Chapter 542 - 531: Life Number One_1

"What? Say that again?"

Nakayama Juji could hardly believe the contents of the phone call and asked the other party to repeat it, then he heard the person from the Defense Ministry say with a change of pitch:

"A radiation dust collector has already taken off from Hawaii and is expected to arrive at the Ryukyu Base in half an hour. Meanwhile, the Pacific Fleet has turned the 120-kilometer area around Fukushima into a military control zone.

According to the information we’ve gathered, the populations of nine cities in the vicinity need to be relocated for at least three years, and nineteen cities need to evacuate temporarily for over three months.

Also, the Edo Electric Power Company has been approached, likely to discuss the response to the electromagnetic pulse issue.

Your Excellency, they’re serious this time!"

"Stupid fool!"

Nakayama Juji paced back and forth in his office, getting angry. Since even the Pacific Fleet was ready, he obviously had no countermeasures of his own.

He did not dare to imagine his fate after being hit by a nuclear blast again. He could very well be joining Kishimoto soon and would certainly become a sinner for all eternity.

Fukushima is only 200 kilometers from Edo, while Nagasaki and Hiroshima are nearly 1000 kilometers away. So close, he feared that even in Chiyoda one could feel the vibrations of a nuclear explosion!

The mere thought of such a scenario made one’s scalp tingle. The Soul Summoning Society had been burned down two months ago and had not even started reconstruction work. Why did he have to face such disasters as soon as he took office?

Resisting was absolutely impossible, so now there was only one path left.

"Run away!"

...

"Nakayama Juji has been hospitalized with a severe intestinal infection and is currently unconscious and undergoing resuscitation."

"Leader of the Liberal Democratic Society, Nakayama Juji, suddenly fell ill and fainted during a public appearance. His bodyguards claim that his continuous work despite being sick led to the deterioration of his health."

"Rumi Yasuhiro agrees with the disposal suggestions of the IAEA and expresses high praise for their responsible attitude."

"Insiders reveal that the IAEA’s fundraising in the Island Country has exceeded 15 million US dollars, and the amount is still growing."

"Survivors from Nagasaki speak out: The hazards of properly using nuclear devices are controllable."

"..."

Xie Miao looked at these absurd trending topics on social media and voiced a very sincere question:

"Are Islanders so eager to bomb themselves?"

"Who knows, maybe two isn’t enough, haha."

Luo Han, on the other hand, didn’t seem to care at all and curiously fumbled around in the biology lab.

"If you ask me, America must be controlling the narrative. It’s strange that no media is coming out to challenge this... hey hey hey, don’t touch anything without gloves!"

With an annoyed pout, Luo Han withdrew his hand just shy of touching the pot of green plants:

"You didn’t close the incubator, and now even plants are off-limits?"

"That’s my apprentice’s final project, genetically modified alfalfa. Something went wrong and it’s exceptionally delicate, almost like a mimosa.

Out of five plants, this is the only survivor left. If you mess it up, he might have to delay his graduation."

"..."

Luo Han finally retracted his hand, and made his way through the lab with even more caution than before. This place actually belonged to the semi-public area outside, so there was nothing particularly top-secret around.

Last year, the smart farm project he took over was a great success, but it received almost no market response, and was later redirected by Lin Ju to study how to cultivate crops outside Earth.

If they wanted to achieve self-sufficiency in supply at extraterrestrial bases and have fresh food instead of chewing on synthetic starch, establishing plantations was essential.

Although soilless cultivation was also feasible, its application scope and adaptability were definitely not as good as that of soil, which was also easier to obtain.

The soils of the Moon and Mars were their main research targets. Actually, direct cultivation on these lands wasn’t entirely out of the question. During the Apollo program, NACA had already conducted experiments. For instance, bean sprouts could still root and sprout in lunar soil (Earth environment), albeit with slow development and severe malnutrition.

But in fact, both are rich in a variety of elements. As long as the missing ones are added and properly mixed, the cultivation effect is estimated to be quite good.

Meanwhile, research on soilless cultivation was also progressing in parallel. Both directions saw very slow progress initially due to the lack of sample data from Mars and the Moon until the Dawn 2 mission brought back a lot of lunar soil, which led to a major breakthrough.

Essentially, 80% of the Moon soil allocated to New Yuan was used by Luo Han for experiments in synthesizing soil, and Laboratory No. 304 for Biological Experiments also joined in, attempting to adaptively modify the plants being grown.

As for the plants being cultivated, they were focused on bok choy, rapeseed, lettuce, cucumbers, tomatoes, potatoes, radishes, onions, and other varieties that had been relatively maturely cultivated in space and had not shown much mutation. The biological lab found these tasks fairly manageable.

Following Xie Miao, Luo Han walked all the way to the underground level of the lab, then took down a slender container from an open cabinet, which stored about 60 milliliters of a transparent, viscous liquid.

This was the "Life No. 1" soil quality improvement agent developed through cooperation, which, when used, required the acquisition of the weathered layer of lunar soil from the Moon’s surface first. After being sieved through specialized equipment to remove most metals and metal compounds and crushing it, it’s placed in a closed planting greenhouse. "Life No. 1" and purified water are then added in proportion and stirred evenly.

After completion of stirring, a rich variety of meticulously prepared microbial strains are added. It’s spread flat in the cultivation area and after about 15 days, the soil gradually improves and becomes suitable for the growth of most plants.

Combined with drip irrigation technology, they could basically produce a continuous supply of fresh fruits and vegetables needed by astronauts, with only seeds, "Life No. 1," and microbial strains needing to be brought from Earth. If different crops are rotated according to a certain pattern, it’s also possible to rapidly enhance soil fertility within a few years, hardly distinguishable from Earth’s soil.

And now, what they needed to do was to prepare the first batch of agents suitable for application on the Moon, which would be quickly put into the preliminary construction on the Moon after November.

Here were also the plants grown from the first batch of Moon soil with "Life No. 1" added. Luo Han carefully observed and recorded their state while also casually asking Xie Miao:

"Hey, where are those Little Green Giants of yours, I haven’t seen them around."

Xie Miao immediately sighed and said helplessly:

"The human trials for the No. 304 Injection have to be paused for a month; they’re all undergoing comprehensive examinations that include DNA sequencing right now."

"What happened? Wasn’t it said that the effects had already stabilized?"

Luo Han was surprised. The volunteers who received the No. 304 injection were as strong as oxen, with weekly exams; that shouldn’t have been.

"It’s Liu Si, our first volunteer, who died."

"Died?!"

"The cause is rather complicated. He concealed his history of drug addiction from us, and he may have been subjected to undue psychological stress after being taken in for questioning recently, leading to heart failure and unsuccessful resuscitation.

Actually, I was already curious why some symptoms that shouldn’t have appeared on him did. Now with his death, we can’t completely rule out a connection to the injection, so we have to stop and check everything."

Luo Han clicked his tongue a few times, then asked again:

"What about your other derivative projects? Weren’t you aiming to develop a drug that would allow people to continually replace their teeth?"

"Oh, that? I’ve already tried it on a gorilla."

"And the result?"

Xie Miao: "So far, Sun has changed his teeth three times in 40 days, and I have no idea when it will stop."