si-mexico Chapter 99 Development
Chapter 99 Development
After lunch, Li Chenglong rode his bicycle to his next destination, this time to the education and research area to the left of the Second Military Region. As soon as he entered the research institute, Li Xue rushed over and said, "Brother, it's been so long!" He smiled and said, "It hasn't been that long, only eight or nine days. I came to see you as soon as I got back. By the way, how have you been lately?" Li Xue said with some pride, "The day before yesterday, thanks to the efforts of Academicians An Qingyuan and Li Qinghe, we finally developed the Level 2 Z virus vaccine. After two days of experiments, we found that this vaccine has a strong immune response to Level 2 and Level 1 viruses. If infected with the Level 2 zombie virus, injecting the vaccine within one hour can kill the virus. It also has a certain resistance to Level 3 viruses."
At this moment, Academician An Qingyuan also came over and said to Li Chenglong, "Recently, thanks to the help of Li Xue and several other ability users, as well as the material support you provided, our laboratory research has progressed much faster. Li Qinghe and I are now working on the research of the Level 3 virus." Li Chenglong was very happy: "Thank you so much for your efforts. You two academicians are so old, yet you still work so hard." After saying that, he took out two spirit-energy persimmons from his storage space and handed them to An Qingyuan: "Grandpa, these can improve one's physique. Please, you and Academician Li, each have one." An Qingyuan looked at the two large spirit-energy persimmons with great curiosity, but unfortunately, he was not a botanist and could not see the reason for their existence. He smiled and accepted the spirit-energy persimmons: "Then I will accept your kind offer." The three chatted for a while longer before Li Chenglong left the research institute.
He had originally planned to go to the school, but considering the upcoming school exams in early June, he decided against it and decided to wait until the results were released. He rode his bicycle to the residential area in the northern part of the education and research zone to inspect the construction progress. Many of the original houses had been destroyed, and given the large amount of undeveloped land, the Urban Construction Department was preparing to build a new residential area there. The workers were busy at work, and Li Jianguo from the Construction Department was personally overseeing the project. Upon seeing Li Chenglong, Li Jianguo showed him the blueprints on the planning model. Li Chenglong emphasized the importance of ensuring residents' comfort and facilitating future development plans.
Because of the existing infrastructure of Xing'an District, the city's basic facilities are relatively complete, making the current situation less complicated. Li Jianguo also indicated that the new residential area would definitely be completed within four months. Li Chenglong then proceeded to Production Zone One. Compared to Production Zone Two, which focuses on developing various light industries, Production Zone One is far more important. Weapon manufacturing, steel production, and other industries are all located here, making it a vital artery for Dawn City. This morning, Yunlan mentioned that a major transaction had recently been completed with the Huaxing Base, acquiring a large quantity of steel and chemicals, enough to sustain Dawn City for some time.
After arriving at Production Zone 1 on his bicycle, Li Chenglong didn't go to Shen Menghua's place first. Instead, he planned to visit the factory. However, he was refused entry by the security guard. The guard sternly stated, "According to factory regulations, unauthorized personnel are prohibited from entering. If you are here to look for work, please go to the recruitment office to register. If you need to enter the factory area for other reasons, you need permission from the management office." Li Chenglong hadn't expected to be denied entry, but he was still pleased with the guard's behavior. The guard hadn't displayed any arrogance but had calmly explained the situation to him throughout, even pointing out the locations of the recruitment office and the management office. This indicated that the factory did a fairly good job in management and personnel training.
Just as he was about to ride his bicycle to the management office, Shen Menghua's voice came from behind him. Shen Menghua was looking at a folder and leading a few people over, saying as she walked, "We must have strict requirements for every aspect of this batch of weapons. This is the first batch of guns produced after our factory resumed production, and we must strive for perfection. And not only this batch, but every weapon produced in the future must meet this standard." The other accompanying personnel immediately responded, "Don't worry, Minister Shen, we will ensure meticulousness in every aspect, so that the soldiers can use effective and safe weapons."
Shen Menghua was still writing something on the document when her female assistant whispered, "Factory Manager Shen, that guy at the factory gate looks like Lord Li." She put down the document and realized it really was Li Chenglong, with a shared bicycle next to him, smiling at her. Shen Menghua quickly handed the document to her assistant and jogged over, saying, "Lord Li, you're back? When did you get back?" Li Chenglong said, "Sister Shen, you don't need to call me Lord. I just got back today. I went to check out other places this morning and only had time to come now. I originally wanted to go into the factory first, but with your improved regulations, I can't just go in casually anymore, haha." The security guard next to him said in surprise, "You're Lord Li? I just joined Dawn City not long ago and haven't seen you in person yet. I'm so sorry." Li Chenglong patted the security guard on the shoulder, "No, you did a great job. This is for the sake of the factory and Dawn City. How could I blame you?"
Shen Menghua smiled and said, "Let's go in now. I'm here today to check on the machine tools." Li Chenglong followed Shen Menghua and her entourage inside. Upon learning that the entourage consisted of heads of various production lines, Li Chenglong shook hands with each of them and exchanged brief greetings. As they walked, Shen Menghua explained, "Currently, at full capacity, we can produce 6,000 rifle bullets, 200 hand grenades, 100 standard rifles, and 200 standard pistols per day. Because our army doesn't have that many soldiers yet, we haven't reached maximum production capacity." Looking at the workers operating the machine tools, Li Chenglong said, "That's already quite good. By the way, Sister Shen, is there any progress in the research on crystal bullets and crystal bombs? Last time we fought, many zombies were level two or even three, and ordinary bullets were less effective against them."
Shen Menghua was somewhat worried: "Crystal bullets can be made, as long as the original white or red crystals are polished into bullet heads. There are two problems. First, because we don't have the corresponding machinery, we can only polish them by hand, which is very slow. The second problem is that with our current standard weapons, after firing a dozen or so crystal bullets, the firearms will be unusable, mainly because they can't withstand the impact of the crystal bullets." Li Chenglong thought for a moment and said, "We can continue manufacturing crystal bullets tomorrow. As for the firearms problem, let me research it further. I'll go to Alice's place tonight to see if she has any solutions." After leaving the weapons factory, the two went to a small steel mill and chemical plant. Li Chenglong had some discussions with the relevant personnel, and then, due to time constraints, they said goodbye and left.
Li Chenglong then went to Military Zone 1, which was smaller than Military Zone 2, housing only two battalions and a military supplies support battalion, totaling 1400 people. Zheng Yong, Zheng Aiguo, and others warmly welcomed Li Chenglong, with many soldiers saying they missed him because he didn't visit often enough. Li Chenglong couldn't help it; he was currently holding multiple positions and was quite busy. Standing on the platform, Li Chenglong interacted amicably with the soldiers below, occasionally telling jokes that made them laugh. A little over an hour later, he rode his shared bicycle to the logistics department.
After the last meeting, the Logistics Department was divided into three: the Life Logistics Department managed by Yun Qian, the Production Logistics Department managed by Shen Menghua, and the Military Logistics Department managed by Qin Fangyu. This was to reduce the overall workload of the Logistics Department, make the work more detailed, and significantly improve work efficiency. The Life Logistics Department was not far from the Shuguang Building. Li Chenglong finally returned after making his rounds. As soon as he arrived at the Logistics Department, he saw a lot of people gathered there moving supplies. Chen Xiaoke was directing them and often helping some people move goods. Li Chenglong walked up behind her and suddenly patted her on the shoulder. Chen Xiaoke immediately jumped back like a startled rabbit, making Li Chenglong burst into laughter.
Chen Xiaoke turned around and saw Li Chenglong: "Hmph! Brother Li, you scared me as soon as you came back. I thought something was wrong. Suddenly someone patted me on the back without making a sound." Li Chenglong laughed and said, "This was just to test your alertness. By the way, where is Minister Yun Qian now?" Chen Xiaoke said, "Sister Yun Qian went to the special forces. She asked the special forces to get a batch of vegetable seeds. Sister Yang Liu just said that the seeds have been obtained, so Sister Yun Qian and a few people went to pick them up." After Chen Xiaoke finished speaking, she led Li Chenglong to the crystal computer in the logistics department and showed him the recent supply records. She said, "Currently, with our communication with Huaxing Base and Lanli Base, plus the reclamation of a large number of farmlands in the northwest of our Dawn City, Sister Yun Qian and the people in the department have calculated that the current supplies are enough for us to last until November. But this is under the premise that the population will not increase. If the population continues to increase, then the time will be shorter accordingly."
Li Chenglong said, "My storage space and Yunlan's combined storage space should hold over 500 tons of various grains. However, once the autumn harvest season arrives and those vast fields are harvested, the grain reserves will increase significantly. I'll go back and tell Liu Dongliang to make sure the farmland is well protected and to resolutely prevent any alien beasts, zombies, or hostile forces from causing damage." Actually, Li Chenglong collected a large amount of supplies in the trial grounds, including at least several thousand tons of grain. However, after the trial, nothing was left, which disappointed him somewhat. Currently, Li Chenglong's storage space is the size of eight football fields. Based on the current level 6 storage space being the size of eight stadiums, at the maximum level of 10, it will be the size of 128 football fields—a truly vast area. The storage space is approximately 50 meters high, with several very large white luminous stones embedded in the top, providing ample sunlight for the plants in the natural area. The factory-like place in the tech zone was unlocked when I reached level 7, but I've been trying to figure out how to use it and still don't know. I'll have to ask Alice for help with these issues.
Actually, while it's called a technology zone, only half of the non-natural zone is high-tech; the other half is a storage area filled with enormous warehouses. Time is frozen only within these warehouses. This phenomenon—three times the time flow of the natural zone, normal time flow of the production zone, and time frozen in the storage zone—pleased Li Chenglong the most, making him marvel at the power of the Meral Star's space technology.
Our last stop today is the Special Forces Team, located 400 meters to the left of the Shuguang Building. They have dedicated dormitories and training grounds. However, because the dormitory building is quite large, many Shuguang Building staff also live there. The middle of the dormitory building is enclosed; the left side is for female students, and the right side is for male students. Each room houses two to three people and is equipped with an en-suite toilet, shower, and washbasin.
It was 5 PM when Li Chenglong arrived at the special forces team. He ran into Yun Qian on the way, who was overjoyed to see him and rushed over to hug him. Li Chenglong, noticing the van behind them, quickly asked, "Is that the seed the special forces team got?" Yun Qian composed herself and explained, "Yes, we've planted over 400 mu (approximately 66 acres) of corn, millet, sorghum, and soybeans. We also have some spare land, so I plan to plant some vegetables, like cabbage, potatoes, and radishes." Li Chenglong said, "I think we should plant more potatoes. After all, potatoes can be eaten as a staple food, and they have a high yield and store well." Yun Qian nodded, "Okay, we plan to plant over 100 mu (approximately 16 acres) of potatoes on the remaining 300 mu (approximately 53 acres), and the rest will be vegetables."
After bidding farewell to Yun Qian, Li Chenglong finally arrived at the special forces team. It was almost time for the team to disband, and the members were relaxing after a grueling afternoon of training. Many people surrounded Zhao Liying, excitedly saying, "Going out with Captain Li not only got me to level five, but I also got some amazing swords!" Zhao Liying smiled and said, "Just lucky. Actually, in the trial grounds, the captain, Zhao Rui, and Wang Bing did the most work; I barely did anything." Yang Liu saw Li Chenglong riding over on his bicycle and immediately said, "Everyone, assemble! Attention!"
Li Chenglong rode directly to the front of the formation and looked at the spirited special forces members, saying, "I've heard from Captain Yunlan about your recent performance; it's been very good. But don't be complacent; you still need to keep working hard. Our special forces team currently has 40 people. We haven't had any replacements since the last major battle, and after thinking about it, I've decided not to. As a special mission team, 40 people are actually enough. Back then, our Snapdragon squad only had 20 or 30 people. After Wang Xiao was transferred, there's a vacancy. After Han Xiaoling takes her exams at school, we'll have her fill that spot. Don't underestimate her just because she's only thirteen; she's already at level five, and Xiaoling now has a storage space, which will make it easier for the special forces team to move around."
Li Chenglong then started chatting with the group, laughter punctuating the conversation. The group dispersed around 6:30 PM, some going to shower, others to eat. As he left, Li Chenglong mentioned that once the new residential areas in Residential Zones 1 and 2 were completed, married couples who met the contribution criteria would be allocated 80-square-meter apartments. Anyone wishing to marry could apply at the Ministry of Civil Affairs; after approval, they could get married. However, he warned that any extramarital affairs or abandonment after marriage would be severely punished.