Chapter 585.2: Yore's Life

A trace of frustration appeared on Yore’s face. "So what was the point of our experiments? We just wasted an entire month for nothing, they never intended to take our evaluation into account! If that was the case, why didn’t they just tell us from the beginning?"

"Sorry, I truly didn’t know," Zhao Feiyu sighed. "Maybe... someone just needed us to go through the motions, to reassure the vast majority of people who were lost and confused."

"For example, saying the nuclear bomb was detonated under our professional guidance to clear away an evil biological weapon... doesn’t that sound easier to accept than the Orbital Force’s defensive line was breached by colonial invaders’?"

Yore froze. "The Orbital Force’s line was breached?"

"I was just making that up. You’d better not take it seriously." Seeing Yore’s dazed expression, Zhao Feiyu gave a relaxed smile, though the look in his eyes said otherwise.

After a pause, he continued, "Back to the earlier question, I think rephrasing the situation might be more useful for unity. At the very least, now is not the time for arguments. We are going through a catastrophe not seen in over a century. Even if we want to pursue responsibility, it has to wait until everything is over. For now, unity is more important than the truth."

"I hope my speculation is wrong, because that would mean, as we sit here talking, many people have already died."

As he spoke, he reached out to switch off the news. After a moment’s pause, he went on. "But if the worst-case scenario is true, if my speculation is correct... then maybe the attack we suffered wasn’t just biological weapons."

"You know this, right? In the Alpha Centauri, besides the yellow dwarfs Barnard A and B, there are also red dwarfs. Its flare activity releases radiation hundreds of times stronger than the Sun’s... doses that would be fatal for Earth life."

Yore nodded.

Alien biology was not his specialty, but he had heard a little about the exotics in the colonies, it was a very complex ecosystem.

If not for the sudden outbreak of war, he had even planned to apply for academic exchange there once conditions improved.

Seeing him nod, Zhao Feiyu continued, "So at first, astronomers concluded from experience that no habitable planets could exist in the Barnard Star System, until our probes really did arrive and saw that world shrouded in auroras. Then we began studying that ecosystem we had never imagined before."

"You must have noticed, neutron rays are lethal to us, but not necessarily to the exotics in the colonies. They evolved in an environment where stellar flares are frequent."

"Bioweapons alone wouldn’t produce such immediate effects. The traitors in the colonies might have intended to make our homeworld uninhabitable... and simply relying on bioweapons wouldn’t achieve that."

"A reasonable suspicion is that before we even received our assignment, the nuclear bomb had already been detonated. It’s hard to say whether the Slime Mold or the bomb was the real main act, or which was just the extra."

Yore swallowed hard.

"A dirty bomb..."

"Most likely," Zhao Feiyu nodded, sighing. "For the exotics in the Barnard Star System, maybe it’s not dirty at all, they’ve grown up under radiation. But for Earth species, it’s disastrous."

Why did they have to do this?!

Yore did not voice the question, but kept it in his heart.

He knew it wasn’t just his own confusion. His senior was the same, bewildered at why their brothers and sisters had turned against them.

Why did it have to come to this?

Couldn’t they just sit down and talk?

"In any case, the project has changed. We have to go back to our original subject. In addition to anti radiation agents, we also have to develop de-radiation agents. Medical nanobots are no longer available, nor are bionic organs. We can only hope traditional drugs can solve the problem."

Yore lifted his head. "That’s an order from the Central Wartime Research Institute?"

Zhao Feiyu shook his head. "No. It’s the Academy’s recommendation, and the institute director’s opinion. I think they’re right, rather than wasting time helping the authorities stabilize public emotions, better to do something truly meaningful. Prevention isn’t enough, we have to eliminate radiation damage that’s already been done."

In fact, just two days after the news broadcast, they received the order from the Central Wartime Research Institute, ending their research into the effects of neutron rays on the Slime Mold Hive.

As Yore’s senior had guessed, their research results were never important. What mattered was that someone was doing the work.

And thanks to their busy efforts, together with the media, they helped stabilize confidence outside the war zones. The Federation wasn’t crushed in the first wave.

Though the colonists’ surprise attack had inflicted massive losses on the homeworld, the war had only just begun, and the Federation still held strong chances of victory.

Still, Yore felt disheartened. He had wasted a month.

If the results were meaningless from the start, why had they made him work so hard? And whether it meant anything at all, no one could say.

Time passed day by day. With breakthroughs in both anti radiation and de-radiation agents, more and more supplies were delivered to the institute.

Most recently, the Federation Army delivered a batch of Helium-3 nuclear fuel. They received over 1,000 cubic units. Everyone felt uneasy.

That wasn’t the kind of resource a single research institute could consume.

It likely meant the war was going to be a long one.

Seeing the canisters of nuclear fuel, Chu Guang, peeking alongside the memory, could not help but covet them. But alas, this was only a memory. If he wanted them, he would first have to wipe out the Mutant Humans there.

So he committed to memorizing the location where the fuel was stored.

Later, the players would help him recover this treasure.

He didn’t know how much time passed...

As the war expanded, the living environment on the surface worsened. The research base had to move underground.

Though Chu Guang never saw an actual battle in Yore’s modest recollections, the suffocating atmosphere on the streets outside the institute and the visible desolation made it easy to imagine the ferocity of the front lines.

Unfortunately, after moving underground, Yore never went outside again, and news from beyond was cut off.

At first there was still news to watch. Later, even that disappeared. Only the occasional supply courier brought word from outside.

It wasn’t that they were forbidden to leave, there were always people moving in and out of the elevators, and researchers could come and go freely.

But seeing all those heavy faces, hearing the howling winds outside, knowing of the radioactive dust, with the world looking like an apocalypse...

No one wanted to leave.

Most people wanted to preserve some fragments of good memories of the old times.

And compared to facing the ruined world, it was easier to throw themselves into their work. At least their environment underground was relatively good, supplies were prioritized, and amid the stress, they could even drink coffee brewed by android hostesses.

But work always came to an end.

Thanks to countless people’s efforts, the final products of both anti radiation and de-radiation agents were finally completed. The formulas and production processes were simplified, so much so that even makeshift shelters could produce them with limited equipment and resources.

Ironically, the project had originally been launched by Champion Group to make a fortune. But before they could profit, credits themselves had already lost meaning.

When most people could not even be sure they would live to see tomorrow, money became absurd.

The formulas for anti radiation and de-radiation agents were released freely to every settlement. The researchers in the institute finally breathed a sigh of relief.

At that time, the supply couriers brought good news: the great war that had lasted nearly three years was finally about to end.

It was said the colonial defenses had been crushed by the Federation’s soldiers, their resistance collapsing and nearly exhausted.

That was without a doubt the best news in three years. The laboratory was filled with a festival-like atmosphere.

Although Chu Guang wanted to tell them they were celebrating too early, that after the war would come a two-century-long Wasteland Era, still ongoing with no end in sight.

Civilization would collapse into chaos at a speed never before seen, and compared to that darkness, these three years of suffering were nothing.

At least now they still had android women bringing them tea and coffee. At least their supplies had never stopped coming.

But even if he could speak to those jubilant people, they would never believe his words.

The lab held a celebratory party. Yore, who was not very sociable, couldn’t hold back and went outside the lab.

The man who was no longer so young, finally gathered the courage to set foot on the surface again.

And when he saw the world utterly changed, he was stunned. His jaws dropped and he was unable to speak a word.

At that moment, a sigh came from behind him. "As you can see, our world is finished."