Chapter 348: The Choice

"Fuck, failed again." A thunderous roar came from inside, followed by an explosion that turned the base upside down, with thick black smoke billowing out everywhere.

"Fuck, it actually exploded." A man who could rival an African black person ran out from inside, followed by many Terminators, but these Terminators looked even more miserable than the man.

Their synthetic skin had become charred under the flames, revealing the metal inside, and the faint sound of mechanical operation could be heard from within.

"Stark, did you succeed?" Ye Nan ran over from afar, looking at the laboratory before him with pleasant surprise. However, when he saw Stark, who looked like an African black person, he couldn't help but let a smile show at the corner of his mouth.

"Stark, what are you doing? Even if you succeeded in researching a bomb, there's no need to get yourself caught in it."

"What do you mean succeeded? I failed. Damn world, damn plane correction force." Stark rolled his eyes at Ye Nan and then couldn't help but curse angrily.

Just as Eywa had thought, bombs more powerful than black powder could not be detonated on this planet. The reason was the plane correction force at work. However, every rule has loopholes, and the plane correction force was no exception.

If bombs from Earth couldn't explode, then they would use minerals from Pan Duola to make bombs. In this way, they could bypass the plane correction force. But it was easier said than done. Judging by Stark's expression, his experiment had failed again.

Actually, this was not strange. Influenced by the plane correction force, many formulas could not be used here. For example, the eternal truth on Earth: 1+1=2, might not necessarily equal 2 here. It might perhaps equal 3.

"It doesn't matter, we still have time," Ye Nan comforted him softly.

"Forget it, I'm quitting." Stark threw down his tools and refused to work. "Wasting the world on these low-level bombs is not as good as manufacturing more robots. The lethality of robots combined with bullets is far stronger than bombs. Why bother racking my brains to research these things?"

"Besides, don't you have energy weapons like particle cannons in your hands? These weapons are not hindered by the plane correction force of this world. Their power is far stronger than bombs."

"The main thing is that thing below," Ye Nan pointed his hand down at the flowers and grass below. "The main purpose of the bombs is to destroy these tentacles of Eywa."

"Eywa's tentacles? You mean..."

Stark's gaze followed Ye Nan's finger, moving to the flowers, grass, and trees, and then connecting it to Ye Nan's action of ordering the Terminators to weed before building the base, he seemed to have guessed something.

"That's right, these flowers, grass, and trees are all Eywa's eyes." Ye Nan didn't hide it this time. He told everything he knew about Eywa.

"Eywa is called Mother Tree by the Na'vi and is also called Mother Earth by others. And the Great Serpent told me that she might be the planetary consciousness of this planet, that is, the Gaia consciousness."

"Gaia consciousness!" Stark looked at Ye Nan in shock, full of disbelief. As a professional researcher, he had always disdained such guesses, thinking that such things were merely the delusions of some crazy scientists. But now, Ye Nan was telling him about Gaia consciousness, which completely overturned his worldview, even though his worldview had already been overturned.

"That's right, Gaia consciousness, a great consciousness formed by the collective creatures of the entire planet. But what's very strange is that this consciousness doesn't have much control over the sky. Many ferocious birds do not obey Eywa's orders. This is the part I find most strange."

Theoretically, Gaia consciousness should be the collective consciousness of all creatures on the planet, and it should be able to dominate all creatures on the entire planet. But the ferocious birds in the sky ignored Eywa, and coupled with the title of Mother Earth, Ye Nan had to suspect that this so-called Eywa was not a complete Gaia consciousness....

Of course, everything was still in the realm of speculation, and Ye Nan wouldn't speak his guesses out loud. Eywa's weak control over the sky was good news for Ye Nan.

"So you need bombs to destroy Eywa's eyes and ears?" Stark asked.

Flowers, grass, and trees were Eywa's eyes and ears, and animals would also be Eywa's eyes and ears. To destroy them, bombs were undoubtedly a good choice. After all, bullets and robots were far inferior to bombs in this regard.

"No wonder you need me to research bombs. But I have a better choice," Stark said.

"What choice?" Ye Nan asked curiously. He didn't know what else could complete the weeding task besides bombs.

"This choice is a very good one, but it is truly somewhat against the laws of heaven," Stark said, acting coy, his face showing some reluctance. "To tell you the truth, I would rather use a nuclear bomb than use it."

The more Stark said this, the more Ye Nan's heart itched. He said, "What exactly is the method?"

"Forget it, at this point, I can't care about whether it is against the laws of heaven." Stark hesitated for a moment and finally spoke: "It is Agent Orange."

"Agent Orange?" Ye Nan asked suspiciously, "What is Agent Orange? Is it very powerful?"

"Agent Orange is a highly efficient herbicide. During the Vietnam War, the U. S. military used low-altitude, slow-flying aircraft to spray it on forests, jungles, and other vegetation judged to be hiding places for Communist armed personnel, causing trees and other plants to shed their leaves, thereby discovering the enemy."

"From the 1960s to the 70s, the United States was mired in the quagmire of the Vietnam War. The Viet Cong guerrillas appeared and disappeared in the dense jungles, attacking from the east and striking from the west, leaving the U. S. military dizzy. In order to change this passive situation, the U. S. Air Force implemented a 'Ranch Hand Operation Plan'."

"They used aircraft to spray 76 million liters of defoliant herbicide into the Vietnamese jungles, clearing away the trees that blocked out the sky. The U. S. military also used this herbicide to destroy Vietnam's rice and other crops, directly leading to a 34 percent reduction in Vietnam's food production, causing misery throughout Vietnam."

"There was actually such a thing? They used chemical weapons?" Ye Nan widened his eyes, somewhat incredulous. He was not a history expert and was not familiar with that war. He only knew that the war ended in American failure, but he never expected that the U. S. military would actually use chemical weapons.

"Agent Orange is not a chemical weapon. It forms a waterproof layer on the surface of plants. Theoretically, no plant can escape the fate of being destroyed by Agent Orange," Stark said.

Actually, he hadn't finished speaking. Agent Orange was indeed not a chemical weapon, but it contained trichlorophenol and 2,4-dichlorophenoxyacetic acid. Once it entered the human body, it would cause various sequelae. Thirty percent of the offspring of veterans who participated in the Vietnam War were deformed children.

"You mean we should use Agent Orange?" Ye Nan was tempted. Something like Agent Orange could powerfully remove vegetation, making Eywa blind and deaf, and could also starve a large number of animals, which was equivalent to directly reducing the number of enemies.

"Isn't this a bit too cruel?" Ye Nan hesitated, not knowing what to do. He kept saying he wanted to kill all the creatures on this planet, but when he really had to make a decision, he hesitated again.

He was not a hero, but he was not a villain who would stop at nothing for victory.

"Actually, I originally intended to suggest you use the T-virus, but considering that the T-virus would create a large number of zombies, I extinguished that idea," Stark said with a bitter smile, a sense of guilt welling up in his heart.

Once upon a time, he was a pacifist. He hoped the government would use the weapons he researched to protect its citizens. His thoughts were the same as his father's: narrow the gap in weapons between countries, make governments wary of each other, and thereby bring about peace....

But now, he had violated his original intention. He had insanely suggested that Ye Nan use a weapon like Agent Orange, which had significant sequelae. He himself didn't know why.

"Perhaps it's because of brotherhood." Stark smiled bitterly, his gaze falling on Ye Nan's face as he was lost in thought. He opened his mouth, wanting to say something, but closed it again.

His mood was very complicated now. He hoped Ye Nan would not adopt his suggestion, because his suggestion would lead to Pan Duola being barren for the next twenty years. But he also hoped Ye Nan would adopt his suggestion, because this suggestion was almost the easiest way to take Pan Duola.

"Stark, I find you've given me a difficult problem," Ye Nan scratched his hair, his face full of worry.

On one side was moral conscience, and on the other was the consequence of ending the war quickly. The two choices were like devils fighting in his mind, giving him a splitting headache.

"Is there any other method?"

"The other method is to continue fighting according to your established plan, but no one can say when it will end," Stark spread his hands and revealed a smile.

"This is the real Ye Nan, that contradictory body of kindness and ruthlessness."

If Ye Nan had agreed without hesitation, Stark would have doubted whether he had misjudged the person. If Ye Nan had refused, Stark would have thought Ye Nan was hypocritical.

This was not Stark testing Ye Nan, but Stark's own wild thoughts. He didn't know why, but he just wanted to know what kind of choice Ye Nan would make between these two options. The result surprised him, yet it was also within his expectations.

"I don't want to choose either of these methods," Ye Nan smiled faintly, suddenly feeling confident.

"Not choose?" Stark looked at Ye Nan in surprise, wanting to see what trick Ye Nan was playing.

"I choose to do it according to my own method. I am going to slay Eywa." (To be continued...)

s ===== CHAPTER 349 =====