Infinite Stream Metaverse

Chapter 245 Distillation and Dry Distillation

A Riemann Rustank was driving on the broken highway, its tracks crunching on the gravel.

The armor of the front of the car was slightly deformed, all the guns were damaged to varying degrees, the body and turret were either engraved or dented, and the felling gun on the turret hatch was also drooping.

This is a battered tank.

"Ah-"

The brakes sounded and the tank stopped.

The armored vehicle dragged behind pushed forward with inertia, and the coupler pushed and made a crashing sound.

The side hatch opened, and the space warrior and three minions in protective suits came out one after another.

Fu Qinghai looked down at Chen Xinlu.

Through the transparent mask of the protective clothing, Chen Xinlu's complexion was not very good. The salt particles formed after the sweat stains dried up stuck to her face, a few strands of messy black hair clinged to her temples, and her lips were a little cracked.

"Dehydrated?"

Fu Qinghai asked.

Chen Xinlu nodded:
"Maybe a little."

If they could choose to end this reincarnation mission called "Survival" at this moment, then Fu Qinghai would agree without hesitation, because they had earned enough assimilation points, at least worth the price of assimilating tanks and armored vehicles.

Except for the main gun, which only used one round, the heavy and normal bombs were all used up, and the reserves of promethium were also depleted.

As a result, all the zombie monsters attracted by the vibration and noise of the tank turned into nutrients in the swamp.

Fu Qinghai squatted beside a puddle of puddles of water on the side of the road, and reached out to scoop up a handful of clear water. The water flowed down the gaps in his gauntlets, reflecting the shining luster in the sunlight.

Facts have proved that the water purification tablets distributed in the CPR of the Imperial Guard have no effect on the polluted water body. Not only can it not adjust the pH value, but it is also a problem whether it can purify various viruses remaining in it.

The crew of My Little Pony is now stuck with another problem: no water.

Fu Qinghai turned to Jiang Yixia and said:
"Bring over the empty wine bottles and cans."

Since the water purification tablets are useless, Fu Qinghai can only use another ancient method.

Jiang Yixia brought a bunch of bottles and cans, and Fu Qinghai stretched out his sensitive robotic arm behind his back, and did a little cutting, processing and splicing, and a whole set of simple sunlight distillation devices made of transparent plastic and transparent glass was formed.

Fractionated condenser tubes are processed from discarded bullet casings. The condensed distilled water may have a smell of iron slag and propellant powder, but it is better than drinking virus water directly.

Fu Qinghai filled the bottle with stagnant water, got up and said to the three women:

"Go back to the shade in the carriage."

After finishing speaking, Fu Qinghai walked towards the mangrove forest in the swamp, looking for some tidal flat plants with relatively thick branches. These plants adapted to the acid rain swamp, the leaves look smooth and slippery, and the trunks are twisted and thick.

Even if mutation is not considered, it is known that there are many viruses that can infect plants, such as Progenitor virus, T-Veronica virus and Ouroboros virus. Of course, Fu Qinghai did not want to eat leaves. He pulled out the green tooth chain Saw the sword, quickly felled a large pile of wood, and moved it back to the tank.

Fu Qinghai turned an abandoned oil barrel containing promethium upside down on the ground, stuffed it with fresh wood cores, sealed the oil barrel with a welding torch, leaving only the opening for the condensation pipe, and buried a condensation pipe in the ground. Li Xingxian used the only remaining casting materials to release the wall of fire technique once. As the flame continued to smolder the oil barrel, tar (heavy oil) and resin (light oil) gradually dripped out of the condenser tube.

and a large pile of residual charcoal.

There is no dry firewood in the swamp, so the wall of fire technique is needed as the fire source for the first round, and then charcoal can be used as fuel. After repeated operations, Fu Qinghai soon got a large bucket full of clear and turbid mixed wooden firewood. Oil.

A simple sunshade was built with waterproof felt in front of the tank. The three women hid under the shed, drinking distilled water in small sips, and they were a little surprised to see Fu Qinghai get a big barrel of fuel after a lot of work.

If "distillation" is still within the scope of their understanding, "dry distillation" is a bit far away from most people's lives.

"A simple dry distillation process, junior high school chemistry."

Fu Qinghai poured a large bucket full of wooden oil into the fuel tank of the tank, and said in his mouth.

The multi-fuel engine is said to be able to burn anything, but there is also a problem of calorific value, that is, the problem of fuel quality. Of course, zombie corpses can also be burned.

But the calorific value of protein is not high. The calorific value of one gram of protein is only [-] joules, while the calorific value of one gram of alcohol is [-] kilojoules. In normal animals, only fat is worth burning, but it is impossible to really go to it. The engine is stuffed with corpses, and the heat generated by the combustion of the corpses cannot keep up with the power consumed by carrying the corpses. Those non-combustible residues, such as ashes, will also block the operation of the engine.

Note that water has no calorific value.

Riemann Rustank has not yet reached the point where he can run while urinating.

The one that can really run in the urine is the UNSC warthog in the halo universe.

Warthog series vehicles do not directly boil water, the core technology - Graf/Hauptmann solar/salt water engine, its principle is to use solar energy and catalysts to decompose water into hydrogen and oxygen, and then the engine burns hydrogen, the fundamental The source of energy is the sun, that is to say, if on a planet without a star, the Warthog can run without urinating.

"While I don't know what the magical solution is, I know what the scientific solution is."

Fu Qinghai clapped his hands:
"boarding."

Li Xingxian twitched the corner of his mouth:

"Oh, look at him, it didn't depend on my wall of fire technique in the first place, what do you think, Axia."

After Li Xingxian finished speaking, he looked forward to the echo from his teammates, but looking back, Jiang Yixia's eyes were bright, and he seemed to agree with Fu Qinghai's words.

Li Xingxian thought to himself: Well, pretend I didn't say it.

……

Finally, the tank dragged the armored vehicle and creaked to the gate of the valley.

"Why don't you come directly to Vault 79 to get supplies?"

Jiang Yixia turned her head and asked.

"Because I have some bad premonition about here."

Fu Qinghai looked at the rusty iron sign on the side of the road with serious eyes, and said in a deep voice.

The feeling of early warning from the force is always ineffective, and it is difficult for Fu Qinghai to explain.

"You stay in the car, I'll go find out."

After Fu Qinghai finished speaking, he walked out of the car door, checked his equipment, and walked into the valley.

Behind him, the jetpack flew high into the sky with a "swoosh" dragging its tail flame, turned on the automatic cruising mode, and quietly hid above the clouds.

Around the valley, the vegetation is lush and the climate is pleasant.

When Fu Qinghai walked into it, he felt that this place was completely different from the cruel and harsh biochemical swamps and urban ruins outside.

It's like a paradise in biochemical doomsday.

"It's not right."

Fu Qinghai muttered to himself.

He has only seen one shelter so far, that is, shelter No. 109, which is a nuclear bunker buried deep underground, but it is reasonable to think about it, such a shelter can meet the functional requirements of the doomsday wasteland.

The No. 79 shelter in front of me is fine if it is built on the surface, but why are there no defensive facilities such as walls, trenches and bunkers around it?
This place is not far from the swamp, so many zombies and monsters, if they attack here together, how can the shelter stop them?

Fu Qinghai was thinking.

"Boom, boom, boom."

There was a tremor that stomped on the ground.

A huge bipedal walking mecha approaching five meters came from the other side of the valley. The man in the baseball cap sitting in the semi-open driving seat turned his head and saw Fu Qinghai, with a stunned expression:
"Yo, new here?"

Fu Qinghai was also taken aback:
"Huh, SCV?"

The man nodded, laughed and said:
"That's right, the classic T-280."

He held the joystick, raised the utility clip in his hand, which held a piece of I-beam, waved it twice as a greeting, and said:
"Interesting, there hasn't been a new reincarnation for a long time. Come with me, newcomer, I know you have a lot of questions in your heart."

After finishing speaking, he turned around with his giant legs and walked inside.

SCV, the full name is "Space Construction Vehicle", the basic construction unit of the StarCraft human camp, an engineering vehicle with much stronger melee capabilities than marines.

After thinking for a while, Fu Qinghai chose to follow the SCV into the depths of the valley.

Along the way, he saw a lot of human beings who were building and working, saw the fences for livestock and the leveled land, everything looked orderly.

People were not wrapped in airtight power armor like Fu Qinghai. They didn't even wear protective clothing, just ordinary clothes and fabrics. Seeing Fu Qinghai walking in with the SCV, they all voted Curious glances.

Fu Qinghai looked around with his eyes.

He felt that it seemed a little...too peaceful here.

Unlike Vault 109, the reincarnated people there are wary of each other, and if they disagree with each other, they will be at war. However, there seems to be a strange order here, and all people, regardless of men, women, old or young, obey Down.

This might be a comfortable state for people with OCD, like manipulating player units in a real-time strategy game.

But Fu Qinghai always felt that something was wrong.

He has a... sense of being watched.

But he couldn't find the source of his gaze.

Not an easy task for a man who is both a Space Marine and a Jedi.

Fu Qinghai closed his eyes and mobilized his sense of force, and that feeling suddenly disappeared again.

It was as if the surrounding plants and trees were all staring at Fu Qinghai, staring at him steadfastly.

It seemed like it was just his illusion.

Fu Qinghai followed the SCV to a huge egg-shaped half-buried building. The driver in the baseball cap pointed to the open door and said:

"Here, the answer you want is inside."

A tall figure stepped out of it. Fu Qinghai was very familiar with the power armor, MK4 Thor's Hammer power armor, the iconic golden mask, and the dark green paint of the Master Chief.

Another reincarnation.

The Spartan warrior took off his helmet, revealing a bearded face, and opened his arms towards Fu Qinghai, looking very friendly:

"Aha, welcome, welcome to the Garden of Eden of the Black God, the utopia of the wasteland, the legendary... interstellar warriors."

Black God?

Fu Qinghai caught an unfamiliar vocabulary.

He nodded: "Hello."

The Spartan warrior made a welcome gesture:

"Please, Ma'am has been waiting for you for a long time."

Already waiting for me?

Fu Qinghai slightly raised his eyes and glanced at the sky.

There are only white clouds and a blue sky.

"Jet backpack, the signal transmission is stable."

Qing Ming projected a line of characters onto the retina screen.

Fu Qinghai strode into the building and said:

"grateful."

……

The simple and bright lobby, well-arranged potted plants, and modern-style decorations are clean, spacious, and comfortable. It's hard to imagine that someone can reproduce these things in a doomsday wasteland.

The egg-shaped space composed of steel frames and glass curtain walls is lit by the sun above the head. There is a long metal table in the middle. Behind the table is a woman in a light mint-colored suit, looking at Fu Qinghai with interest. .

Fu Qinghai came in front of her, and the woman stretched out her hand to signal:

"Sit down, please. Rest assured, this stool will bear the weight of the Astartes."

Fu Qinghai was not polite, he opened the stool and sat down, and also looked at the woman in front of him.

This is a very temperamental middle-aged white woman.

To be honest, this is the first time that Fu Qinghai has seen such a beautiful middle-aged woman face to face instead of in a movie. She is tall and thin, with light blonde hair simply coiled up, and a pair of glasses on her straight and narrow bridge of the nose. Gold-rimmed glasses, the years have left some small wrinkles on her face, but she has not lost too much collagen, and she is just right.

She has a strong scholarly air and intellectual feeling, and the smile on her face is gentle and calm. Fu Qinghai somehow feels that maybe this is what Chen Xinlu will look like when she gets old.

Cate Blanchett?Charlize Theron?

Quite alike.

"You know me?"

The other party naturally exuded an aura of being in a high position, which made Fu Qinghai unconsciously use honorifics when he spoke.

"of course."

The woman smiled.

"I've read your profile, but I didn't expect to meet you here. Should I call you, Mr. Quentin? Mr. Jack?"

"Or... Qingshan's Yanhan?"

Yo, this is...

Fu Qinghai raised his eyebrows, and leaned forward slowly:
"Any title will do, ma'am."

"You're on guard, you're feeling slightly uneasy, you're a typical thinking personality."

The woman stared at Fu Qinghai's visor and said with a smile, as if she wanted to see Fu Qinghai's face through the cold breathing valve and goggles.

"laugh……"

Fu Qinghai sneered:
"I'm a Marefuck type. Enneagram, MBTI, DISC, blah blah blah, doesn't anyone really believe this?"

"Psychology and sociology are directly related, for a reason."

The woman didn't feel annoyed at all, and continued:

"Forgot to introduce myself. My name is Moira Robinson. 'Mrs.' is what they call me. I used to be chair professor of microbiology at Empire State University. You can call me Professor Robinson, or Robinson Ma'am, it's all right."

"Okay, Professor Robinson, I think..."

Before Fu Qinghai finished speaking, out of the corner of his eye, he noticed a woman walking into the hall with a tray.

It was the thin black woman I met outside the valley at the beginning. Now she changed into clean and plain clothes, walked slowly, put a bowl and a cup on the tray in front of Fu Qinghai, and said softly:

"Please enjoy."

After finishing speaking, he retreated.

Moira Robinson made a "please" gesture:

"You have worked so hard to cross the corpse swamp, you must be very tired, there is neither food nor water, maybe you are hungry now? This bowl of mashed potatoes is a natural product in the shelter land, and this cup Clear water, streams from the mountains, please feel welcome."

Fu Qinghai looked down at the mashed potatoes in the bowl and the clear water in the glass, and said:
"I will not eat these things, Professor."

Didn't even give me a spoon, let me grab it with my hands?

"As expected."

Moira Robinson nodded unsurprisingly:
"I know you won't taste the food in the shelter. What I want to discuss with you is actually another issue, about the bowl of potatoes in front of you."

"Do you know why potatoes haven't become the staple food of human beings, Qingshan?"

Although he didn't want to follow the pace of other people's conversations, Fu Qinghai remained patient:

"I heard that it seems to be because of the potato virus?"

"That's right." Moira nodded:
"Potatoes can't be kept and replanted like rice and wheat. In the long run, they are very susceptible to a variety of potato diseases, resulting in a large reduction in potato production. This is almost an inevitable process. Ireland once starved to death due to the potato famine. Modern potato cultivation also needs to continuously cultivate virus-free seeds to avoid species degradation.”

Moira changed the topic:
"And here, on this doomsday wasteland recognized by reincarnators, we have solved this problem. We have improved the gene of potatoes through a fungus, so that it will no longer be infected with various viruses and bacteria, The production of potatoes has been greatly increased, and it has become possible for potatoes to become the staple food of mankind."

Moira continued:

"Compared with the most advanced hybrid rice in your country, potatoes have higher yields, stronger weather resistance, and better storage stability. You should know what this means-a small change can save hundreds of millions of people from starvation. "

Moira's eyes shifted, implying something:
"Potatoes are just a trivial example. Qingshan, we may not be as evil as you imagine, and viruses and fungi are not as terrible as you imagine."

Hearing this, Fu Qinghai tentatively asked:

"The fungus you mentioned, could it be..."

"Yes, you are sharp and smart."

Moira nodded generously and admitted, she stretched out her palm to Fu Qinghai, and said seriously:

"Introduce yourself again."

"Moira Robinson, Director of the Perfect Human Fungus and Parasitism Division, the agent of the fungus master in the mortal world. Nice to meet you, Mr. Qingshan."

…………

　Thank you, listen with compassion, Lin Bao, book friend 20190624024333883, arctic monster, catnip tsundere mouse, for the tip.

　
(End of this chapter)