Several drones had already flown out and hovered nearby for a while, but lost track of the black shadow.

There are many trees growing around and the environment is too complicated. The black shadow doesn't look big, and it would be difficult to find it if it hides anywhere.

The drone did not withdraw but continued to hover and take charge of the surveillance.

"Take two robots to check if the monitored hard drive is still there. If it is, bring it back." Chen Xu instructed Wang Zhu beside him.

Wang Zhu picked up his weapon and got out of the car.

"What is that?"

Luo Xiyun was looking at the screen, which was fixed on the image of the black shadow that had just been captured. Although it was not very clear in the thick smoke, he could roughly make out that it looked like an elongated black figure, which looked a bit weird.

"It should be the monster in this game." Chen Xu said in a relaxed tone.

After a while, Wang Zhu came back. "The cameras were all destroyed, and the host and hard drive were destroyed. But we found these things."

This news was somewhat unexpected to Chen Xu. It was not surprising that the camera was damaged, but it was unusual to know how to destroy the host and hard drive. This meant that the intruder was likely to know these things, which meant that the enemy he was facing had a certain level of technology.

This is not good news.

These thoughts flashed through his mind, and he looked at what Wang Zhu brought with him without any expression on his face. It was a ball of kelp-like thing with traces of burning on it. It seemed to have life, trembling slightly, and green juice oozing out from time to time. It looked a bit disgusting.

Was it left by the invader?

As far as he could remember, there was no such thing in the farm.

"Put it in a sealed container and take it back for research." He ordered, and then asked, "What's inside?"

Wang Zhu replied, “All the animals were killed and all the equipment was destroyed.”

Chen Xu became more certain of his guess.

Luo Xiyun said, "Let's go back."

"Okay." Chen Xu naturally would not refuse her proposal.

…………

After returning to the base, Chen Xu first sent Luo Xiyun back to rest, and then went to the control center again to begin strengthening the base's prevention work.

When he built the farm, he took into account that wild animals might break in, so he installed weapons on the walls. Once the cameras detected wild animals approaching, the weapons would be activated and they would be killed.

This design failed to stop the black shadow, so he had to be vigilant.

If that black shadow sneaks into the base, it would be a small matter if the equipment was destroyed. But if Luo Xiyun and the others were hurt, it would be too late to regret.

"It seems that we need to develop the iron mine in advance."

Chen Xu made a decision.

In the end, the biggest reason why the farm was raided and almost ambushed him was the lack of information. If the farm could be connected to the base, he would have known immediately when the shadow appeared. It would not be like this now, where he could not even see the enemy clearly.

This incident finally made him determined to build a network at least within his sphere of influence.

Although he doesn't know how to solve the problem of wireless signal attenuation, he has another solution, which is very simple. Just build a wired network.

However, this requires laying a lot of optical cables and electrical wires, which requires a lot of human resources. More importantly, whether it is optical cables, electrical wires, or the corresponding supporting facilities, a complete set of production lines is required. This is not just one or two, but possibly more than a dozen or even dozens of lines.

Take the insulation of cables for example. First of all, there must be raw materials. Commonly used polyethylene, for example, is processed from ethylene, and industrial ethylene is separated from the gas produced in petroleum refining.

In other words, first you have to find oil, extract it, refine it, separate ethylene from the gas, process it into polyethylene, and then make it into insulators…

This involves many links, and each link may involve new links. If it continues to extend, it may eventually involve the entire industrial chain.

This is the era of large-scale industry. One link involves countless links. If there is a problem in any link, production will be impossible.

Moreover, after the production line is built, people will be needed to operate it. The human resources in the base are too tight now, and there are not enough of them.

Therefore, Chen Xu has never been able to make up his mind to do this.

Now, he could not hesitate, no matter how difficult it was, he had to do it. The enemy had already appeared, and he had a feeling that the dark shadow would be quite difficult to deal with.

"Mr. Chen."

After Chen Xu entered the room, three cyborgs in white coats stood up and saluted him.

He waved his hand, signaling them not to be polite, and asked about the business, "Feng Song, have you found anything with the samples you just sent?"

The youngest of the three said, "This should be the tissue of some kind of organism, but its cell structure is very strange. I haven't found a match or even a similar one in the biological database. It's a completely new type of organism."

Chen Xu frowned upon hearing this. There was no similar creature in the biological database. What could it be? Even the rockets on the transport vehicle could not kill it, and the speed at which the black shadow fled was also very fast.

The enemy he was about to face was really beyond his imagination.

He said, "Put aside other work on hand for the time being and study it first. If you have any results, let me know immediately."

"OK."

When Chen Xu left the medical laboratory, he was thinking about how to solve the problem of population shortage.

In this huge medical laboratory, the only person who can really be of use is Feng Song.

Feng was the ninth batch of cyborgs. At that time, he lacked capable subordinates, so he gritted his teeth and trained a group of level 4 cyborgs. The training period for this level of cyborgs was as long as one and a half years.

Each of the ten people in this group is responsible for a field, including the biology laboratory, physics laboratory, chemistry laboratory, etc.

As for the other two, they are second-level cyborgs, serving as assistants, doing some simple repetitive work in the laboratory.

The biomanufacturing room has a limited output of only ten culture tanks. The problem he faces is whether to cultivate first-level biochemicals with a short growth cycle, or to cultivate advanced biochemicals with more professional knowledge but a long growth cycle.

When Chen Xu returned to the living area, he had already made a decision in his mind.

Cultivate natural persons.

Using a biomanufacturing chamber to cultivate a natural human has the shortest cycle, and a human can be born in just one day, because the child only needs to be grown to infancy, without being ripened to adulthood or instilled with knowledge, which is the most time-consuming.

If all ten breeding tanks were used to breed natural persons, there would be more than 3,000 people in one year. Moreover, natural persons have the ability to reproduce, and after 20 to 30 years, when the second generation is born, it would be easy for the population to double. If legislation is passed to encourage more births, it would be no problem to double the population.

Before, Chen Xu had not been able to make up his mind. It was not entirely because of the long training period. More importantly, the Constitution stipulated that the free will of natural persons shall not be violated. Even if he had the highest colonial authority, he could not use machines to brainwash natural persons.

When a natural person grows up and has the ability to think independently, he must expend a lot of energy to consolidate his position.

Moreover, doing so is equivalent to creating a human society. Just thinking about it makes me feel a huge pressure.

…………

Chen Xu thought about these troublesome things, and before walking into the living area, he let out a long breath and put all those things behind him.

After all, it was all just a game. To him, it was not as important as the woman inside. He relaxed the muscles on his face, making his smile more natural, and then walked in.

At this time, it was just getting dark.

As he entered the hall, he smelled a fragrance. Looking into the kitchen, he saw Luo Xiyun standing in front of the stove, holding a spoon and tasting something.

Luo Xiyun tied her hair up at the back of her head. Chen Xu could see her profile. She looked focused, less arrogant and more peaceful than before.

At this moment, the tenderness she inadvertently revealed touched Chen Xu's heart.

"It seems a little bland." Luo Xiyun muttered to himself, as if all his feelings were gone. He turned around and looked over. When he saw him, his expression changed and became cold. He didn't even say hello to him and put the spoon back.

She took out the lunch box, filled it with soup and food, and went back to her room. She didn't say a word to him during the whole process.

Chen Xu walked into the kitchen and saw that half of the rice was left in the pot, there were vegetables and soup in the basin, which were obviously left for him.

He felt a warm current in his heart. He took out his bowl and chopsticks, stood by the stove and started to eat. After taking a bite, he seemed to have returned to the first dream...

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(End of this chapter)