Alien Relic Hunter

The 500th year of the new era.

For the surviving humans on the Ark, this is the first year of their remaining lives.

Although this result is much better than expected...at least, humans have not become extinct because of this.

In January of the 499th year of the New Era, shortly after the New Year of the Old Calendar, the department responsible for conducting route observations discovered an anomaly—all pathfinding spacecraft and unmanned aerial vehicles sent by Ark lost contact, and there was no signal. Sent back to the Ark...even if it was just a garbled code typed out in a hurry, there was 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. If any accident occurs, even if the spacecraft crashes, at least The corresponding information can still be transmitted back. It is impossible for all spaceships and aircraft to disappear silently into the vast universe.

The first reaction of the observation department is that they may have encountered a high-level alien civilization - these pathfinding spacecraft and unmanned aircraft are most likely destroyed or captured by alien civilization. Only in this case will they connect a I couldn't even utter a brief plea for help.

But this report had just been submitted to the joint parliamentary group, and the members were still on their way to the meeting, when something happened again!

On the route directly in front of the Ark, an extremely abnormal gravitational field appeared. Under the influence of this gravitational field, the entire Ark began to gradually accelerate...

According to calculations, this level of gravity requires at least a celestial body with a mass hundreds of times that of the sun to exist within the observable range of optical equipment. But on the route directly in front of the Ark, not to mention stars, even stars There are no small celestial bodies that can be seen everywhere in the universe...

No... this space is really too clean, which is a very suspicious point. The leader of the observation department looked at the holographic star map on the table, and a drop of cold sweat couldn't help but fall from his forehead.

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

Black hole... He murmured, looking at the eyes looking at him in the control room.

The reason why this space is so clean is because all celestial bodies are sucked in by the black hole, even light... The gravity 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 everything is too late... With the propulsion of the Ark, it is impossible to break free from the gravitational constraints of the black hole... Even if you abandon the ship and escape at this time, it is useless, the escaping spacecraft 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: there are only three months and nine days left for Ark and mankind.

Although the joint parliamentary group decided to keep it secret from the public, paper could not cover the fire. In just over a month, everyone on the Ark knew the desperate fact: this ship was 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 countdown to the end of the world enters, people who lose their minds can do any crazy thing... Even the army that maintains order no longer obeys the orders of their superiors. People who have not experienced that period of time can rely solely on video and It is difficult to understand the despair and madness from written materials.

According to official statistics, Ark lost more than 50% of its population when it passed through the wormhole, but in fact, one-third of the 50% of the population was lost in less than two months before entering the wormhole.

The cowardly people commit suicide, the greedy people plunder wantonly, the violent people murder and set fire... Civilization seems to have lost its meaning, and people have turned into beasts, allowing their inner desires to dominate their actions.

Of course, these things have passed.

Most people never imagined that the Ark could actually successfully pass through the wormhole... Even though the hull was severely damaged, the propellers completely lost power, and the ruined streets were filled with grotesque corpses that had been killed by abnormal space forces... But no matter After all, the fire of human civilization is still preserved.

The people who survived gradually woke up from that crazy state - they realized that the doomsday catastrophe was far away, but more serious survival problems were before all survivors.

Although many areas inside the Ark are no longer inhabitable, thanks to the blessing of population decline, the relatively well-preserved areas can barely accommodate the 50% of survivors. After the problem of the living environment was solved, the food issue was placed at the top of the list.

Since ancient times, food has been the most important thing for people. Only when people are full can they have the ability to think, work, and reproduce.

However, more than 80% of the food production base on the Ark has been destroyed, and most of the food reserves were burned in those crazy two months. The output of the remaining 20% ​​of the food production base cannot keep up with consumption, and the warehouse The food stocks are decreasing day by day at an alarming rate.

However, Ark does not have sufficient resources to invest in the project to restore food production. This is not because food is not important, but because there are things with a higher priority than food - Ark's power and protection systems.

Famine due to insufficient food is not a problem that cannot be solved at present. As long as the people above are cold-blooded enough, they can deal with the food shortage 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 top priority tasks are to restore the Ark's power system and repair the damaged main structure of the hull. As for restoring food production, it is ranked third.

In this era, the only food an adult can get every day is synthetic rations equivalent to 600-800 calories, which are like flour and can be eaten after being washed with cold water and stirred into a batter. There is no seasoning. There are no side dishes, and a large amount of artificial cellulose is added to increase satiety (these cellulose is not digested by the human stomach and can be separated and used multiple times after the feces are collected).

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

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

As for minors, the portion of food they receive is only half that of adults. Even a 17-year-old young man who is growing up still only receives 300-400 calories in food every day.

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

If you want to get more food, there is only one way: work.

The jobs here only include those Ark repair projects that are ranked in the top three priorities... As for other jobs, although there is pay, the pay is pitifully low and cannot fill the hungry bellies of the young people.

Lyndon is sixteen years old this year and is a wormhole orphan - this novel title was only born in the 500th year of the new era. It refers specifically to those who have all their relatives died in various secondary disasters caused by traveling through black holes. Among them, he was the only child who survived.

Like the protagonists of many tragic stories, Linden once had a happy family. His father was a senior engineer in the engineering department, his mother was a lecturer in a college, and he had a beautiful sister who was twenty years old. But he himself He skipped three grades in a row during his business education and was admitted to an engineering college that was well-known in the mechanical and electrical field at the age of only fifteen.

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

The first thing that happened was Linden's sister. On the first day of those two desperate months, her sister went out and never came back... My father had many connections, and he only saw her a week later at a garbage disposal station. My daughter's naked body.

A month later, Lyndon's father was ordered to repair a stalled propeller. Although everyone knew that no matter whether the propeller could be repaired or not, the Ark would not be able to escape the fate of being swallowed by a black hole... But in order to prevent the family from losing protection, and food, Linden’s father still took over the task.

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

Fortunately, Ark did not break its promise and brought Lyndon and his mother to a safe area. Under the protection of soldiers who were still loyal to Ark, 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. By the time Linden felt that the surrounding time and space had returned to normal, the Ark had arrived in a completely unfamiliar space.

His mother, on the other hand, turned into a puddle of minced meat less than three meters away from him.

The sadness did not last long, because the feeling of hunger was even more unbearable. Looking at the food rations getting less and less every day, Lyndon decided to participate in the repair work of the Ark, using work in exchange for enough food to satisfy his hunger.

Relying on his own ability and knowledge, Linden stood out among the subjects and successfully got a job repairing thrusters - which reminded him of his father. During that period, he was completely I never thought that one day I would be able to inherit my father's legacy.

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

On the first day of work, one worker was killed by a steel beam that suddenly broke and fell, and another worker was electrocuted by a high-voltage wire that touched the ground.

On the second day of work, when Linden and the leader of the maintenance team pushed open a stuck hatch, they did not expect that the cabin behind the hatch was damaged and were sucked directly into space. The other two were 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, Lyndon got his first paycheck.

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

Six packs of synthetic rations were packed in small bags. Each pack had a weight of fifty grams, but Lyndon knew without weighing that none of the packs was even enough... Packed in such packages The white powder always reminded him of those scandalous illegal drugs in old era movies.

However, synthetic rations are not the highlight... Even though this job is so dangerous, the biggest reason why people still flock to it is the other two things in the reward.

Meat, and vegetables.

Of course, this meat is not meat in the real sense, but artificial meat synthesized from soy protein... Compared with the artificial meat produced before 499 in the New Era, which is quite realistic, this batch of artificial meat tastes like dehydrated dried beans. It's the same, plus the extremely salty seasoning. In the past, it would have been garbage that couldn't 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, you only need a piece of artificial meat the size of your little finger to make a pretty young girl meet any of your requirements. But now that the piece of artificial meat in Linden’s hand is enough It's half the size of a palm.

What is more precious than meat are vegetables - even before the year 499 of the New Era, vegetables have always been synonymous with luxury on the Ark. Whether it is soil culture or hydroponics, the cultivation of vegetables consumes a lot of precious space and Resources, for the vast majority of people at the bottom, meat may still be available, but they may never have the opportunity to eat real vegetables once in their lives.

Linden's previous family conditions were pretty good, and he could eat almost one 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, minimal environmental requirements other than sunlight, planting recommendations, rapid growth, and a very short maturity period... All of the above advantages combined, bean sprouts have simply become the most cost-effective vegetable during interstellar voyages.

What Linden got now was a pack of raw bean sprouts, which weighed about one hundred grams. He carefully stuffed the pack of raw bean sprouts into the inner 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 them.

(To be continued)

[P.S. I tried a side chapter with food, supplementary background settings, and some hidden clues on the side, a combination of the three elements. Although it is an extra chapter, it is actually in line with the current progress of the main plot of the main text. If you are not the kind of reader who reads ten lines at a time, you should be able to read this chapter. Although the extra chapter is about food, there is still a lot of foreshadowing buried between the lines (as for this is considered Digging holes or filling holes is a matter of opinion).

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

Another Xiqi fan reader mentioned in a comment before that he was very interested in the plot of Ark Interstellar Voyage and hoped that I could write about it. But because the main plot takes place after the interstellar voyage, and according to my personal arrangements, the next new book is not a prequel to Alien Ruins Hunter, but a new world view that has nothing to do with this book. Therefore, I can only satisfy this reader's wish with extra chapters. 】

[P.P.S. Thank you Soap for the 1,500 starting coins that you can use to reward me. 】