Chapter 191

Su Jing placed her palm on the metal platform in the center of the villa's courtyard. A pale blue spatial energy fluctuation flashed, and a pile of high-purity quartz sand and silver-gray manganese crystal additives poured out from the space, landing in front of the large furnace next to the platform.

These were the raw materials she collected yesterday from the ruins of the abandoned city laboratory, specifically for making acid-resistant glass. At this moment, the furnace temperature had been preheated to 1600℃, the furnace walls glowed with a dark red light, and the hot air wafting from the furnace mouth carried a slightly metallic smell, waiting for the raw materials to be added.

"Su Jing, will these 'white stones' really be able to block acid rain after they melt?"

Little Jin peeked out from the backpack on his chest, his little paws gripping the edge of the backpack, his dark eyes staring at the quartz sand, a voice in his mind filled with curiosity, "Yesterday I smelled the sheet metal outside was 'smelling' from the acid rain, and even the manganese crystal support was a bit rusty, will this glass get damaged by the rain?"

Su Jing picked up an alloy shovel and mixed the quartz sand and manganese crystal additive in a 9:1 ratio. Her movements were precise, and not a single piece of material was spilled. "Ordinary glass will be corroded by acid rain, but after adding manganese crystal, a nano-level anti-acid film will form on the surface of the glass when it cools down. It's like putting a protective coat on the glass, which is ten times more durable than the anti-acid coating that was applied to the instruments before."

She poured the mixed raw materials into the furnace feed inlet, pressed her fingertip on the temperature control panel, and the red number instantly jumped to 1750℃. "This temperature allows the manganese crystals to completely integrate into the glass melt without leaving any impurities. Otherwise, there will be spots on the glass, which will affect the acid resistance."

The furnace emitted a low hum, and the molten glass gradually became transparent inside.

Taking advantage of the melting interval, Su Jing took out the manganese crystal strips left over from the dismantling of the villa from her space. These strips had been treated with acid resistance and were three times harder than ordinary steel.

She activated her mineral powers, and pale blue energy swirled around the surface of the thin strips, bending them one by one into arcs. Following the outline of the villa and yard, she fixed 24 supports on the ground: each support was 8 meters high, with its bottom buried 1 meter underground, and the top was spliced ​​together with manganese crystal connectors to form a ring frame, creating the skeleton of the glass dome. From a distance, it looked like a huge metal ring covering the villa.

"Su Jing! That support on the west side is crooked!" Xiao Jin suddenly ran to the west side of the frame and patted a thin strip with her little paw. "It's 1 centimeter shorter than the one next to it. There will be gaps when we put the glass together, and acid rain will seep in!"

Su Jing walked over, took out a portable level, and stuck it on the bracket—the bubble was indeed tilted to one side, because the gravel on the ground had bumped against it when it was fixed.

She gently lifted the support frame with her superpower, while having Robot No. 4 place a manganese chip at the bottom of the frame until the bubble in the level was centered. Then she released her superpower: "Okay, now it's all together. There won't be any gaps when we put the glass together."

The furnace's indicator light illuminated, showing that the molten glass had reached the pouring temperature. Su Jing activated her flight ability, lifting herself 3 meters into the air, and manipulated the robotic arm to retrieve the transparent molten glass from the furnace, slowly pouring it into a pre-made metal mold—

She had made the molds in advance to the required dimensions. Each piece of glass was 2 meters long and 1.5 meters wide, with grooves along the edges to facilitate the insertion of sealant during assembly. After the molten glass cooled in the mold for 30 minutes, it became clear, acid-resistant glass with a faint silver sheen on its surface. Su Jing used her special ability to gently lift the glass, align it with the slots on the support, and slowly lower it, her movements as gentle as if she were handling fragile porcelain.

“Each piece of glass must be securely fastened, and the sealant must be applied to the entire groove, leaving no gaps.”

As Su Jing spoke, she took out an acid-resistant sealant from her spatial storage and used a glue gun to evenly fill the grooves on the edge of the glass. This sealant was made by mixing manganese crystal powder and acid-resistant resin. After curing, its hardness was comparable to that of metal, and it could also resist strong acids with a pH value below 2.0.

Little Jin lay on the support frame, sniffed the sealant with her little nose, and said with a reassuring voice in her mind, "The sealant smells 'hard,' just like manganese crystal. It should be able to block acid water!"

The splicing work lasted for three hours: Su Jing used her flying ability to travel back and forth between the various layers of the support frame, splicing the glass piece by piece from bottom to top;

Robot No. 4 is responsible for delivering glass and sealant to ensure uninterrupted supply;

Xiao Jin was in charge of checking the gaps. If she found that the sealant was not applied completely, she would use her little paws to tug at Su Jing's trouser leg to remind her.

When the last piece of top glass was inserted into the slot, the entire glass dome was finally completed—a giant transparent dome, 30 meters in diameter and 8 meters high, completely covered the villa and the entire yard, resembling an inverted giant glass bowl.

Sunlight streamed through the glass, casting dappled shadows on the ground, even covering the protective netting at the villa's entrance.

"We need to test its acid resistance."

Su Jing walked outside the glass dome, took out a transparent container from her spatial storage, and collected half a bottle of acid rain.

The moment the bottle wall comes into contact with the acid, the ordinary glass container will turn white and begin to corrode.

She opened the small observation window on the side of the glass dome and slowly poured the acid rain onto the glass. The acid fell onto the glass surface without producing any white mist or corrosion marks. Instead, it flowed down the smooth glass like water droplets and dripped into the drainage ditch that had been dug in advance outside the yard, where it was directed to the low-lying area in the distance.

"It's really okay!" Xiao Jin jumped up excitedly, pressed his face against the glass and looked at the acid rain outside. "Look, the metal outside is almost rotten to dust, but our glass is completely fine!"

Su Jing nodded and checked all the connections between the brackets and the glass—the manganese crystal brackets had no rust, the sealant was completely cured, and the glass was not loose at all when pressed with her hand.

She took out 10 spare pieces of acid-resistant glass from her spatial storage and piled them at the entrance of the villa: "In case any glass is broken by falling objects later, these can be used for repairs to ensure that the cover is foolproof."

After dealing with the glass cover, Su Jing went to the monitoring room on the second floor of the villa and turned on the external monitoring. On the screen, the acid rain in the ruins continued, and the unprotected refugees huddled under the temporary rain shelter. Some people held empty water bottles and looked at the water outside the shelter with worry.

Beside a well in the distance, several refugees were scooping water with broken bowls, but none dared to drink it, clearly because they found the water to be acidic. Suddenly, Chen Yang's private message popped up on his communicator: "@IamGodofWealth, our base's water source has been contaminated by acid rain. The water tastes bitter, and two people got diarrhea after drinking it. Do you have any clean water? I'll trade you a second-tier demon core!"

Su Jing frowned and looked at the well in the courtyard inside the glass enclosure—the well water was clear and had no odor. She had previously laid two layers of acid-resistant and waterproof cloth around the well to prevent acid water from seeping into the ground.

She took out several large 50-liter water tanks from her spatial storage, filled them with well water, and knew in her heart that while the glass dome protected her villa and water source, the refugees outside faced not only the scorching pain of acid rain, but also the deadly crisis of water pollution.

She opened the system store backend, hesitating whether to list clean water, when she saw a new message pop up in her communicator: "City West Individual Investor - Li: My neighbor drank water contaminated by acid rain and is now vomiting badly and is about to die. Does anyone have clean water to save his life?"

Su Jing turned off the communicator and walked to the observation window of the glass dome, looking at the gray rain outside—her glass dome had blocked the acid rain from damaging the villa, but it couldn't stop the acid rain from seeping into the ground and polluting the water source. The crisis of displaced people dying from the poisonous water had quietly arrived.

She turned around and took out more water tanks from her space, continuing to fill them with clean water. She decided to wait until the acid rain subsided a bit before listing a small amount of clean water in the system store, which would at least save some people. At the same time, she also had to find a way to remind everyone not to drink contaminated water.