Chapter 234: The Farm

After issuing his orders.

Seka and Fan Yunfeng, the head of the secret base’s logistics team, went to inspect the facility’s storage and production.

Construction on the base had been continuous. After nearly two years of expansion, it was now fully equipped and highly accessible.

There were two core areas within the base.

Seka and Fan Yunfeng were currently inspecting one of these core areas.

This was a four-story area with a footprint of 5,000 square meters per floor. It was filled with numerous cultivation pools containing a genetically recombined culture medium, which was made from biomaterials secretly transported from Hongsawaddy.

The lowest level was a nutrient absorption pool that processed animal waste and plant matter, supplying nutrients and energy to the cultivation pools on the floors above.

Other materials, such as metal powders and inorganic salts, could also be collected nearby from bio-accumulating lichens and mushrooms.

Currently, with sufficient raw materials, this material and component cultivation area could produce most alloys, non-metallic materials, biomaterials, and parts with relatively simple structures.

The production output was approximately 1,200 to 1,500 tons per month.

For example, the base’s firearms, small hardware, glass products, generators, purely mechanical equipment, Crystal Sponges, and rubber products could all be produced here.

It was precisely this high degree of self-sufficiency that had kept Tianzhu from discovering the powerful force hidden in this remote mountain village.

After all, not needing to import large quantities of equipment and machinery was its greatest advantage.

Using a small number of precision components and bio-computers supplied by the Hongsawaddy Branch, a miniature chemical plant had even been established within the base, capable of producing over two hundred tons of TNT or other chemicals each month.

After inspecting the component and chemical production areas, Seka and Fan Yunfeng headed to the other core area.

The other core area was a "farm" built deep underground inside a mountain.

As a highly self-sufficient base, its food supply naturally had to be self-sustaining.

Although the New Human staff could install external auxiliary digestive sacs—and feed them grass, wood, poisonous insects, carrion, or even cow dung—to extract the energy and nutrients needed to sustain life.

In more extreme environments, they could even use the "Botanical Exo-Armor" and "Hibernation Life-Support Pod."

The Botanical Exo-Armor was a variant of exoskeleton armor focused on wilderness and doomsday survival. Through genetically recombined plant cells on its surface, it could perform photosynthesis and absorb nutrients directly from the soil, air, and water to sustain the user.

The Hibernation Life-Support Pod, meanwhile, was used in special circumstances. For instance, if one was trapped in a desert, a polar ice cap, or a heavily contaminated chemical zone and lacked the strength to escape, the pod would envelop the body and induce a state of suspended animation.

The Hibernation Life-Support Pod could currently sustain hibernation for about 120 days, and some New Humans on special missions required its use.

The base Seka was in was equipped with auxiliary digestive sacs, Botanical Exo-Armor, and Hibernation Life-Support Pods.

But these devices were measures to be considered only in extreme situations.

Unless they were at their absolute limit, normal food was still essential.

Thus, the "farm" was born.

In the underground environment, natural light was out of the question. Artificial light required a great deal of energy, and the energy efficiency of photosynthesis was actually quite low.

Genetically recombined organisms like bioluminescent lichens were not suitable as light sources for an underground farm.

After extensive research and experimentation, Li Qingye had finally developed a technology that allowed plants to grow rapidly without sunlight, increasing the rate of organic matter generation by more than tenfold.

The principle was to use a composite electrocatalytic system to convert carbon dioxide and water into acetate. The plants could then directly absorb the acetate, bypassing the photosynthesis stage entirely.

This technology had already been successfully applied to a number of genetically recombined plants.

And this technology was the core of the underground farm.

Using this method, the base’s farm was filled with numerous cultivation rooms that could produce cucumbers, tomatoes, soybeans, sweet potatoes, potatoes, corn, eggplants, pumpkins, winter melons, chili peppers, bell peppers, strawberries, watermelons, and sugarcane.

Seka plucked a small cucumber, wiped it casually, and took a bite. "Can the farm’s production completely replace the surface farmlands?"

"If we only have to support the current population, there’s no problem," Fan Yunfeng replied.

Seka frowned. The base currently had 793 personnel.

But that was just for now. As the plan unfolded, the number of personnel at this base was certain to skyrocket.

He continued, "What’s the maximum number of people it can support long-term?"

"Three thousand people is basically the sustainable limit."

"Is there any way to expand it?"

Fan Yunfeng thought for a moment. "We aren’t short on underground space; we can always add more levels. The key issue right now is the power supply."

"Power..." Seka felt the problem was a thorny one as well.

The base was currently powered by a dozen small gas turbine generator sets with a total output of 1,400 kilowatts.

The fuel came from methane fermentation tanks, which were fed by two sources: human and animal waste, and collected plant matter like straw, dead branches, and rotten leaves.

An output of 1,400 kilowatts was already the base’s limit.

Even if they had more gas turbines and generators, they wouldn’t have enough biomass to produce the required methane.

After a moment of thought, Seka asked, "Can we tap into underground shale oil and gas?"

"Heh... unfortunately, there isn’t much oil-bearing shale in the rock formations near Xilong." Fan Yunfeng spread his hands.

The Xilong base’s energy problem had Seka scratching his head.

With just over seven hundred people, it wasn’t a major issue, but once the population grew, energy demand would surely skyrocket.

The problem was that, according to headquarters’ estimates, the Tianzhu people wouldn’t give up on the Assam States. This place was bound to become a meat grinder.

Any obvious surface structures like thermal power plants, solar farms, wind farms, or hydroelectric dams would certainly become targets.

Even if they were built, they would just be sitting ducks.

Therefore, he had to find a way to solve the base’s energy problem. Only then could they increase the maximum number of personnel the facility could accommodate.

Although Seka considered himself a New Human who had transcended race.

’But ordinary people are ultimately innocent. If I can save more of them, I’m willing to give it a try.’

Suddenly, inspiration struck. He opened the tablet he carried, pulled up a 3D topographical map of the surrounding area, and quickly found what he was looking for.

"Old Fan, what do you think of this?" He pointed to a nearby river valley with a drop of over eighty meters. "We can use artificial debris-flow technology to block this valley, creating a barrier lake."

"A barrier lake?" Fan Yunfeng looked at the 3D map. "You’re planning to build a hydroelectric power station? But that would be too obvious."

"No! We can use rapid excavation technology to create an artificial subterranean river, then build the power station inside the mountain." As he spoke, Seka drew a line on the map between the two elevations, tracing the path of a hidden river through the mountain’s interior.

Fan Yunfeng ran the calculations again and found the plan was indeed feasible. The river’s flow rate could power turbines with an installed capacity of 10 to 20 megawatts.

That was nearly ten times the base’s current power generation.