Chapter 130: The Key to Opening Oasis City
Nan Guo de Xue had a very comfortable fight in the rear, because Guo Li Cheng, who was flying around in a bright red armor, at least helped distract half of the firepower for others, giving her and her teammates ample time and space to deploy their formation.
When all members of the First Battle Group entered the transport plane and gained direct line of fire, pulling out their gun lines, the battle was no longer in suspense.
For a time, sparks flew everywhere, and molten metal scattered.
The sound of high-speed metal impacts continuously entered the players' helmets, making their ears ring, and the dazzling light of plasma melee weapons cast ghostly shadows everywhere.
Among the shadows of those enemies, some were shot and flew straight backward, while others screamed and clutched their severed limbs.
Both sides actually had 30 people, but one side had already achieved a resounding victory, merely putting a perfect end to it. Rather than fighting, it was more like a joyous carnival.
As for the other side...
What if they won this battle? They would still plummet into the planetary atmosphere in despair, turning into a burning fireball, with no bodies left to collect.
So why even fight?!
Understanding this, the surviving Apollo soldiers threw down their weapons and raised their hands in surrender.
“No! No surrendering!” Male God yelled angrily on the public channel, but the other party couldn't hear him at all. “I didn't get to finish the last match, and I haven't had enough fun yet!”
“Cease fire!”
Nan Guo de Xue raised her right fist, giving the order.
“There are at least 10 auxiliary personnel in the forward cockpit. Send a five-person squad to clear them out and ensure safety.
Beware of the enemy self-destructing in a fit of rage!”
“Understood!”
A moment later, all Apollo personnel were either dead or had surrendered.
“It’s finally over.” Nan Guo de Xue once again felt that captivating, unique battlefield tranquility. He connected to the aerospace craft's communication, his voice filled with unconcealed joy.
“Reporting to the Executive Officer! Operation concluded, our side completely victorious. I will arrange for the industrial ship to retrieve the spoils of war as soon as possible! This is truly a grand gift, a real transport captain!”
Guo Li Cheng: “Yay~~~ But why do I feel like we forgot something?”
Male God: “Me too! I feel like we forgot something very important. What could it be?”
Ma Lou: “My God—I’m so done with you guys—Ye Xing and the other two are here too! Hurry up and get them out, see if they're still alive!”
The Li Star's low-Earth orbit finally returned to its former tranquility, with only the players' laughter continuously radiating outward in the form of electromagnetic waves.
An hour later, Devil Mountain Camp.
The butler elegantly walked to Lu Yuan’s side.
“Sir, your industrial ship has stored all the captured materials in the hangar, including 24 Apollo space fighters, 30 sets of power armor with varying degrees of damage, and a large quantity of light weapons. Additionally, the recent EMP also affected our own camp, and the power system is currently undergoing emergency repairs.”
“Speaking of which, it's quite impressive that you, a robot, didn't malfunction.”
Lu Yuan: “Hmm, what about the Apollo transport ship? That’s actually more important to us.”
The butler: “It’s too large to fit into the hangar. Your Engineers are temporarily securing it to the back of the industrial ship and attempting to repair it in orbit.”
“Very good.”
The consumption in this battle was only three space fighters, three nuclear warheads, 17 sets of military exoskeletons, plus a few individual sets of power armor damaged during boarding.
Completely within acceptable limits.
As for the gains, they can no longer be simply described as “a sudden windfall”; they have completely shifted the balance of power between Apollo and Cangyuan!
No, actually, that's not quite accurate. Upon closer thought, Apollo's assets in this star system have pretty much been swallowed whole by me.
The lunar mining facility can be reoccupied in minutes, the wormhole space station is likely in an undefended state,
Oasis City has almost no heavy equipment, only about 50 sets of power armor, plus some unknown equipment hidden beneath the old police station.
Holy crap—
Thinking about it this way, is my great endeavor on Li Star about to succeed?
At this thought, Lu Yuan walked out of his office, took the elevator to the mountain peak, and let the slightly radioactive Desert wind help him calm down.
He couldn't relax yet.
The Oasis City defense forces couldn't be ignored.
Moreover, what Lu Yuan was truly worried about wasn't how much damage Cole's forces could inflict on him.
“Butler.”
“I’m here, sir.”
“Help me contact Nan Guo de Xue and Ye Xing. Tell them to come see me when they return to camp. There’s an important new mission.”
“Yes, sir.”
Although the “Free Electron” operation had successfully concluded, the wrapping up of this battle would still require at least three days. Lu Yuan issued new “gold coin” missions, primarily focused on repairs.
The Engineers on the industrial ship were responsible for repairing war machines, while others were responsible for repairing circuit damage caused by the high-altitude EMP, including the main camp and Red Iron Town, as well as some surrounding villages and towns within reach.
This was also to further enhance the corporation's prestige.
Thanks to the efforts of a new batch of 6 Investigators, Cangyuan had established contact with all villages and towns west of Oasis City over the past week, offering fresh water, high-quality rice, and recently harvested eggs as introductory gifts.
The butler calculated that they could provide one-third of Red Iron Town's metal ore, as well as a significant amount of non-metallic minerals.
These villages and towns, being smaller in scale, were more cautious in their attitude, only offering some rare earths and surrounding intelligence useful to Cangyuan as a return gift.
For Lu Yuan, this was enough. He temporarily halted further negotiations with these villages and towns because, going forward,
No security guarantee would be as substantial as him taking Oasis City himself.
After Nan Guo de Xue came online, Lu Yuan found her next to the supercomputer deep inside the cave.
“Are you busy? There’s something I’d like you to take a look at for me.”
“This is—” Sister Xue took the medicine bottle Lu Yuan handed her. “A broad-spectrum cancer special medicine!? Heavens, where did it come from?”
“Hmm, stock from the aerospace craft—”
Sister Xue looked at Lu Yuan suspiciously.
“You certainly have a lot of stock.”
“You want me to analyze the active ingredients of this medicine?”
“Yes, something like that. I mainly want to know if we can mass-produce it with our current technology.”
“Okay.”
Nan Guo de Xue temporarily printed a simple instrument, dissolved and diluted the drug capsule, and after scanning the solution, obtained the molecular structure of the components.
“This...”
Her eyes lit up, staring at the image on the screen with great interest.
“What’s wrong?”
Lu Yuan also leaned in, but unfortunately, his knowledge in biological science was too lacking to discern anything.
“Interesting, it’s very different from the drugs we usually know.”
Nan Guo de Xue extended a slender finger, pointing to one end of the active ingredient in the drug on the screen, where there were four strange, hair-like things.
“Do you know what this is?”
“Looks a bit like tentacles.”
Nan Guo de Xue: “Very close. If I’m not mistaken, this structure should be a flagellar molecular motor.”
Lu Yuan: “Motor? That small?”
“Yes, the core rotor part is only 100 nanometers in diameter. The entire structure we see now is actually an artificially designed bacterium. It has a thin membrane protective sheath outside to carry the main body from the digestive system into the bloodstream. Afterward, the protective sheath detaches, the bacterium obtains energy in the blood and is activated, using its tail molecular motor to propel itself forward, efficiently identifying and hunting cancer cells in the body.”
“The bacterium's ‘belly’ contains several extra RNA strands, which can clearly produce viruses. When it identifies a cancer cell, it uses this miniature probe at its head to inject a small amount of virus, completing the killing of the cancer cell.”
“Won’t the virus damage other human cells?” Lu Yuan asked.
“It shouldn’t.” Nan Guo de Xue shook her head. “Because these viruses also show strong signs of artificial design; they cannot independently invade cell membranes. After cancer cells are killed by them, they rupture, and the large number of viruses previously replicated are released but quickly become inactive. The entire design is ingenious precisely here; rather than a bacterium, it’s more like a carbon-based nanorobot.”
Indeed, how ingenious! This is the medical level of the golden age.
It looks like a capsule, but inside are hundreds of millions of nanorobots.
Genes and such can be assembled freely, like Lego bricks.
And the most convenient part is that the capsule can be taken orally, without needing any injection equipment.
“It feels a bit like a miniature aircraft carrier, with its own workshop as a hangar inside the cell, and viruses as carrier-based aircraft.”
Nan Guo de Xue gave a thumbs up.
“Exactly! Your analogy is excellent. The molecular motor allows it to patrol the body much faster than typical immune cells, so it’s a high-speed aircraft carrier.”
Hmph, small stuff~
After my mental and intelligence attributes increased, understanding new things became very fast.
“So, can we mass-produce it?”
Sister Xue pursed her lips and shook her head.
“Unfortunately, the bacteria don’t have enough energy to support self-replication. All of it is used for producing viruses and movement.”
“So, no culturing for replication? What about 3D printing technology?”
“Theoretically possible, but the printing precision isn’t enough.”
“How much precision is needed?”
“At least 1 nanometer level.”
Oh, that’s good then.
Lu Yuan felt relieved.
The advanced 3D printer in the store has a precision of 0.1 nanometers, perfectly meeting the requirement.
“Alright, I understand.”