Chapter 277: Degeneration

"Dr. Yi, Deputy Director-General Tan Xin wants you to make a trip."

The sudden voice, made Dr. Yi who was in a muddle-headed state abruptly recover his senses.

In front of the Glass observation room on the third floor, Dr. Yi didn't know how long he had already sat on the ground for. He moved his gaze away from the empty Hibernation Chamber, slowly raising his head, answering hoarsely:

"...I know."

"He told you to be faster... the matter is urgent."

He stumbled and stood up from the ground, reluctantly stabilizing his figure under the crowd's support, walking towards outside the base.

The Aurora Base at this moment had already recovered its original order, it was just the laboratories on the third floor were already thoroughly scrapped. Dr. Yi returned to the surface. A black vehicle had already waited at the entrance for a long time.

At the same time, Dr. Yi couldn't help but shiver.

"So cold... the surface temperature, has already reached this degree?"

Facts proved, Tan Xin this time was indeed very anxious. The vehicle's speed had already been elevated to the limit, driving straight towards the direction of the headquarters.

In just ten short minutes, Dr. Yi arrived at the entrance of Tan Xin's office, pushing the door and entering.

"You finally came."

Tan Xin's voice rang out. The him at this moment, was currently standing beside the office window, using a pot of boiling hot water to irrigate the Glass sealed to death by ice frost. Snow-white mist steamed up for merely a few seconds, then thoroughly dissipated.

Relying on this brief temperature rise, Tan Xin forcefully closed the window thoroughly tight. Looking at the window which was sealed to death again in the next moment, he let out a long sigh.

"...Mm." Dr. Yi lowered his head, muffledly uttering an 'mm'.

"The matters of the Aurora Base, I've heard." Tan Xin turned around saying, "In your eyes, how much time does the Aurora City still have left?"

Dr. Yi was silent for a moment, slowly speaking, "If the Lord of the Aurora is still deeply sleeping, there would probably still be less than forty days of time... but now that he's woken up, the various organs will accelerate aging at an astonishing speed. Specifically how fast, I also have no way to estimate... but it absolutely will not exceed three days."

"If we find him, is it possible to make him go back to deep sleep again?"

"No." Dr. Yi decisively rejected. "The us right now, fundamentally do not have the technology of over three hundred years ago. Furthermore even if we did, with his bodily function degeneration speed, it also couldn't be extended for a few days."

A touch of complexity flashed past in Tan Xin's eyes. His finger joints gently knocked on the desktop. Not knowing how long passed, he nodded.

"Also true, even if he didn't wake up today, the Aurora City is nothing more than Barely Clinging to Life... Now that he woke up in advance, it is instead a good thing, saving the trouble of having many dreams during a long night."

"So, you agreed to the Leader's 'Reappearance' plan?"

Hearing this sentence, Tan Xin's movements paused slightly, not answering directly, but rather calmly asking in return:

"How many years has it already been since you last returned to the surface?"

"Probably fourteen or fifteen years."

"Coming up this time, do you feel there is anywhere not right?"

"Yes." Dr. Yi glanced at the window sealed by ice frost. "The surface temperature is too low... In my memories, the Aurora City has never had this kind of temperature. It should be the aurora weakening, resulting in the low temperatures of the Forbidden Sea invading into the city causing it?"

"That's right."

Tan Xin pointed at the thermometer on the desk. "The outdoor temperature now, is already approaching negative forty degrees, and right now it is still dropping at a speed of 1.5 degrees per hour..."

"Negative forty degrees? This can already freeze people to death." Dr. Yi's brows locked tightly. "Under this temperature one absolutely cannot casually walk around outdoors, otherwise after a long time, people will lose their lives due to hypothermia... Staying inside a room with heating, it should be fine."

"This is exactly the crux of the problem, the Aurora City's centralized heating system... has thoroughly failed."

"What??" Dr. Yi's face was full of astonishment. "How could it be like this?"

Tan Xin took a deep breath, slowly spitting out four characters:

"Scientific regression."

"Something failed again? What is it that failed this time??"

Tan Xin pulled open the drawer, placing an item on the desktop. The instant he saw that thing, Dr. Yi blanked out.

"...Pump?"

"To speak accurately, it is an electricity-driven Pump." Tan Xin pointed at the water pump on the desk, his voice incomparably solemn. "Countless numbers of this kind of thing, constitute our centralized heating system, responsible for pressurizing the hot water produced by the Boiler Factories of each district, guaranteeing the hot water can cover every building inside the district through the pipe network... And now, they have all failed.

Although the Boiler Factories can normally produce hot water now, but without pressure to serve as drive, the range it can cover is extremely limited. About seventy percent of the places in the entire Aurora City are unable to be heated... In other words, their homes and the outside world's temperature are completely identical..."

Dr. Yi swallowed a mouthful of saliva, muttering to himself: "Pump... damn it... how could it be like this..."

"Dr. Yi, you are the Aurora City's most top-tier scientific research talent. Do you have a way to fix it, or find some other method to replace it?"

"Let me think... don't be anxious! Let me think!!"

Dr. Yi's both hands desperately began scratching his head. His whole person began pacing back and forth in the room. His eyes were bloodshot from anxiety. "The working principle of a pump is quite simple, it's merely pressurizing the liquid through a screw or impeller that's all... Then where does the problem lie... Right ah, where the f*ck does the problem actually lie?!

Is it a problem of electricity drive? But elevators can clearly all be used, why moving onto the pump it cannot be used anymore?? This fundamentally is not scientific!

Like this again... like this again!! This dog-fcking world, fundamentally does not talk about fcking science!!!"

"Dr. Yi! Calm down a bit!"

"Calm down... I can calm down... Let me think again... The main problem faced right now is pressurizing the water flow. Even if there is no electricity drive, it can also be changed into something else... For example changing pressure into gravity circulation, utilizing the high and low position difference, to let water flow be transported through gravity... But the Aurora City fundamentally is a plain, and additionally temporarily building it high up for construction is also too late now... Then change a driving method? Change to manpower drive? No... cannot, there fundamentally are not that many hands, able to output enough pressure to cover the Aurora City... Steam engine? Right! Steam engines can still be used! We can change all pumps into steam drive!"

Dr. Yi's both hands heavily patted on the desktop, a touch of faint light lighting up in his eyes.

"Give me one hour... No! Half an hour... fifteen minutes!!" Dr. Yi spoke excitedly. "Give me fifteen minutes! I will immediately draw out the modification blueprints for the water pumps! As long as their driving method is altered, it certainly can be fixed!"

Tan Xin lowered his head taking a glance at the time. Opening his mouth wanting to say something, but ultimately he still didn't say it out.

Dr. Yi already couldn't make it in time to wait for his reply. Turning his head he wildly sprinted outwards. This was the first time in his so many years, to run this rapidly...

Looking at his departing back figure, Tan Xin helplessly sighed.