Chapter 98: 236 Algae Re-employment

The plan to induce super-strong rain early to end the ongoing global rainfall did not start right away.

In this era, or even earlier, triggering rain early when there was enough moisture wasn’t very hard if the scope was considered.

But speeding up the entire global rainfall all at once was much trickier.

It was almost impossible for the Negentropy Research Institute to stimulate the atmosphere everywhere it was raining across the planet to achieve this. The best way was to target some key areas within this global weather system. This could start chain reactions and make atmospheric moisture vanish much faster.

Eventually, researchers from a team at the Negentropy Research Institute got involved in studying how to make this plan work. Qin Yu got involved too at the team’s request. Even though Qin Yu hadn’t done weather research before, he was one of the top people in fluid mechanics and complex systems research. What the Negentropy Research Institute wanted to achieve fit well into Qin Yu’s areas of expertise.

The first step for this research was getting enough data on the current global weather and rainfall. The researchers working on the plan didn’t need to collect all this data from scratch. Since the Doomsday Crisis, the Negentropy Research Institute’s Geological Research Institute had set up monitoring devices at geological activity zones and collected weather data related to the crisis.

With this data already in hand, at least for Qin Yu, the problem facing the plan became mainly a math problem. Weather is complex and chaotic. But in this era, using good data to guide short-term actions on complex systems wasn’t that hard.

With Qin Yu helping, solving the problem wasn’t too difficult.

…

Early in the year 289.

Qin Yu used computing power from towers accessed by Strong Artificial Intelligence. He built a rough but complex data model using information recently gathered by the Geological Research Institute. He then found key spots in the current atmosphere. Changing things at these spots could make the “Concentrated Rain Plan” happen faster.

These key spots were found through calculations using the complex model by the Strong Artificial Intelligence. The number of spots needed to change global weather was huge. But it was still better than having people blast down rain clouds one area at a time.

Calculations showed that if energy or other methods were used at these key spots, it could trigger chain reactions. These reactions would make heavy rain fall across most of the world. The small areas untouched wouldn’t ruin the overall plan.

On the very same day, right after the Strong Artificial Intelligence finished finding all the key spots, it acted as ordered. Using powerful energy weapons made earlier, it fired at the target spots. Footage sent back by Intelligent Machinery on the surface showed huge weapons moving outside Underground Shelter Cities. They rose into the dark, gloomy clouds overhead.

Soon after, loud booms echoed through the sky above. It started far away then got closer. The land near those spots trembled slightly. Strong winds kicked up.

After hitting the key spots, clear changes started happening across Earth’s atmosphere everywhere. Rain chain reactions formed over large areas, just as the Negentropy Research Institute had wanted. Instruments set up early by the Geological Research Institute confirmed this. Rainfall increased noticeably over most places on Earth.

Before, the whole planet experienced heavy rainstorms.

After the Negentropy Research Institute put the “Concentrated Rain Plan” into action, it was hard to say the surface was merely experiencing “rain”.

Rain fell like waterfalls. Thick lines of water poured from the dark gloomy sky all the way to the ground, seemingly connecting earth and sky. Under this kind of unprecedented downpour, staying outside felt impossible. Normal people could hardly breathe.

Still, with water pouring this fast, the huge moisture stored in the atmosphere was disappearing quickly. This early, intensified rain used up water that otherwise would have fallen slowly over a much longer time. Right now, water evaporating back into the air from the ground couldn’t happen fast enough.

Even after doing the “Concentrated Rain Plan,” this incredibly intense deluge didn’t stop completely in just a day or two. It kept pouring heavily, as if the sky itself could never run out of rain.

…

The Negentropy Research Institute didn’t hide the start of this plan to speed up the global rain. So, watched by most people across human society, this monstrous downpour kept going. It started early in the year and just continued relentlessly, raining heavily all the way until the middle of that same year.

The rain had poured for over four months before finally showing signs of tapering off.

Lands once covered by cooled volcanic lava

had turned into swamps and lakes during this epic downpour.

Dense river networks crisscrossed vast stretches of land, carving up the terrain,

only to shift course again and again amidst ongoing active geological turmoil.

Mid-June.

On this day,

in underground shelters across regions, many people set aside their usual tasks

and gathered in parks within living sectors—parks designed to mimic surface environments.

Some lay or sat on artificial lawns by artificial lakes, savoring the quiet;

others chatted with familiar friends.

Yet many eyes kept drifting up to the simulated dome roof.

In Lingchuan Underground Refuge City’s parks at that moment,

every simulated dome roof displayed a cloudy sky—

less brilliant than the sunny blue skies and fluffy white clouds shown most days.

But as people gazed upward, smiles still bloomed instinctively on their faces.

Because today’s simulation was different.

It captured the real-time sky near the surface above each underground shelter’s exterior.

The day before,

research teams from the Negentropy Research Institute announced

that by mid-June, skies over most regions sheltering underground cities

would finally brighten.

Though the surface environment remained inhospitable, preventing people

from feeling real sunlight,

it was decided that on this day, all shelter domes

would display a live feed of the outside sky.

Now,

as clouds drifted apart, the sun emerged once more,

scattering rays across the landscape beneath.

Throughout Lingchuan Underground Refuge City’s parks,

people who had been talking hushed mid-sentence.

Even knowing the “sunlight” they saw

was still just the dome’s usual simulation,

they squinted into its unfamiliar brilliance, silent and unmoving.

“…I propose we mark today as a holiday—Sunlight Festival. Well?”

“So why did I never feel this… before when the simulated light shone? It makes me warm and cozy. Almost sleepy.”

…

Truthfully, Earth’s first clear day in years after the Doomsday Crisis

wasn’t nearly as glorious as people imagined.

The sun upon human skin felt nothing like its remembered comfort.

Others still couldn’t risk the surface, but Qin Yu faced no such barrier.

Standing where Lingchuan City once stood,

he stretched out a hand to feel the sunlight,

freshly escaped from thick clouds and pouring straight down.

Without actively blocking pain receptors,

he could clearly sense the stinging heat, like fire flicking his skin.

Rain had ceased, but Earth’s atmosphere wasn’t healed.

The ozone layer, shattered in past calamities,

offered little protection—ultraviolet and other radiation now far exceeded levels humans could endure long-term.

But Qin Yu pulled back his hand

and walked on beneath the sun regardless.

After all, it was still the first sunlight

ending years of relentless global rainfall after Doomsday.

Tilting his head, Qin Yu scanned the distant horizon.

As Negentropy Research Institute teams had anticipated,

the torrential rains to come still held value—

they relentlessly flushed vast amounts of dust and pollutants from the atmosphere.

On this first sunlit day, the gray haze choking the air had largely thinned.

The view stretched much farther than before.

However,

without swift action by the Negentropy Research Institute on other fronts,

this clarity and pollution settlement was only temporary.

As atmospheric moisture accumulated under current climate patterns,

global rain would soon return.

Though the deluge had scrubbed most dust

and contaminants airborne,

the source remained: volcanic eruptions across the globe

ever spewed fresh ash and toxins skyward.

Qin Yu found a random spot on damp ground,

sat quietly a while longer,

then finally headed back to the underground shelter.

…

That same month,

the Negentropy Research Institute 011 Lab unveil an “Ecological Management Plan”

aimed toward humanity’s ultimate return to the surface.

Its strategy was simple:

using 236 Algae—

once nearly the ruin of Human Civilization—

to restore Earth’s atmospheric oxygen levels.

Its unmatched adaptability allowed survival even in current water conditions.

Its explosive oxygen output could raise dangerously low air concentrations.

Crucially, its spread accelerated as oxygen rose.

Best of all,

Humanity now possessed tools to control any unchecked growth

of 236 Algae.

Thus, at this moment, it was humanity’s best chance

to solve the critical atmospheric oxygen deficiency.

Once 011 Lab presented this plan,

every relevant researcher agreed immediately.

Implementation required no complex preparations.

236 Algae samples lay secure in the Doomsday Gene Bank.

Simply retrieve, cultivate them to required scale,

then scatter into water bodies nearby.

They’d multiply wildly on their own.

Only speed of deployment could be optimized:

if faster spread was needed,

placement would consider strategic locations across water systems.

July, 289.

Using Intelligent Machinery, people released 236 Algae into many locations across Earth’s abundant surface waters at this time.

At the same time, to prepare for the future, they also introduced some Entropy Algae into a few selected regions.

Reaching this stage,

the Negentropy Research Institute, and all of Human Civilization, had to start thinking about

the most complex problem they would face upon returning to the surface—global volcanic eruptions.

…

For basic geological activities, like simple earthquakes and plate movements,

judging by the current data trends monitored by the Geological Research Institute,

people just needed to wait a few more years, until the geological activity entered a calm period.

But the issue of global volcanic eruptions erupting right now—

there was no sign things would naturally settle down soon.

Based on the data the Geological Research Institute monitored,

the current collective global eruptions would last at least several hundred years more, and it really wasn’t impossible that they could keep happening on and off for thousands of years.

Human Civilization definitely did not want to wait passively that long.

So,

Human Civilization had to consider directly interfering with the ongoing global volcanic eruptions.

But the problem followed immediately:

how could they stop the global volcanic eruptions happening right now?

Geological systems were probably even more chaotic than weather systems.

Why wait for the plate movements causing the earthquakes to calm down on their own, if not because they couldn’t fix the problem?

Volcanic activity was the same situation.

How could they make all the currently erupting volcanoes stop?

How could they calm the volcanic activity?

Even plugging the volcano’s vent wouldn’t help,

like a balloon under too much pressure—when a hole bursts open,

if you don’t stop increasing the pressure inside and just patch the hole, another hole will just burst open somewhere else.

And reducing the deep underground ‘pressure’ was an extremely difficult task for Human Civilization at this stage.

Yet this problem was also so urgent for them.

Without solving the global volcanic problem,

even if the atmosphere recovered, it would get polluted all over again.

Even if the ecosystem came back, it would just get destroyed again.

Although the global volcanic eruptions were a disaster caused by the fallout of the Asteroid 2801 Impact Crisis,

looked at on its own, it was practically another Doomsday Crisis.

True, for the people safe inside the Underground Shelter Cities right now, it wasn’t a huge threat.

But if Human Civilization wanted to return to life on the surface, they had no choice but to face it head-on.

Finally,

after considering Qin Yu’s advice,

the Geological Research Institute of the Negentropy Research Institute and related research teams came up with a temporary fix—a Band-Aid solution.

Essentially, it was the same idea as the plan used to tackle the global heavy rain crisis.

Global volcanic eruptions?

They would just make sure all the volcanic groups vented whatever material they could erupt over a certain future period, all at once.

This way, though it wouldn’t turn these volcanoes permanently dead volcanoes,

for a significant period afterwards,

these volcanoes would basically enter a dormant state.

In this scenario,

Human Civilization could temporarily stop worrying about them and focus on their own development.

With the vast network of monitoring instruments the Geological Research Institute placed around volcanic sites globally, they could quickly detect any new activity brewing in any major volcano.

They could even consider later carefully inducing smaller eruptions at specific volcanoes ahead of schedule, preventing another huge collective eruption event later.

And if this temporary fix truly proved useless later on,

Human Civilization would likely have developed to a much stronger stage by then anyway.

Of course,

this plan only worked because there was no one back on the surface yet, no people, no living creatures at all.