fleet had accidentally blown something up while fleeing.

Otherwise, this group of people wouldn't have been able to negotiate with the doctor so readily. If the radiation level had been this high before, who knows what the inside of the giant wall would have been like? The robots would have broken down, let alone the Great Flame People.

The First Men's roadblock blocking the exit of the giant wall was smashed by the Odin Tank leading the way, followed by the small houses of the checkpoint, the prefabricated fence separating the refugees, and the convoy drove up the overpass along the ancient road. At this moment, the landscape of the dead city finally appeared before everyone.

Most of the towering buildings remain intact, while the unfinished structures, covered in frost and traces of evil, stand tall in the wind. The metal structures of the construction equipment and machinery, however, have been brittled by low temperatures and corroded by water, most severely damaged, their jagged steel frames helplessly reaching towards the sky like the hands of the dead.

"It doesn't feel much different from the city of Longmen. I thought the cities of the ancient people would be more magnificent."

"Cities where normal people live are all pretty much the same. If you want to see something exotic, I suggest you go see the cities of the Agorians," the doctor said irritably. As long as a city is used normally, they are all similar. There may be some differences in the style of the skyscrapers, but they are essentially the same.

“Actually, the difference is quite significant,” Ash said.

"Most of the cities we've seen before are simple structures similar to those in Russia. I don't know what Longmen is like, but the architectural style should be quite different. The buildings here are more postmodern. Of course, the internal differences are probably even greater. At least considering that they have stood for so long without collapsing and that their structures are so slender, the materials used for their walls and columns shouldn't be cement, right?"

In fact, when Ash saw the giant wall, he was already curious about what it was made of. If it was rock or cement, the surrounding strata should be sinking. This strange thing at this height would cause the rock strata to crack even if it were pressed on a granite layer, which is even more exaggerated than a dam.

"It's a lightweight, high-strength material, similar to what you see in mobile cities. In fact, there's not much difference in building materials. On the contrary, the early inhabitants used cement more for their ground-floor buildings," the doctor explained.