"Chirp chirp chirp! Chirp chirp chirp!"
"Chirp chirp chirp! Chirp chirp chirp!"
The vast expanse of white polar ice, which was once only a desolate glacier and an abandoned Chinese research station, is now teeming with life.
The tall, green trees stretch endlessly, like a jade ribbon spread across the snow-covered landscape, while countless black and white penguins skillfully weave among them.
On the ice near the sea, clusters of white tree roots are exposed to the cold wind, and through the ice, you can vaguely see juicy apples growing upside down in the seawater.
The juicy, upside-down apples cling to the dark green branches that resemble seaweed. Plump penguins skillfully hop onto the white roots and shake them vigorously, causing the spherical fruits to fall off automatically and float on the sea surface.
This is when the penguins really show off their skills.
With their extensive experience in hunting fish, adult penguins leap into the water, their plump bodies swaying as they do so like arrows released from a bow, using their heads to precisely and swiftly lift fruits to the surface.
Xu Milu also saw a penguin that didn't control its strength well when it was scooping up fruit, and as a result, its long beak broke the skin of the juicy apple.
The bright red fruit immediately burst open, spilling sweet juice all over the ground.
"Gaga gaga gaga! Gaha!"
Immediately, a penguin that was probably the leader jumped out of the group and screamed as if it were loudly reprimanding someone.
The penguins that have done something wrong will not argue, but will just lie dejectedly on the ice and stare blankly. After a while, they will regain their energy and jump into the water while calling out.
"Harvesting is underway, please give way."
"Harvesting is underway, please give way."
A mechanical, monotonous electronic voice sounded, and one by one, mechanical dogs nimbly swung their arms, picking up the fruit that the penguins had brought ashore and putting it into their portable storage boxes.
Before long, autonomous transport vehicles rumbled in and carried the ripe fruit to the warehouse for processing.
Although there are no traces of human habitation here, everything is well-organized and orderly.
If someone were to look down from high above at this moment, the Great Wall research station would resemble the eye of a giant buried underground.
The diligent work of the black and white penguins, combined with the orderly arrangement of mechanical equipment, the tall trees that nurture the abundant fruit, and the juicy apples floating in the sea, all create a scene that seems straight out of a fairy tale.
...
...
"Crack."
Xu Milu squatted on the ice, holding a freshly picked polar fast-growing tomato and taking a bite.
Fresh tomatoes have a slightly hard skin when squeezed, but you can feel their elasticity when you squeeze them hard. When you bite into one, the sweet and sour tomato juice bursts out, and the thick flesh still has some ice crystals in it, making a "crunch crunch" sound when you eat it.
—This smaller tomato was just picked off the conveyor belt by her. There are standards for picking polar fast-growing tomatoes. Those with a diameter of less than 20 centimeters are considered inferior fruits. Half of them are sent to the warehouse to be made into tomato sauce and canned, and the other half are kept to be processed into fish feed.
After all, the entire base has thousands of penguins, and they consume forty tons of fish every day. Xu Milu simply couldn't afford to raise these little creatures without setting up a marine aquaculture farm.
"Chirp!"
Perhaps it was hungry, a little penguin whose downy feathers hadn't completely shed came over and rubbed its head against her leg, its clingy behavior completely unlike that of a wild animal.
You can't eat this.
Xu Milu finished the entire tomato by sucking and gnawing on it, then grabbed a handful of snow and rubbed it in her palm before casually pulling out a live fish from her system inventory:
"You eat this."
"Chirp chirp chirp! Chirp chirp chirp!"
The little penguin happily raised its head, opened its mouth like a giant kiwi, shook its head a few times, and swallowed the whole fish. It then rubbed against Xu Milu's calf with glee.
Xu Milu played with the little penguins for a while longer before standing up and walking into the base.
Since she signed a cooperation agreement with the United Nations government, automated planting bases have sprung up like mushrooms after rain in Antarctica. The former Great Wall Research Station where she is now located, now the Shanhai Automated Planting Base, is just one of them.
Seemingly recognizing the strategic importance of Antarctica, governments around the world began building large-scale automated agricultural bases a year ago.
The "Hope" base, spearheaded by China, the "Exploration" base, spearheaded by the United States, the "Jazz" base, independently built by Russia, and the "Sakura" base, jointly built by Japan and South Korea, have all been completed and officially put into use three months ago.
In order to establish a route from automated planting bases to equatorial warehouses, the United Government has invested heavily and pooled global resources to build a transport conveyor belt from the equator to Antarctica.
This conveyor belt is 11,320 kilometers long, passing through Congo, Tanzania, Mozambique, and Madagascar, crossing the Indian Ocean, and has more than 5,000 transit stations along the way, ensuring the smooth flow of goods between the north and south.
This massive undertaking, a man-made project that consumed so much time and resources, has also been recognized as the largest, fastest-completed, and most significant livelihood project of our time.
—As long as the conveyor belt keeps running, there will be a continuous supply of materials from the planting bases along the line to various underground shelters.
While amazed, Xu Milu also realized that the United Government had already faced a shortage of supplies before she arrived on this planet.
Their willingness to go to any lengths to build the conveyor belt indicates that the United Government has begun to shift its strategic focus toward Antarctica.
Antarctica's temperatures are too low to be suitable for human survival, but that was before the advent of polar fast-growing tomatoes and various cold-loving plants.
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