Chapter 415 Capturing Mutants
Hiding in a dungeon doesn't mean you can live in peace.
The dungeon is just a solid residence. If they want to keep the residence solid, they must go out to find necessary living supplies, such as ores.
Without ore, they couldn't produce steel and wires. Without the ability to make more steel, this sturdy residence couldn't be expanded. When the outer walls of the underground city aged and fell off, their death would not be far away.
In order to strengthen and expand the dungeon, going out to look for supplies is a necessary task.
Now, the teams going out not only have to face unpredictable weather, but also have to deal with those mutated survivors with strange growths, making the task of collecting supplies doubly difficult.
After Yu Jie learned that the survivors outside had suddenly mutated, she immediately sent Lu Lanshan to lead a team to investigate the situation and find out the reason for the mutation of the survivors.
"At first, Yu Jie also suspected that it was the meteorite that caused the mutation of the survivors, but after several tests, it was found that the meteorite was just a meteorite. It did not carry any special energy or radiation, only some random minerals."
Jiang Yue took a sip of water and continued, "Now they are still testing how many kinds of minerals the meteorite contains. They plan to build a factory outside the underground city to decompose the meteorite to extract useful minerals and send them to the underground city for steelmaking."
Xia Xiaoman was a little skeptical when she heard this. "Steelmaking requires a lot of processes, and it also requires a steelmaking furnace and a cooling tower."
"I've seen cooling towers in steel mills. One cooling tower is almost as big as a football field. Even a smaller cooling tower is as big as a basketball court. Where in the underground city is there such a large space to build a cooling tower?"
And steelmaking requires a lot of coal. Fucheng doesn't have a coal mine, so if you want coal, you need to transport it from Yancheng. Yancheng is unlikely to provide Fucheng with so much coal.
Qiao Wan, who was standing by, said, "Steelmaking doesn't have to be so troublesome now. The capital has developed a steelmaking method that uses the least amount of fuel to make good steel, and there's no need to build the big chimney you mentioned."
"But the prerequisite is that the impurities in the iron ore must be removed. The steel I brought from Tibet before was made using that method."
If they had produced steel according to the steel mill's configuration before the natural disaster, they would probably have been killed by the meteorite shower before the steel mill was built.
Xia Xiaoman asked: "How do we solve the fuel problem? Is Yancheng willing to provide us with coal?"
Jiang Yue shook her head. "No need for Yancheng to provide it. The temperature at which the snow vine burns can achieve the effect of steelmaking. The Agricultural Affairs Office has improved the growth rate of the snow vine and plans to open up a separate space specifically for growing snow vines."
"The main problem now is not how to make steel, but how to build factories outside."
The group of mutant survivors had been staying near the exit of the dungeon, staring at them with eager eyes. It was difficult for them to even go out, let alone build a factory.
Xia Xiaoman spread her hands and said, "This is a problem that Mayor Yu should be worried about."
Jiang Yue smiled and said, "Don't act like you don't care. Before leaving, Lu Lanshan suggested to Yu Jie that there were too many people in the underground city who had nothing to do. He suggested that Yu Jie formulate a policy to let those who have no work in the underground city form teams to go out and capture the mutant survivors."
Xia Xiaoman frowned, "Capture mutant survivors? Are you going to do human experiments?"
Jiang Yue shook her head and said, "It's not a human experiment. I just want to study why they mutate."
Qiao Wan said: "Isn't this still a human experiment?"
"Human experiments are inhumane experiments on ordinary people. Yu Jie at most locked up these mutant survivors for observation, or drew blood from them for analysis. She was not so cruel as to disembowel and dismember the survivors."
Jiang Yue brought the topic back to the topic. "Rather than worrying about human experiments, you should worry about yourselves first! The policy for going out to capture mutant survivors has not yet been announced, but from what I heard from Lu Lanshan, I think he wants to force you to go out and capture mutant survivors."
Too many people means chaos. Hundreds of thousands of survivors live together in a small underground city, and the security guards may encounter five or six fights a day.
Lu Lanshan believed that this was because there were not enough jobs in the dungeon and some survivors had nothing to do, so they started looking for trouble everywhere.
It just so happens that there are mutants causing trouble outside the dungeon right now. Letting these idle survivors go out to catch mutants can not only consume their vigorous energy, but also earn points and help the authorities solve the problem of mutants causing trouble. It is a three-pronged approach.
Qiao Wan immediately distanced herself from the matter and said, "Capturing mutants has nothing to do with me. I have a jade space on me. Mayor Yu would never send me to capture mutants."
Xia Xiaoman also said nonchalantly: "This has nothing to do with me. You are talking about people who have no job and nothing to do, who are likely to be sent out to catch mutants. I have a stable job now, and I don't cause trouble normally. It's not my turn to be sent out to catch mutants."
Jiang Yue shrugged. No one could predict what would happen in the future. When Lu Lanshan came back, they would know whether they should capture the mutants.
…
Knowing that there are mutants outside the underground city, Xia Xiaoman pays special attention to the news column of Xinfu City every day to see if there is any news about the mutants.
Sometimes when meeting Director Hou, Xia Xiaoman would ask him about the news of mutants. But Director Hou didn't seem to pay attention to such news, but was more concerned about the situation of Maodan and Nini.
"I just checked the surveillance video. Maodan licked Nini's fur today. This is a good sign. Maybe they will be together in two days. Xiaoman, when you go back tonight, you should have a good talk with Maodan and ask him to work harder to get Nini pregnant as soon as possible."
The corners of Xia Xiaoman's mouth twitched. Seeing Director Hou's enthusiastic attitude, people who didn't know him would think that he was eager to have a grandson.
"I got it. I'll talk to Maodan when I get back." Xia Xiaoman responded, and then took Maodan home quickly after get off work to avoid being nagged by Director Hou again.
Halfway through the walk, Xia Xiaoman saw Wen Ling, who was supposed to be in class at school, standing at the entrance of the alley talking to someone.
"Lingling, why are you here? Don't you have class today?"
Wen Ling was startled when she heard Xia Xiaoman's voice. She turned around and walked quickly to Xia Xiaoman, stopping her from walking into the alley. "Sister Xiaoman, are you off work?"
Xia Xiaoman frowned and said, "Don't change the subject. Who were you talking to just now? You skipped class during school hours. Do you want to be as rebellious as your brother?"
Wen Ling felt a little guilty. "I, I didn't skip class on purpose. My brother sent me a message asking me to borrow points, and I was afraid that he would go hungry without points, so..."
"Sister Xiaoman, can you not tell Aunt Yu'e about me skipping classes? I don't want to make her angry." Wen Ling looked at Xia Xiaoman pleadingly.
Xia Xiaoman glared at her, "You knew Sister Yu'e would be angry, but you still dared to skip class! And Sister Yu'e has already said that people from Lingxu's gang are not allowed to help Wenxu, and you still dared to come out to meet him and give him points. You are really bold."
Wen Ling lowered her head and whispered, "He is my brother, I can't just ignore him!"
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