Among the many institutions of the alliance, the funding of the scientific expedition group is definitely in the forefront.

Not only because the agency has contracted more than 30% of the players' tasks, but also because every time you pick up something good from the ruins of a pre-war civilization, the improvement of the alliance's hard power can be seen with your eyes.

Vault 404, Browsing Room on Level B4.

Yin Fangzheng excitedly described to Chu Guang the treasure he had found from the pile of garbage he had dragged back from the Niuma.

"That's a palm-sized piece of wreckage! When our researchers found it, it happened to be stuck in a piece of carbon nanotube from a space elevator and almost missed it."

"If my assumption is correct, this thing should be the structural material on some small and medium-sized spacecraft, and it's safe to say that it was quite advanced even in the Age of Prosperity, but it's a pity that only such a small piece remains......

"Because I don't have any information to refer to, I named it without permission, what do you think of the word Tao Gang? At present, our laboratory has analyzed its molecular configuration and material structure, and it can be imitated in the laboratory, but industrial production may still be difficult."

As he spoke, Yin Fang showed Chu Guang the form of the material and the data he had just collected through the beam of light projected by the holographic computer pen.

As if guessing that Chu Guang would definitely not understand, Yin Fang also deliberately used the armor steel and A3 aerospace aluminum, which are currently the most produced by the alliance, as a comparison.

With references, the properties of the material are much clearer.

It weighs between armor steel and A3 aluminum, and is harder than both, while it has heat resistance and oxidation resistance that neither of them has. The most incredible thing is that it surpasses ordinary alloys in terms of toughness and mechanical impact resistance!

If this were to be put in the 21st century, it would probably be like an alien spaceship.

After all, the chemical bond properties and crystal structure of ceramics determine that they do not have an independent "slip system" and cannot resist deformation like metals.

However, the material, called ceramic steel, retains the hardness of ceramics while exhibiting metal-like properties. For materials science in the 21st century, not to mention the production process, even the most basic theoretical part is an unestablished singularity.

Even in the era of prosperity when gravity could be manipulated, there were few spacecraft that applied this material. It is precisely because of this that Yin Fang is so excited.

Chu Guang didn't expect to be able to understand the principle of this material, and there was no need to do so.

The technical matters are naturally in charge of the professional, who only needs to know the purpose of the material, its properties and the cost of production.

After briefly understanding the properties of the material, Chu Guang immediately looked at Yin Fang and asked.

"What about the machining center on the B7 floor? Can you produce this thing?"

Yin Fang coughed lightly.

"When I talk about laboratory preparation, I use that machining center...... Otherwise, we would at most be able to resolve the material properties.

Chu Guang smiled embarrassedly.

"I see...... If the equipment of the machining center is used for production, how much can the output be achieved? Is there any hope for our power armor or tanks?

As if he had guessed that Chu Guang would ask this, Yin Fang said with a helpless expression.

"If it's a small-scale installation, I don't think it's a big problem. Although this thing is designed for spacecraft, it does not say that it can only be used on spacecraft. As long as you can accept the cost, let alone power armor and tanks, it's no problem to equip exoskeletons.

Hearing Yin Fang's answer, Chu Guang said with a smile.

"As long as it's easy to use, cost isn't an issue. ，

There is no shortage of electricity and mines in the alliance now, no matter how expensive the cost is, how expensive can it be?

What's more, this part of the cost can also be passed on to the players.

For example, upgrade the ceramic steel armor to make it a paid content!

Take the Alliance's self-developed and self-produced Xiaguang power armor as an example, a "Xiaguang"

The unit price is 1,000,000 credits. If the player is willing to pay an extra 500,000 silver coins to choose from, they can upgrade the armor steel cuirass to the ceramic steel cuirass, increasing damage resistance and durability by 50% each!

Of course, the specific amount of improvement will have to be tested at the weapons test site, and this is the idea in the end.

Looking at Chu Guang, who had already begun to plan how to apply the archaeological results to the Alliance Army, Yin Fang coughed lightly and said.

"Ceramic steel armor is just one of the technologies we have recovered from the southern seas, and we are currently figuring out how to design a more economical production process for it. You don't need to be so anxious, the technology we have discovered is far more than just pottery steel, and based on my experience, we can at least pick up at least ten D-class technologies that we don't have from this batch of 'rags, and at least!'

"Not only that, but the investigation of the remains of coastal cities in the Baiyue Province will also help us to restore the experience and knowledge of people in the era of prosperity such as lifestyles, production methods, and other experiences and knowledge outside of engineering. There's a lot of something we can learn from that, and it's going to take a lot of time to manifest itself."

「…… I would like to say that the creation of an outpost in the Baiyue Strait is really a genius idea, but it is not enough just now. We should step up our efforts to develop the southern seas, where there must be a lot of treasures that we haven't found."

After a pause, Yin Fang looked at Chu Guang and continued.

"In order to support the excavation of the relics, I would like you to set up a research station in the port of French fries where we can directly screen the salvage and relics collected locally...... It also saves us from wasting precious capacity and bringing back a lot of garbage, and we have to slowly pan for gold from the garbage."

"That's a good idea," Chu Guang nodded approvingly, "It just so happens that my Vault residents have also proposed it, and they hope that the expedition team can set up a branch in the port to provide technical support to the local ruins exploration team and salvage boats.

For example, the experts of the scientific research team will screen the targets that are worth exploring, list the targets that are worth exploring as a search priority, and remove the targets that obviously have no search value from the list.

In the past, the way local players explored the ruins was to scratch their beards and eyebrows, and purely based on experience, they picked some landmarks worth exploring and searched, and whether they found anything useful or not, they brought it back first.

If you can send some professional researchers to the local area to support the player's exploration work, it will undoubtedly improve the efficiency of the player's search for ruins and reduce the workload.

At the very least, you can avoid bringing the toilet seat back as a welded one.

After listening to Chu Guang's words, Yin Fang immediately nodded and said.

"No problem, I'll pick some people, and I'll trouble you to send them there when the time comes."

Chu Guang said with a smile.

"Don't worry! Although we are not in a position to get you a scientific research ship of the same style as the academy, there is no problem in getting a scientific research airship! You're ready to go—

"By the way, the people who helped us also brought it!"

Before Chu Guang's words fell, he was hurriedly interrupted by a voice floating from the door.

I saw a silver-haired Heya like a gust of wind, through the open movable door, through the corridor outside the browsing room.

Looking in the direction of the door, Yin Fang noticed the excited look on Heya's face, and he didn't have to guess to know that this guy had also found some major clues.

Chu Guang raised his eyebrows with interest, and was about to open his mouth to ask her what was going on, when she sat down on the sofa next to her and stared at him with blazing eyes, and couldn't wait to speak.

"A great discovery! Based on the strain samples brought back by your shelter residents from the northern shore of the Baiyue Strait, we found 173 overlaps and 677 similarities when comparing them with samples collected in Geumcheon Province...... But that's not the point, the point is that we have compared the key genes of several expression traits, and now it is basically certain that Baiyue Province is the birthplace of Naguo!"

Hearing this, Yin Fang immediately looked at her in surprise, and then frowned and said.

"Baiyue Province is the birthplace of Nago? Are you sure?"

Although Yin Fang is not good at research in the field of biology, the situation in Jinchuan Province does not require a lot of biological knowledge to understand.

The savagely grown Nago assimilates all organisms into its own puppets and forms a plague-like monstrous fungal realm over a wide area.

It exhibits similar properties to the slime fungus variant in Qingquan City in many ways, such as the release of steamed buns, such as indiscriminate erosion of organisms, and so on.

If Naguo really originated in Baiyue Province, it should have become a hotbed for Naguo breeding a long time ago, how could the alliance establish outposts and even settlements there.

And the most important thing is that he didn't find any mycelium on the waste products recovered from Baiyue Province?!

Looking at Yin Fang, who looked suspicious, Heya took a deep breath, nodded seriously and said.

"I'm almost 100% sure...... I know what you're confused about, and we're also confused as to why Nago, which has expanded unscrupulously in Geumcheon Province, has been so mediocre in Baiyue Province, where the climate conditions are more suitable, but that's what happened! And even more surprisingly, when we studied the genes of the original strain, we found out that the original strain of Nago itself was a strain formed by crossing Gaia slime and earth fungus under natural conditions!"

"Formed under natural conditions?" Yin Fang's eyebrows were twisted together, and he pinched his chin and fell into deep thought.

Hea nodded earnestly and continued.

"We speculated that Nago was the result of the Torch Church's improvement of native fungi using the gene pool obtained from the brood in Kiyosen City, but now it seems that our conclusions are incomplete. The most primitive strain of Nago itself is a combination of a variant slime mold and an earth fungus, and they have only artificially replaced some of the genes!"

This sounded a bit awkward, and Chu Guang, who had been listening to the discussion between the two, tried to understand it in his own way.

To put it simply, the original Nago was Gaia's "child" of the Earth, and it had both Gene A from outside Earth and Gene B provided by a fungus on Earth.

After discovering Nago, the Torch Church realized that it was just the right thing to help them with their plan for the kingdom of heaven, so they improved it.

For example, through artificial cultivation, the A1 gene obtained from the mother nest in Qingquan City was inserted into the original strains A-B of Naguo.

The strain that is now rampant in Haiya Province and the southern part of Geumcheon Province is the extremely aggressive type A-A1-B, or simply Type A1-B.

But......

Does it make any difference?

Chu Guang frowned slightly, just wanting to ask the confusion in his heart. However, just as he was about to speak, a flash of realization suddenly exploded in his mind.

A gene!

Where did the original A gene come from?!

Capturing this detail, Chu Guang blurted out almost subconsciously.

"There is a brood in Baiyue Province?!"

Or did it exist before?!

As soon as the words fell, two pairs of eyes looked at him in unison.

"Baiyue Province...... Was there a brood before?" Yin Fang was slightly stunned, but he only reacted for a moment, frowning and muttering to himself, "I see......

"That's right! This is the first inference we draw from that specimen! There may be a mother nest of mutant slime molds in Baiyue Province! And it is very likely that this will be the reason for the disappearance of local survivors from the province!" Heya looked at Chu Guang in disbelief, and sighed with an incredulous expression, "Unbelievable, you actually guessed!"

Chu Guang rolled his eyes, leaned back on the sofa and said.

"Do I look stupid? Let's get straight to the point, where do you think this brood might be?" "Right here!"

As she spoke, Hea took out a test tube filled with dark green liquid from her pocket and shook it in front of the two of them.

Yin Fang was startled by her movements, and stood up from the sofa with a sudden.

Chu Guang was not frightened by her actions,

However, she was also stunned when she saw the test tube in her hand, and said after two seconds.

"Right here...... What does that mean?"

"It's this thing in my hand! Extract of the original strain of Naguo! This is the brood of Baiyue Province!" Hea curled the corners of her lips triumphantly, her bright eyes full of incredulity and fanaticism, "Those guys are geniuses!"

Trying to understand her incoherent speech, Chu Guang pinched his eyebrows with some headaches.

"Wait...... What do you mean by those guys?"

"Of course it's the slime molds!" Hea said excitedly, "Do you remember? No matter what kind of slime mold we've seen before, most of them are like Qingquan City Center or Xiao Yu. They all have the same characteristic, that is, they have a brood and a group of fruiting bodies, and all individuals share the same consciousness!"

Yin Fang swallowed.

"I know...... And then?"

Hea continued at a rapid pace.

"The brood of Baiyue Province is an exception! It did not choose to parasitize, nor to symbiosis or assimilate, but to become them!"

「…… Became them?" Vaguely having guessed something, Chu Guang's pupils couldn't help but dilate slightly.

Mutant slime molds have a strong ability to adapt to the environment, they can not only flexibly change themselves to adapt to the environment, but also are good at borrowing and learning from the native creatures of the earth.

For example, the brood in Qingquan City.

The guy has accumulated a lot of combat experience in battles with humans and has learned to use biomass energy to drive human armor.

And that's not all

That guy also mimicked the powerful xenomorphs of the wasteland, such as Youkai and Deathclaw, and hatched a powerful special fruiting entity.

Actually, it's easy to understand.

The object of imitation of mutant slime molds is never just human beings or human civilization, but the object of their real imitation is the ecosystem itself.

And human beings and human civilization are only part of this system.

For the most part, humans with the weapons of civilization can gain the upper hand from natural selection, even if there are some outrageously strong xenomorphs in the wasteland.

Therefore, in most cases, the mutant slime mold will imitate humans more, and even penetrate into the level of society and even civilization.

However, Baiyue Province is an exception.

Whatever the reason, the local survivors have all but disappeared, replaced by a rich diversity of species and more intense natural selection.

So it's almost obvious what the "colonizer" variant of slime mold would be the preferred target for imitation.

"That's right!"

Heya stared at Chu Guang with blazing eyes, and nodded in affirmation of his unspoken guess.

"Not just Nago, but the grass there, the trees there, and the aliens in the woods...... All the creatures in the entire Baiyue Province are the continuation of that brood! They all carry genes from the planet Gaia!"

"I'm not sure for the time being, whether the brood in Baiyue Province has a unified consciousness like the brood in other regions, but its children can obviously no longer be called fruiting entities, but are separate species with independent consciousness!"

"It became them completely, it was a 'living, land!'"