ATDIWR Chapter 31
by VolareA transparent preparation, five centimeters long, a long strip-shaped preparation resembling eye drops lay quietly in Ji An’s hand.
Ji An said, “This is a daily dose. One dose per day can maintain a full day’s energy and basic nutritional needs. It can be taken long-term.”
Ji An heard Wan Xueying and Kong Zhongcheng gasp one after another, clearly quite startled.
Ji An’s lips curved slightly. Are you already amazed? There’s something even more incredible coming.
“This nutrient solution has a food energy conversion rate of over eighty percent. The amount that used to feed one person for a day can now feed at least eighty people for a day when made into a nutrient solution.”
The human body cannot convert one hundred percent of the energy in food; in fact, most of it is wasted. Such a high energy conversion rate is truly astonishing. The amount of food for one person feeding eighty people – this data is terrifying!
What kind of concept is that!
Very little food can feed many, many people!
From now on, there will be no more hunger in the world!
Its merit is in the present generation, its benefit is for thousands of years!
Gu Jinsheng’s usually calm eyes flickered. If the nutrient solution is real, it means that from now on, human diet has leaped across eras. It also means that food will no longer be scarce, and there will be no hunger in this world.
From now on, the word hunger will completely disappear from the human dictionary.
“Holy crap…”
“Holy crap…”
“Holy freaking crap…”
“Forgive my poor language which cannot describe how I feel at this moment. My admiration for you is like the surging waters of the Yellow River, endless…” Kong Zhongcheng was so incomparably excited that he spoke nonsense, not even knowing what he was saying.
But no one present laughed at him, including Wan Xueying.
“Ji An, you are truly outstanding!” Gu Jinsheng’s praise was sparse to the point of being pale, but it was his most sincere inner feeling at that moment.
He really couldn’t understand, is Chen Chen really a dumbass white lotus bitch? Why not choose such an excellent person and instead go for a white lotus bitch? Was it just because his position as the overall commander was too secure and he wanted to shake things up a bit? Well now, he shook it too hard and fell!
Who knows, if Chen Chen ever finds out that both the spatial storage items and the nutrient solutions came from Ji An, will he slap himself on the spot!
Ji An smiled reservedly, his slightly raised chin in every aspect conveying unparalleled pride. He was just that outstanding!
“Little An, our base is willing to fund your research, including providing experimental sites, accommodation, and a series of security measures. We don’t want your scientific research results; we only hope the nutrient solution can be supplied to us as a priority.” Gu Jinsheng gazed at Ji An with deep eyes. He seemed calm, but beneath the surface, a beast was lying dormant, about to be unleashed. That beast was fierce and dangerous, and once released, it would inevitably choose someone to devour.
Ji An seemed to see the unpredictable treachery and the dangerous beast beneath the calm surface of Gu Jinsheng’s gaze.
He turned his face away awkwardly, “Okay, I accept. I can agree to your conditions and guarantee that the nutrient solution will only be sold to you. If other bases want to buy it, you have to nod your head.”
“Ji An, that’s really something! Our base having you is a blessing for the entire base!” Kong Zhongcheng, being blunt and straightforward, didn’t notice the difference in Ji An’s words.
Wan Xueying, however, noticed carefully. Ji An said ‘you’, not Jing Shi Base.
This favoritism was too blatant and fearless. In other words, as long as Gu Jinsheng is the overall commander of Jing Shi Base for a day, the nutrient solution belongs to Jing Shi Base for a day. If Gu Jinsheng is no longer the overall commander of Jing Shi Base one day, then it’s not certain if the nutrient solution will still belong to Jing Shi Base, and it’s even questionable whether Jing Shi Base will be able to sell it in the future.
It is believed that when that time truly comes, there will be bases welcoming Gu Jinsheng with open arms to be their overall commander.
Conversely, the Power Users of Jing Shi Base are not fools. No one would let such a god of harvest run away.
Ji An is openly and uprightly standing with Gu Jinsheng. Gu Jinsheng’s position is now secure.
Wan Xueying couldn’t help but exclaim, “Chen Chen is an idiot!”
Kong Zhongcheng repeated, “Chen Chen is an idiot!”
East City, two half-grown teenagers gathered together. The two teenagers were actually fifteen or sixteen years old, but after seven years of The Apocalypse, living a precarious life where they couldn’t eat enough or dress warmly during their growth and development, they looked much thinner and smaller than their actual age, like children just turning eleven or twelve.
These two children were very, very thin, so thin that one would suspect a strong gust of wind could blow them away.
They wore the most primitive handmade straw sandals on their feet.
“Boss, do we really need to sign up as volunteers for that experiment?” The teenager named Zhu Liangping asked worriedly, “I heard it’s a black-hearted experiment, just to trick us into human experiments. Maybe they’ll even harvest our organs.”
Wei Kang said, “Then don’t go. Your family hasn’t reached the end of its rope yet. I can’t afford not to. My parents went out with a team to hunt Zombies a few days ago, got nothing, and both broke bones. My sister is twelve, she’s at a crucial age, I can’t possibly let her go out to work, those men will devour her!
I need money, a lot of money!
Even if these people lock me up and conduct human experiments on me, I accept it.
I even hope they tear me to pieces. That way, I heard we can get the highest compensation. A full one million. With this one million, my family can move to West City to live, and I won’t have to worry about those disgusting scumbags eyeing my sister anymore.”
As he said these things, the young boy Wei Kang didn’t feel much pain or sadness about the death he might face. On the contrary, his eyes shone astonishingly bright, filled with anticipation for his family’s future beautiful life.
Zhu Liangping gritted his teeth and said determinedly, “Then I’ll go too. Although my parents both work in the factory, they are almost unable to support us three brothers.
A few days ago, one of my dad’s fingers was crushed by a machine. The factory compensated him a little money, but he couldn’t bear to use it to see a doctor, saying he wanted to save it for us.
He bandaged it up himself twice and went to work. Who knows if it’s still bleeding.
Anyway, I still have my two younger brothers. The family doesn’t lack one more child like me. Even if I die, my parents will still have someone to take care of them.”
“Alright, let’s go together.”
After the two young teenagers made their decision, fearing their families would object if they found out, and also afraid they themselves might back out, not wanting to give themselves a chance to regret, the two immediately went to sign up.
By the time their families found out, they had already entered the laboratory. They only simply informed their families where they were going and, fearing their families would come looking for them, also said they had signed a contract, and breaching it would require paying over a hundred thousand in compensation.
This astronomical figure made the children’s families hesitate and dare not cause a fuss. At the same time, they were even more certain that with such high breach of contract fees, these children probably wouldn’t be coming back.
Wu Youyang walked in holding a list, his expression not looking good.
“What’s wrong?” Ji An asked.
“The volunteers recruited are all old, weak, sick, and disabled. Among the ordinary male volunteers, almost seventy percent are homeless people. More than twenty percent of the remainder are children, and less than ten percent are ordinary adults. As for the Power User volunteers, they are all the lowest-level Power Users, and most of them have chronic conditions left from combat.”
This is normal. If not for physical reasons, Power Users have always held themselves in high regard, believing they are a level above ordinary people. Why would they be willing to participate in an unknown experiment?
These Power Users were likely injured while forming their own teams for missions, and ordinary hospitals couldn’t treat them.
Healing-type Power Users only provide free treatment to Power Users injured on base missions. For those who formed their own teams for personal missions, inviting a Healing-type Power User to act requires exorbitant fees. That is an astronomical sum, which low-level Power Users simply cannot afford.
“Isn’t this exactly what we wanted?” Ji An said, “Even if healthy people don’t eat nutritious things for a month, there won’t be much change in their bodies. Conversely, experimenting on these malnourished people will allow us to better observe if the nutrient solution’s nutrition is balanced and if it can guarantee the human body’s most basic nutritional needs.”
Wu Youyang slapped his forehead and laughed, “I was stuck in my thoughts. This is exactly right. If these people come in looking sallow and thin, and we make them plump and healthy when they leave, that will prove the success of our experiment.”
Wu Youyang happily went to distribute the nutrient solution.
Wei Kang and Zhu Liangping were very uneasy sandwiched among the unfamiliar adults. The two squeezed into a small corner. However, luckily, someone was watching them twenty-four hours a day. They didn’t care what they did, as long as they didn’t fight.
“Mealtime, mealtime!” Someone shouted from afar.
Upon hearing ‘mealtime’, the adults who had just been lying around lazily looking half-dead suddenly moved as swiftly as leopards, darting over in a flash.
Wei Kang and Zhu Liangping didn’t dare to compete with these people and silently stood at the back of the line.
Seven or eight staff members walked over from a distance. One of them held a small plate in their hand. The plate was really small, so small it could only hold a slightly larger apple.
Wei Kang and Zhu Liangping exchanged glances, both seeing despair in the other’s eyes.
So little food, not enough for one person to be full. Those adults would definitely snatch it all up in an instant. The two of them could only go hungry. If it was just one day, it would be fine, but if it was like this every day, they wouldn’t be able to get any food at all.
“One dose per person. Drink it immediately after receiving it,” one of the food distributors told the crowd.
The homeless person at the front of the line peered over and found that the thing on the small plate was a kind of food he had never seen before, looking a bit like artificial tear eye drops he used before The Apocalypse.
He was already someone who couldn’t afford to live or die, just looking for a place to stay, so he wasn’t afraid if it was something poisonous. Without hesitation, he reached out, took one, unscrewed it, and drank it in one gulp.
The nutrient solution was at most ten milliliters. The homeless person had just tasted a bit when it was gone.
He smacked his lips. It was quite tasty, seemingly corn-flavored. The homeless person couldn’t remember how long it had been since he ate corn, and he really missed that taste a little.
“Can I have another one?” the homeless person asked daringly, his eyes greedy.
One second the Power User’s hands were empty, the next a leather whip appeared out of thin air. With a crack, he flicked it in the air, producing a sharp sound that startled the questioning homeless person, making him step aside.
The Power User didn’t intend to hurt anyone; all he wanted was a deterrent effect, otherwise, he couldn’t scare those homeless people who became desperate when they saw food.
“One dose per person. Anyone who dares to take more…Hmph!” The Power User snorted coldly. Not stating the punishment was more frightening than stating it.
Everyone took one in turn. When it came to Wei Kang and Zhu Liangping, the two, afraid of being snatched from, didn’t dare to take it far to eat and consumed it on the spot in front of the staff members.
The people in white coats saw that they had all eaten, recorded something in their notebooks, and then left.
After they left, Wei Kang dared to speak softly, “I don’t know what they gave us to eat, but it was surprisingly tasty. Mine seemed to be made of sorghum, it had a sorghum flavor.”
Zhu Liangping said, “Mine was corn-flavored, right? I’m not sure. It’s been so long since I ate corn, I’m not confident about its taste anymore.”
The two smacked their lips, savoring the taste a bit.
“They won’t just give us this, will they? With so little, can we get full? Will we be hungry tonight?” Zhu Liangping asked.
Wei Kang rubbed his stomach with his hand and said strangely, “Don’t you feel like you’re full?”
So strange. His stomach was just rumbling with hunger, but now it wasn’t rumbling, and he didn’t feel hungry anymore. He even had a long-lost feeling of fullness.
Zhu Liangping rubbed his stomach, widening his eyes, “Really? I feel so full too. What did they give us to eat? How did such a small amount make us not hungry anymore?”
“I don’t know, maybe this is the experimental product.”
Wei Kang didn’t know that at this moment, Mother Wei was already crying her eyes out at home. Twelve-year-old Little Sister Wei had experienced too many hardships and was no longer a child who understood nothing. She knew her brother had gone to participate in a very cruel experiment for their family and might never return.
Father Wei sighed deeply, “We still have some credit points at home. We’ll go buy something good in a while and make some delicious food for Wei Kang. That child hasn’t eaten anything good following us. Now that he’s participating in that kind of experiment and we don’t know what will happen, let him eat something good. Even if he dies, he’ll be a well-fed ghost.”
Mother Wei wiped her tears, “Yes, I’ll buy him something delicious, buy meat. How many years has it been since Wei Kang ate meat? He’s forgotten what meat tastes like.
I’ll cook it for him to replenish his nutrition. Maybe if he gets enough nutrition, his body’s resistance will become strong, and he can withstand the experiment’s torment and survive in the end.”
Mother Wei thought that her son might never come back. Gritting her teeth, she bought an egg, fifty grams of meat, and a hundred grams of rice.
This meal was extremely luxurious. As Mother Wei cooked it herself, she was so tempted her mouth watered.
But thinking this might be her son’s last meal, she forced herself to hold back her craving.
After finishing the meal, Mother Wei and Father Wei carefully carried the food to the outside of the experimental site and pleaded with the old man guarding the door, “Please, just be kind and pity the child. Give this to him, it’s just a little food.”
The old man guarding the door refused, “The people inside are volunteers. If you send food in, what if it affects the experiment results?”
“It won’t, it won’t,” Father Wei quickly said, “It’s just some ordinary ingredients.”
Mother Wei said, “Please help me pass it to the child. I’ll give you a gratuity. Will twenty credit points be okay?”
“No, no,” the guard waved his hand.
“Fifty,” Father Wei said, gritting his teeth.
Just then, Rong Fan passed by and heard them. He said, “The people inside are subjects. They are currently conducting experiments. Eating outside food is absolutely not allowed. Otherwise, if it affects the experiment, it’s absolutely not something you can afford to bear.”
Seeing Rong Fan wearing a researcher’s uniform, the old man at the gate quickly nodded in agreement. Turning to face Wei Kang’s parents, his expression turned grim, “Take it away quickly, did you hear? The people here cannot eat outside food. If it affects the experiment results, can you afford the compensation?”
Thinking of the several hundred thousand in compensation Wei Kang mentioned in his message, Wei Kang’s parents didn’t dare to pester further and quietly left.
Mother Wei wept, “Our poor son. He didn’t even get to eat a good meal before he died.”