#460 - Chapter 460: Finding Information and Digging for Samples

It was night.

Haidao Province.

The sun had set, and darkness once again reigned over this land.

Somewhere high in the sky, at an altitude of approximately 4,000 meters, unnoticed under the cover of night, a colossal object was suspended!

It was Li Bowen and his team, who had come all the way from Luyuan to search for super crops!

"Everyone, eat your dinner and get some rest! We'll continue searching tomorrow!"

Team Leader Li said to the tired team members inside the airship, before finding a corner for himself to rest.

After arriving at their destination this morning and dealing with the mutated giant wolf, they began clearing the planting experiment base of zombie threats.

After some effort, the combat team, along with An Xiaoran and Wu Qinuo, began searching the experiment base for the necessary data and super crop samples.

For the entire day, they explored almost the entire experimental base building, finding a lot of paper documents and computer hard drive servers.

There were no major discoveries in the paper documents, and the computer hard drives required them to return to the base to open and carefully review the data due to the conditions.

As for plant samples?

An Xiaoran and Wu Qinuo did dig up some food crop samples, but their specific characteristics would need to be verified and tested back at the base.

The situation was not unexpected.

When searching for super crops, it was highly unlikely that they would simply walk into a building and find what they needed.

Because even during peacetime, no one would put up a sign on certain plants that said: "Super Crop!"

All plants would only be labeled with a sample number, and the corresponding properties and states would be in the data. As for which parameters humans needed, only professionals would know.

And An Xiaoran and the others were here for this purpose.

It's just that there was too much hard drive data, and they needed to return to the base to arrange for the planting department to review it.

The Luyuan team members lay scattered on the floor of the airship. They were indeed tired today, not only constantly clearing hidden zombies, but also helping to transport the plants found in the experimental area.

Everything was done with labels to facilitate verification upon returning.

It is worth mentioning that the mutated giant wolf encountered during the day was also taken care of by Team Leader Li, who arranged for the airship to bring it down, load it up, and prepare to bring it back to the base as a gift for Qin Jin.

The fact that the leader was doing scientific research in the base was no longer a secret to the cadres.

No one was chatting or talking in the airship. Except for two members of the planting department who were using computers to review the data they had retrieved today, the other team members soon began to snore.

The interior cabin space of the airship, which was originally used for tourism and sightseeing, was not small. After some flashy and impractical furniture decorations were discarded, it actually seemed a bit empty. Even with a lot of things piled up now, it did not affect the team members' activity space.

Another huge use of the airship was here.

It allowed team members on missions to not waste time searching for temporary overnight accommodation, and they did not need to worry about resisting zombies!

When Qin Jin had the airship renovated, he had people install oxygen generators inside, so that even in high-altitude areas, team members would not experience hypoxia or other physical discomfort that would affect their combat effectiveness.

Moreover, simply hovering stably would not consume too much fuel, and flying for ten days or so would not be a problem.

The night passed without incident.

The next day.

The sun rose from the horizon, dispelling all darkness. The Luyuan personnel, who had slept comfortably in the airship all night, had just finished a simple breakfast and were preparing to start working again!

"We'll search for another day today, and then we'll go home after finding all the data and samples as much as possible!"

The airship had just landed on the ground.

Li Bowen said again at the opened airship door, and everyone responded before jumping off the airship and getting busy.

With yesterday's search, they were already very familiar with the place. Avoiding the areas that had already been searched, they began searching in the areas that had not yet been explored.

And today they were divided into two groups.

The zombies in the planting experiment base had been confirmed to be cleared yesterday, and simple defensive arrangements had been made at the gate and some damaged areas later. In theory, not too many new zombies would enter at night.

Even if there were, the combat team members could easily deal with them due to their familiarity with the place.

Soon, An Xiaoran and Wu Qinuo separated into two teams to search.

Most of the data had been searched and packaged in yesterday's building. Today, the main focus was on whether they could find more plant samples to take back.

******

A dilapidated greenhouse.

An Xiaoran carefully dug up a few newly discovered tender green plants with a small shovel and put them in a prepared container.

"These are corn seedlings, and they may be useful after taking them back to the base," she introduced in a light voice, followed by Yao Lei and Zhou Xin and several other escorting combat team members.

This was the unknown number of plants that An Xiaoran had found.

"Miss An, you continue, we have plenty of time," Yao Lei said with an indifferent smile.

Fortunately, there were these professionals, otherwise if Yao Lei and the others came by themselves, they might not even be able to distinguish between weeds and rice seedlings, right?

Modern people in peacetime had no contact with these food crops. Letting them go to the fields to farm might very well result in them growing a pile of grass.

The search for sample plants continued.

******

On the other side.

On the open planting land of the experimental base, a group of people was walking slowly outside.

This used to be a place dedicated to planting various experimental crops.

However, the once lush mountains and forests were now barren, with few green plants to be seen.

Undoubtedly, this place had been destroyed by last year's acid rain and the recent high temperatures.

Li Bowen and Gao Qiang and several other team members escorted Wu Qinuo here to see if any important experimental plants remained.

Unfortunately, it seemed that this side would be fruitless.

Wu Qinuo squatted on the ground and grabbed a handful of soil, feeling the blocky, solid texture, and frowned.

It's difficult.

Since the acid rain, the outside world has been full of this kind of hardened soil. I didn't expect the same to be true in Haidao Province.

Ordinary plants are too difficult to survive in this soil.

"Mr. Wu, I don't think there's anything to see here. Why don't we go back to the greenhouse and look for plants? There are more living plants there," Liu Qing's voice rang in Wu Qinuo's ears.

The team member was covered in sweat. Even with sunshades, the space temperature was still too high, and the sweat could not stop flowing.

"Okay, it seems there's really nothing to see outside. Let's go back there," Wu Qinuo did not insist. The probability of finding useful samples outside was indeed extremely low. It was better to go back to the place with greenhouse protection and help dig up more samples.

A group of several people began to walk back along the route they had come from towards An Xiaoran's group's location.

Suddenly.

An inconspicuous touch of green caught Wu Qinuo's eye.

"Please wait a moment!"

He shouted, then quickly walked to the front right position and squatted down.

Team Leader Li and the others were slightly puzzled, and then saw him take out a small shovel and dig.

Did he seem to have found something useful?

After a while.

Nuo Qinuo dug out a plant with a few leaves on top and slightly bulging roots.

"Done! I just saw that the surrounding area was bare without any plants, but there was a cassava growing here, so I wanted to dig it back," Wu Qinuo said, holding up the newly dug plant and showing it to Team Leader Li and the others.

Then he took out a moisturizing bag and packed it well.

The group walked back along the route they had come from again.

(End of this chapter)