Chapter 38: Plants and People

For such a plant that could meet their needs,

From the start, Qin Yu and the researchers didn’t look to nature.

Finding such a plant directly in nature was basically impossible.

If it existed in nature, with such a big advantage for survival, it should have spread widely there already.

Not seeing it now basically meant it definitely did not exist in nature, at least not on Earth.

So, from the beginning of the project, the goal for Qin Yu and the researchers

Was to use some existing plants and reshape them using genetic modification and editing to create plants that could meet the requirements.

And for this prototype ‘plant’,

The direction Qin Yu thought of first was actually fungi.

Not for any other reason, simply because fungi reproduce fast enough.

Fast reproduction was an important trait needed for this target plant.

But, existing fungi had a hard time meeting the other requirements.

True, some drought-resistant fungi were found in dry areas.

But this target plant didn’t just need to survive in desert areas;

It also needed to bring good changes to the desert soil while surviving.

For example, with well-developed roots, it could improve the soil structure inside desert sands, allowing it to hold water.

Making desert soil hold water was a key condition for improving it in desert regions.

And fungi… they had ‘roots’ that were quite developed, but could they lock in soil and help store water?

This was the problem the Research Institute 011 research team faced now, but also their research direction.

If they considered fungi, they needed to research and engineer a special kind of fungus,

Probably different from any fungi currently known, to achieve all the goals of this research project.

And even with Qin Yu involved,

This research would still take quite some time.

…

While this research made progress,

Qin Yu naturally didn’t play favorites. He also joined another ongoing ‘Human Enhancement Research Project’ at Research Institute 011.

Originally, most researchers at Research Institute 011 were responsible for this project too.

It was also a big project.

Human enhancement research covered many areas.

Finally, considering the space exploration projects being pushed forward both at home and abroad,

Qin Yu and the researchers set the first goal of the ‘Human Enhancement Research Project’: to try and make the human body better able to handle changes between low-gravity and high-gravity environments.

Or to be more specific, to try and make the human body, while surviving normally under Earth’s gravity, also better adapt to low-gravity environments.

The Huaxia Nation’s current space station, although larger than a few years ago, still hadn’t achieved artificial gravity through rotation.

Astronauts on the space station were basically in a low-gravity environment for long periods.

The human body isn’t really suited to such a low-gravity environment.

Subjectively, being in low-gravity feels uncomfortable because of changes in blood flow and distribution.

Long-term exposure to low gravity causes muscle wasting, and various parts of the body change for the worse.

Because of this, astronauts on the space station needed to exercise for several hours each day to maintain their muscle mass.

Also, this low-gravity environment was a big reason why astronauts needed to be rotated regularly.

Besides the space station issue,

The Huaxia Nation’s fifty-year plan for lunar exploration, building a base on the lunar surface, also faced this problem.

The gravity on the moon’s surface, while better than on the space station, was still much less than Earth’s.

If they built a permanent lunar base and started moon settlements, this problem absolutely needed solving.

Otherwise, people staying long-term at the lunar base might even need to wear spacesuits upon returning to Earth.

That would be very bad for travel between Earth and Moon.

The solution definitely wasn’t limited to what Research Institute 011 was working on now.

But, since they were doing the Human Enhancement Project,

Qin Yu and the researchers were naturally focusing on solving this problem from the human body’s own perspective.

If the human body could adapt to both Earth’s gravity and survive in lower gravity environments,

Then this original problem would obviously just disappear.

To solve it,

Research Institute 011 had two research routes:

The first was to try genetic modification, making humans naturally have that adaptability.

But this route had serious ethical problems.

Genetic modification definitely couldn’t be done on living people.

It would have to be done on fertilized eggs.

But the problem was, this kind of genetic research could fail.

Even Research Institute 011 couldn’t guarantee success on the first try.

So this route was basically a dead end.

The second route,

Was similar to when Qin Yu worked on the 2611 Longevity Injection before –

Using an external agent to achieve this effect.

The good thing about this route was that it also worked on adults.

They wouldn’t have to wait for the next generation to grow up to achieve the human enhancement goal.

Secondly, there weren’t the same ethical issues.

Although clinical trials were still necessary,

It would be like clinical trials for a new drug.

Yes, there were still risks for the participants, but the participants were adults. They could decide their own fate, choose to join or not.

They weren’t like the targets of genetic modification, who couldn’t choose at all.

Also, for such clinical trials, if necessary, like for the previous 2611 Longevity Injection trials,

Researchers from Research Institute 011 could step up themselves as volunteers.

So now,

For the human low-gravity adaptation goal within the Human Enhancement Project,

The researchers at Research Institute 011 were still mainly focused on searching for an external substance that could affect the human body’s relevant mechanisms to achieve this.

With the experience from the previous development of the Human Reproduction Device, and also under the leadership of Qin Yu, the research in this direction actually progressed quite quickly.

Year 32 passed by at Research Institute 011 in busyness.

Then came Year 33 and Year 34.

At both research institutes, the three research projects, including the one in Artificial Intelligence, advanced steadily.

Many problems during the research process were solved, but there was still a lot of time needed before any results could be achieved.

During these two years, changes were also happening in the outside world.

First was that asteroid known as 2025S01.

It had worried many people before, but like most similar situations in the past, asteroid 2025S01 did not actually collide with Earth in the end. Because of the gravitational pull from the big planets at the edge of the inner Solar System, it veered away from a path toward Earth.

Then, in Year 33, an observatory in North Bear Nation detected another asteroid heading for Earth.

When it was discovered, the chance of it colliding with Earth was 0.23%. If it could hit Earth, it would contact around 32 years after that.

The effects of the related reports were the same as those for the earlier 2025S01 asteroid stories.

People talked about it, but not many truly took it seriously.

Even those who shouted ‘just hurry up and destroy us’ did not really believe that this new asteroid heading for the Solar System could actually hit Earth.

“Human civilization has been around for so long—if it was going to end, it would have already happened. Reporting news like this every day is just scare tactics,” people said.

“Friend, have you heard of human selection theory? It’s not that human civilization can’t be destroyed; it’s just that because it hasn’t ended yet, you’re here to say these things.”

Besides this asteroid-related news, changes happened in other areas over the past two years too.

First, those who strongly supported traditional families raising children didn’t seem to stand by it as firmly anymore.

After two years of the Human Reproduction Device becoming common, the number of extra children added to families each year had initially risen a bit after the 2611 Longevity Injection era ended. It went from over five million to just over four million, and then dropped further to just over three million.

Because of this, as planned, the percentage of people raised through Collective Social Rearing went up steadily since the start of the Human Reproduction Device, almost the opposite of family care. It rose from just over three million to just over four million, and this year, it reached just over five million.

Naturally, this made arguments about it stronger on the internet and in real life again.

Later, these two numbers might keep going back and forth.

Then, outside Huaxia Nation.

Within the HCC, the two sides outside Huaxia Nation—the spheres of North Bear Nation and Moon Nation—friction between them got worse.

A society fixed even more severely in the post-2611 Longevity Injection era caused a series of internal problems for these two sides.

This made them almost tear apart face mask, whether due to interest conflicts or shifting arguments.

Across the world, there was a feeling like smoke drifting from guns.

Huaxia Nation and the areas it influenced were still relatively calm.

But if something really happened, those two sides would probably try to force Huaxia Nation to get involved.

Especially because the 2611 Longevity Injection held their lives tight elsewhere in a way.

If fighting started, they would go crazy over the 2611 Longevity Injection and turn toward Huaxia Nation first.

Huaxia Nation was naturally dragging its feet on these issues at that time.

Because time was on Huaxia Nation’s side; the longer it went, the more it helped Huaxia Nation.

Both the 2611 Longevity Injection and the Human Reproduction Device gave Huaxia Nation advantage and control.

Besides that, space stuff happened too.

After Huaxia Nation started its 50-year Lunar Surface exploration plan, North Bear Nation and Moon Nation didn’t want to be left behind. They gathered allies and announced their own moon landings and space exploration plans.

Moon Nation said it would use all its own and its allies’ powers to have people live on Mars all the time before 2100.

North Bear Nation’s plan was almost a copy of Huaxia Nation’s 50-year Lunar Surface exploration plan; it also aimed to build a permanent base on the Lunar Surface for moon settlement.

On this point, because of differences in how much factory stuff they could do, their speed was noticeably slower than Huaxia Nation’s.

At Research Institute 011, Assistant Wei Wei Muyun heard Qin Yu’s question and paused before starting to think about it.

She had clearly gotten used to it.

Sometimes Qin Yu asked ‘weird’ questions.

Sometimes, he wasn’t really expecting an answer from her.

It was just chatting while he was thinking things over.

“Maybe having an alien come would make it faster. With a pressure from outside human existence, people might get together quicker,” Wei Muyun gave that reply.

Qin Yu smiled.

“That makes a lot of sense.”

“What’s up, Professor Qin—are you planning to pretend to be an alien?”

Knowing Qin Yu’s Apocalypse Anxiety, Wei Muyun could somewhat follow where he was thinking on this.

For Professor Qin, it had to be ‘safer’ for human civilization to come together as one.

Qin Yu heard that and smiled again.

He might try it someday in the future, but certainly not then.

“I’ll think about it later. Anyway, human civilization might come together on its own someday,” Qin Yu just said that and ended the talk.

Looking back at human civilization’s history, its coming together was always happening.

The biggest a country could get was often limited by how fast messages traveled, how fast people moved, and how far orders could reach.

But since the start of the big changes from making things, those technical limits didn’t exist anymore.

From a view over a longer time period, the final part of human civilization’s coming together had begun.

Maybe it wouldn’t take a thousand years.

Between ‘rulers’, a winner would likely be picked.

The only question was who would win, and whose way it would happen under when joined.

In Year 34, something else happened too.

Research Institute 011 had some results.

A rough big smart model started helping with crisis space gathering and putting together work for the Negentropy Research Institute.

The Negentropy Research Institute also collected a piece of information that Qin Yu paid a little attention to.

It was South American Continent news.

A small inland country on the South American Continent had a poor, simple village near a rainforest.

Before that time, a disease spread there.

According to collected information, the virus in this disease seemed to attack the brains of anyone infected.

It made them lose their minds and Self-Consciousness.

At the same time, this virus seemed to spread very easily.

In the end, everyone in that simple village, tens of people, died from the disease.

However, the virus’s sickness cycle appeared too fast and too strong.

So this disease never left that simple village before all the people there were gone.

Without hosts, the virus couldn’t live on either.

This was a classic case: The virus was so deadly that it ended itself.

Still, Qin Yu felt a bit curious about how this virus acted.

In other words, he thought it was somewhat dangerous.

Based on what was found out, this disease on the South American Continent didn’t seem like something from a story with ‘zombies’ where infected would bite everyone.

But after being attacked in the brain by the virus, infected lost their minds and ability to think.

They moved around wildly and uncontrolled like wild animals.

That spread the virus faster.

This kind of thing slightly hit Qin Yu’s sensitive thoughts.

It’s just too bad.

Even though Qin Yu had a thought to study this virus, it clearly died out itself.

The chance of getting a sample was very low.

In nature, viruses like that might be popping up all the time.

Even though most didn’t land on people to get them sick, viruses change a lot by luck, so no one could say when human existence in Earth would get hit next.

This was a small side note in Year 34.

Time went on to Year 35 and Year 36.