Alien Relic Hunter

Chapter 784 The Age of Hunger
The 500th year of the new era.

For the surviving humans on the Ark, this is the first year of the aftermath.

Although this result is much better than expected... At least, human beings did not become extinct because of this.

In January of the ninth year of the 490th year of the new era, not long after the New Year in the old calendar, the department in charge of route observation discovered anomalies—all the pathfinding spacecraft and unmanned aerial vehicles dispatched by the Ark lost contact, and no signal was sent back to the Ark. ...Even if it's just a gibberish typed out in a hurry, nothing.

The observation department immediately realized the seriousness of the problem—these pathfinding spacecraft and unmanned aerial vehicles are only fifteen to twenty light seconds away from the ark, which is not very far away. If any accident occurs, even if the spacecraft crashes, at least The corresponding information can still be sent back, it is impossible for all spaceships and aircraft to disappear into the vast universe without making a sound.

The first reaction of the observation department was that they might have encountered a high-level alien civilization—these pathfinding spacecraft and unmanned aerial vehicles were most likely destroyed or captured by the alien civilization. Only in this case would they connect a Even a brief distress call could not be sent out.

But this report had just been handed over to the joint parliamentary group, and the congressmen were still on their way to the meeting, and the change happened again!
On the route directly in front of the ark, an extremely abnormal gravitational field appeared. Under the action of this gravitational field, the entire ark began to gradually accelerate...

According to calculations, this level of gravity requires at least one celestial body with a mass hundreds of times that of the sun within the observable range of optical equipment. There are no small celestial bodies that can be seen everywhere in the universe...

No... This universe is really too clean. This is a very suspicious point. The leader of the observation department looked at the holographic star map on the desktop, and a drop of cold sweat couldn't help but slipped from the corner of his forehead.

As an experienced astronomer, the leader realized at this time that he had made an irreparable mistake.

"Black hole..." He looked at the pairs of eyes looking at him in the control room, and murmured.

The reason why this universe is so clean is because all celestial bodies are sucked in by that black hole, even light is no exception... the gravitational force that even light cannot escape, those pathfinding spacecraft and unmanned aerial vehicles send Without a wire signal, it is even more impossible to escape.

But it was too late... With the propulsion of the ark, it is impossible to break free from the gravitational bondage of the black hole... Even if it is useless to abandon the ship and escape at this time, the escaping spaceship will also be dragged into the black hole by gravity.

The entire ark, including all the people on the ark, has been captured by the black hole, and the rest is only a matter of time.

The joint parliamentary group concentrated all the computing power of the core mastermind, and finally came to a conclusion: the last time left for Ark and mankind is three months and nine days.

Although the United Parliamentary Group decided to keep the public secret, paper cannot contain the fire. In just over a month, everyone on the Ark knew the desperate fact: this ship is carrying the last seeds of human civilization , rushing towards the black hole.

In less than two months, human civilization entered the most chaotic and darkest period in history.

When the end of the world is counting down, people who lose their minds can do any crazy things... Even the army that maintains order no longer obeys the orders of their superiors. People who have not experienced that period of time can only rely on video and It is difficult to experience that kind of despair and madness from written materials.

According to official statistics, the Ark lost more than [-]% of its population when it passed through the wormhole, but in fact, one-third of the [-]% of its population was lost in the less than two months before entering the wormhole.

The cowardly commit suicide, the greedy plunder wantonly, and the tyrant kill and set fire... Civilization seems to have lost its meaning, and people have become wild beasts, letting their inner desires dominate their behavior.

Of course, these things have all passed.

The vast majority of people never imagined that the Ark could successfully pass through the wormhole... Although the hull was severely damaged, the propellers completely lost power, and the broken streets were full of strange corpses who died of abnormal space forces... But no matter what How to put it, the fire of human civilization is still preserved.

And those who survived gradually woke up from that state of madness—they realized that the catastrophe of doomsday was gone, but the more serious problem of survival was in front of all survivors.

Although many areas inside the Ark are no longer inhabitable, thanks to the "blessing" of population reduction, the relatively well-preserved areas can barely accommodate the [-]% of the survivors.After the problem of the living environment was solved, the food problem was placed in the first place.

Since ancient times, people have depended on food.Only when people are full can they have the ability to think, work, and reproduce.

However, more than [-]% of the grain production base on the Ark has been destroyed, and more than half of the grain reserves have been burned in those two crazy months. Only the remaining [-]% ​​of the grain production base cannot keep up with consumption, and the warehouse The food stocks in China are decreasing day by day at an alarming rate.

However, the resources that Ark can invest in the restoration of grain production are not sufficient. This is not because food is not important, but because there are things that have a higher priority than food—Ark’s power and protection system.

There is not enough food to cause famine. This is not a problem that cannot be solved at present.As long as the people above are cold-blooded enough, the food shortage can be dealt with by further reducing the population.But if even the most basic living environment cannot be guaranteed, then everyone will die in this vast space.

The task with the highest priority is to restore the ark's power system and repair the main structure of the damaged hull, and the restoration of food production is ranked third.

In this era, the food that an adult can get every day is only synthetic rations equivalent to 600-800 calories. It is the kind of flour that is like flour. It can be eaten after being washed with cold water and stirred into batter without seasoning. There are no side dishes, and a large amount of artificial cellulose is added to increase the feeling of satiety (these cellulose will not be digested by the human intestines and stomach, and can be separated out for multiple use after collecting feces).

This thing is actually similar to the black bread mixed with sawdust that the Soviet army ate during World War II.

And the only thing to eat with this synthetic ration is those colorful vitamin pills, and the supply of pills is also very tight. Scurvy, which had disappeared in human society for hundreds of years, became One of the leading causes of death in humans.

As for minors, the portion of food they get is only half of that of adults. Even young people who are 17 years old and growing up still only get 300-400 calories of food every day.

Moreover, this standard is constantly being lowered as the grain reserves are dwindling.

There is only one way to get more food: to work.

The "jobs" here only include those Ark restoration projects with the top three priorities... As for other jobs, although they are also paid, the pay is so low that it can't fill the hungry stomachs of half-children.

Linden is 16 years old this year, and he is a "wormhole orphan" - this new name was born in the 500th year of the new era, and it refers specifically to those whose relatives died in various secondary disasters caused by crossing the black hole Among them, only the child who survived alone.

Like the protagonists of many tragic stories, Linden once had a happy and happy family. His father was a senior engineer in the engineering department, his mother was a lecturer in a college of higher learning, and he had a beautiful sister who was 20 years old. On the other hand, he skipped three levels in the business education stage, and was admitted to a well-known engineering college in the electromechanical field at only 15 years old.

But in the year 499 of the New Era, everything changed.

It was Linden's sister who had the accident first. On the first day of the two desperate months, her sister never came back after going out... Father entrusted a lot of connections, and only saw him in a garbage disposal station a week later The naked body of the daughter.

A month later, Linden's father was ordered to repair a stalled propeller. Although everyone knew that whether the propeller could be repaired or not, the Ark could not escape the fate of being swallowed by the black hole...but in order not to let the family members lose their protection And food, Linden's father still took up the task.

Then, the thruster exploded, and the entire maintenance team was wiped out.

Fortunately, Fang Zhou did not break his promise, and took Linden and his mother to a safe area. Under the protection of the soldiers who were still loyal to Fang Zhou, the mother and son spent the past two months without any danger.

When the Ark passed through the wormhole, everyone's consciousness stagnated for a long time. When Linden felt that the time and space around him had returned to normal, the Ark had already arrived in a completely unfamiliar universe.

And his mother, less than three meters away from him, turned into a puddle of minced meat.

The sadness didn't last long, because the feeling of hunger was even more unbearable. Seeing that the food ration was getting less and less every day, Linden decided to participate in the restoration of the ark, and exchanged work for enough food to satisfy his hunger.

Relying on his ability and knowledge, Linden stood out among the test subjects and successfully got a job to repair propellers-this reminded him of his father, who was completely I didn't expect that there would be a day when my son would inherit his father's career.

The job was dangerous, and the damaged Ark hull was one of the biggest sources of danger, followed by the vacuum and radiation from outside the ship.

On the first day of work, a worker was crushed to death by a steel beam that suddenly broke and fell, and another worker was electrocuted to death by a high-voltage line that touched the ground.

On the second day of work, when the leader of Linden and his maintenance team pushed open a stuck hatch door, they did not expect that the cabin behind the hatch door was damaged, and they were directly sucked into space. He was exposed to a large amount of cosmic rays without wearing protective equipment and suffered from severe radiation sickness.

On the third day of work, Linden got his first paycheck.

Workers' wages are neither physical currency nor credits in an account...but food.In this era, food has once again become synonymous with hard currency.

Six packs of synthetic rations were packed in small bags, and the weight marked on each pack was [-] grams, but Linden knew without weighing that none of the packs was enough... the ones packed in this kind of pack The white powder always reminded him of those banned drugs in the movies of the old era.

However, synthetic rations can't be regarded as the highlight... Although this job is so dangerous, the biggest reason why people still flock to it is the other two things in this reward.

Meat, and vegetables.

Of course, this meat is not real meat, but artificial meat synthesized with soybean protein... Compared with the fake meat produced before 499 of the new era, this batch of artificial meat tastes like dehydrated dried beans The same, plus the seasoning that is so salty, it used to be garbage that could not be sold on the shelves.But now, it has become a treasure sought after by everyone.

I heard from the team leader who died yesterday that outside, only a piece of artificial meat the size of a little finger is needed to make a pretty young girl meet any of your requirements, and now the piece in Linden's hand is enough It is half the size of a palm.

Vegetables are more precious than meat—even before 499 in the new era, vegetables have always been synonymous with "luxury goods" on the Ark. Whether it is soil cultivation or hydroponics, the cultivation of vegetables consumes a lot of precious space and resources. Resources, for the vast majority of people at the bottom, meat may still be available, but they may never have the chance to eat real vegetables once in their lifetime.

Linden's previous family conditions were not bad, and he could almost eat a meal of vegetables a day. Among the vegetables he has eaten, the most common ones are the ones he has now.

"Bean sprouts."

Low cost, no need for additional fertilization, very low environmental requirements except for sunlight, planting recommendations, fast growth, and a very short maturity cycle... All the above advantages together make bean sprouts the most cost-effective vegetable during interstellar voyages.

What Linden got now was a pack of raw bean sprouts, weighing about [-] grams. He carefully stuffed the pack of raw bean sprouts into the inside pocket of his clothes, for fear of being seen.

Bean sprouts can be eaten raw, but for some reason, he suddenly had the idea of ​​cooking it.

(To be continued)
[PS I tried food and supplementary background settings, plus some hidden clues on the side, and a side chapter that combines the three elements.Although it is an extra chapter, it is actually in line with the current progress of the main line of the main text. If it is not the kind of readers who can read ten lines at a glance, they should be able to post this chapter. Digging a hole or filling it is a matter of opinion).

Let me complain to myself: It is said that I want to write about food, but in the end the food-related pages only account for a small part. Strictly speaking, it is not considered a food article at all...

In addition, there is another Xiqi fan reader who mentioned in the comments that he is very interested in the plot of the interstellar voyage of the ark. I hope I can write about it.But because the main plot takes place after the interstellar voyage, and according to my personal arrangement, the next new book is not a prequel of "Alien Ruins Hunter", but a brand new world view that has nothing to do with this book.So I can only satisfy this reader's wish by relying on extra chapters. 】

[PPS thanks to Soap Youda for rewarding 1500 starting coins. 】

(End of this chapter)