[Chapter 72 Unknown Crystal Ore]
Ore Soon, the fully armed Mark Watney, under the protection of a full set of space suits, dug out two crystals from the land behind David’s cabin.
David, who used holy light to protect himself and watched the whole process, found that the two crystals were actually connected to a fist-sized, spherical transparent crystal. At the same time, when Mark carefully wanted to take out the crystal, he found that he pulled the pink crystal from the “root” with a little force.
“…” Mark glanced at David next to him: “I didn’t expect this thing to be so fragile.”
“It doesn’t matter, it’s convenient to store it separately.” From this point of view, this crystal suspected to be a mineral is divided into three parts, a slightly larger pink crystal, a long columnar blue-purple crystal that is much smaller than the pink crystal, and the spherical part dug out from the soil at the end.
Mark still didn’t use much force, but the long columnar blue-purple crystal was still “pulled” down by him, shrugged and put it in a separate storage box. According to Mark’s introduction, this box is used to store samples in the Mars base, which can isolate radiation to a certain extent.
Before confirming whether this crystal has harmful radiation, storing it seems to be the most reliable choice.
“What if this kind of crystal continues to grow here?” Putting the three parts into three boxes, Mark looked at the small deep pit in front of him, curious about what strange things will grow here in the future?
“It doesn’t matter as long as it is confirmed that there is no harmful radiation.” David looked at the last round part. He felt that this part was the key, and he could feel that it contained energy.
The other two crystals also contained energy and gave him a very pure feeling.
Even so, David did not rashly make any contact before confirming that it was safe. Anyway, it would not take long to test it, so there was no need to rush.
Through the short observation just now, he felt that these crystals should not be the Tiberium ore that he was most worried about.
Tiberium ore comes from the world of Command and Conquer, and it came to the earth through the fall of meteorites. After this strange substance comes into contact with the earth, it will constantly absorb various minerals around it, condense them into crystal clusters and jump out of the surface.
Tiberium ore has green ‘basic version’ and blue ‘upgraded version’, and there will be ‘seaweed version’ and other color versions later. But no matter which one it is, Tiberium ore contains various mineral elements and also has strong radiation and toxicity. Contacting this mineral without any protection is to seek death. What
makes David a little happy is that Lieutenant Eva McKenna is not from the world line of Command and Conquer. In the world line of Red Alert where she lives, although there are various minerals that are suspected to be Tiberium ore with a different skin, these minerals do not have those fatal side effects. Maybe what he got is this improved version?
“But even if it is an improved version, it seems to be useless!” Tiberium ore can absorb various minerals around it and grow, which is a great convenience for humans to mine various minerals, but correspondingly, special equipment is needed to decompose the various mineral elements in Tiberium crystals.
In addition, the so-called Tiberium ore with a different skin mainly exists in the two generations of Red Alert 1 and Red Alert 2. Eva comes from the world of Red Alert 3. The mines in that world should be dug out from the ground with special equipment.
“So… what on earth did Eva reward me?”
David, with a head full of question marks, stopped his ‘praying’ and washed himself with holy light several times in a row. He firmly believed that even if there was radiation, it had been ‘purified’ now.
After a while, Mark had also returned and had taken off his space suit.
“It seems to be safe for the time being.”
“Yes.” Mark did not take the three boxes with him, but left them in the laboratory of the Mars base: “The energy radiation of the spherical crystal is the largest, but it is harmless to the human body.”
Any object with energy has radiation, but not all radiation is harmful to humans. The crystal ore that grew behind David’s house this time has not been found to be harmful to the human body.
“But it will take more time to really determine whether it is harmful.” Now it is only confirmed that this thing will not pose an immediate threat to human health, but whether it is safe to contact for a long time needs to be observed.
Mark’s Mars base is a very good place. There are various equipment and a special isolation area. There is no need to worry about the crystal being stolen suddenly when it is placed there.
“Continue to observe for a while…”
“If there is no harm, how do you plan to use that thing?”
“I don’t know either.” David really hadn’t thought about this question: “Next, you can observe the specific composition of these crystals.”
If Mark can find various mineral components in it, it means that this thing is a pure version of Tiberium ore, and how to use these special minerals is another headache.
“If Van Cleef and his men come, there are many miners and blacksmiths among them, and they may be able to figure out how to use this strange mineral.” There are also many strange minerals in the world of Azeroth. The miners and blacksmiths in that world should have rich experience in this area. Even if there are no such talents in Van Cleef’s Stonemason Guild, Fording can go to Ironforge to ask the dwarves for help.
The two stood here and chatted for a while, and saw Laura leading Eva back from a distance, accompanied by Peggy and Sharon.
Peggy and Eva were chatting happily. They were both from England and were both soldiers, so the two women had enough common topics.
In addition, because Laura’s figure was very different from Eva’s, Captain Carter, the tall, long-legged and broad-minded Union Jack woman, was closer to Eva’s figure, so the new clothes on Eva should be Peggy’s.
The four women lined up, chatting and laughing all the way to David and Mark. Eva looked much better than before: “Village Chief David, Winter Village is a very beautiful place. I am very happy to be here.”
By the way, she thanked David for agreeing to let her stay. After all, David and Winter Village completely kept her away from the threat of the Empire of the Rising Sun, and this place was not the “backward country village” she had originally thought. While visiting, she learned more information from Laura, and Eva realized what Winter Village was like. Although
it looked backward, there were residents from various worlds. Winter Village could get advanced machinery and equipment, and various daily necessities that she was used to using could also be seen here.
She didn’t have to worry about food. At present, Winter Village still had a centralized supply system. As long as she went to the cafeteria on time, she could eat delicious meals.
As for the others, everyone did what they were good at according to their own abilities. Eva had begun to think about what she was good at – it seemed that she had been doing clerical work before?
Looking around, Eva felt that this small village didn’t seem to have so much paperwork. Maybe she should do some physical work within her ability like Sharon and Peggy, whom she just met. After all, she had a body similar to Peggy’s, so she should be able to do those jobs.
Coming from a world like Red Alert that was completely different from the ordinary Earth, Eva, who had no idea what Peggy was like, didn’t know what Captain Carter was, and regarded Carter and Sharon as ordinary people.
So, the next day when she saw Captain Carter and Sharon Rogers easily carrying, lifting, and throwing the huge log aside, she began to doubt the level of military training she had received.
Did the instructor at that time let her go? Why was there such a big gap between her and Peggy, both of whom were British female soldiers?
“No, this is obviously not something that ordinary humans can do!”
Fortunately, Eva only looked cute and not really stupid. She quickly realized that the two in front of her were not normal people at all. It was at this time that Eva knew what a super soldier was.
While Eva was learning new knowledge, David met Edwin Van Cleef again.
The head of the Stonemasons Guild and the current founder of the Defias Brotherhood looked unhappy. He seemed to be enveloped by a low pressure, as if he was ready to pick up a cruel hook and chop people into pulp at any time.
“What’s wrong with him?” David could feel that Van Cleef’s anger was not directed at him, so he turned his head and asked Fording beside him.
“After Edwin went back, he gathered his partners in the Stonemasons Guild to discuss the plan of moving to Winter Village together. It was at this time that he realized that the Defias Brotherhood was not under his control at all.”
According to Fording’s account, Van Cleef noticed something was wrong with the Defias Brotherhood when he gathered his “brothers” back. When all the leaders were summoned back to the Deadmines to discuss major decisions, the Defias Brotherhood did not follow his orders to hide, but continued to act on its own.
Van Cleef, who noticed the abnormality, sent several confidants to investigate, only to find that the lower levels of the Defias Brotherhood had not received his orders at all, and were accepting various orders from unknown sources to launch wanton destruction and attacks against various parts of the Storm Kingdom.
Until this moment, Van Cleef believed what David had said to him: the Defias Brotherhood was not truly a monolithic entity.
“So, he is now willing to completely abandon those bastards?”
“Yes, after all, no one wants to be manipulated as a pawn.” Fording and David looked at each other and blinked a few times deliberately.
David saw Fording’s expression and knew that the other party had pushed for this matter.
“So, how many craftsmen and their families are willing to come to Winter Village?”
“About 400 people.”
(End of this chapter)