247: Chapter 247 Universal Disease Gene Screening

Tao Zhe opened his tablet, his fingertips swiping across the progress schedule:

"Word came from Professor Zhou that the hardware modifications are fully completed, three days ahead of the original plan."

Su Mingyuan raised his eyes: "Can ordinary people test their Root Bone now?"

"They can."

Tao Zhe nodded, "People who have never been exposed to Spiritual Qi sit on it, and in about three minutes, the crystal core activation and testing are done in one go."

The office fell silent for a few seconds.

Su Mingyuan did not ask any more questions and directly gave the order for mass production.

The first batch, five thousand units, off the production line in three days.

The underground factory of Tianmen Base operated twenty-four hours a day without stopping, workers on the production line worked in three shifts, and machine tools operated day and night.

The structure of the detector was not complex—a chair, two metal hemispheres, a mainframe, plus a crystal core energy activation module embedded in the base.

The difficulty of mass production lay in the crystal core energy conversion chip inside the activation module, which had high precision requirements, but the craftsmanship level of Tianmen Base could handle it.

Three days later, five thousand detectors were packed and loaded onto trucks, sent to all provinces across the country through the military logistics System.

At the same time, a red-headed document was signed and issued from the highest level.

The title of the document was—《Notice on Launching Nationwide Genetic Screening Work for Rare Genetic Diseases》.

The external statement was very formal:

In recent years, the incidence rate of rare genetic diseases has shown an upward trend. To establish a nationwide genetic database, provide early warnings for high-risk groups, and reduce the rate of genetic defects, the state has decided to launch a special screening project.

Testing is free, and the entire population is encouraged to participate.

The testing method is non-invasive and painless, with results in three minutes.

The notice was issued to all provinces, cities, and districts/counties, and then spread from districts and counties to communities.

Testing stations were set up in community health service centers, hospitals, school gymnasiums, and employee activity centers of enterprises and institutions.

Once the equipment arrived and the cables were connected, operators could start working after half a day of training.

As soon as the news came out, the international community exploded first.

A major European newspaper published a commentary that day, with the translated title being Great Xia's Genetic High-Stakes Gamble: The Screening Rhapsody of 1.4 Billion People》.

The tone in the article carried a condescending flavor, saying that gene screening of this scale could not be implemented in any developed country, questioning data security and privacy protection, and finally using a very sarcastic metaphor— "This looks more like a political show than a scientific project".

Over on Eagle Sauce's side, a highly-rated talk show host made fun of this matter on the program, saying with a grin: "They are going to do genetic testing for 1.4 billion people? I'm crying for their budget. This will probably take until 2050."

The audience below laughed into a chorus.

Several media outlets in Little Days were relatively restrained, but they also expressed concerns, saying that large-scale genetic data collection carries the risk of being abused.

Domestic voices were more mixed.

Someone posted online: "Here it comes again, can't spend your money fast enough, right? What gene screening, wouldn't it be better to take this money to build roads?"

The comments below were arguing endlessly.

Someone said: "Isn't it good to check for free? If you dislike the check, just don't go."

Someone said: "It's just formalism; the superiors pat their heads, and the subordinates run their legs off."

Some said: "I think it's pretty good. Just in case something is found, early detection means early treatment."

The style of reposts in WeChat Moments was more grounded.

Someone posted photos of queuing with the caption: "The community notified us to do gene screening. Queued for half an hour, sat up, held an iron ball, and it was done in three minutes. Much more comfortable than drawing blood."

Someone in the comment section asked: "Does it hurt?"

Reply: "Not a single feeling at all, just like measuring blood pressure."

The attitude of the vast majority of people was actually very simple—free, painless, three minutes, anyway, it was just a matter of dropping by to get a physical exam.

The community auntie gave a notice in the hallway group chat, and most people went without much resistance.

At the entrance of a community testing station, the line stretched from the lobby to the sidewalk.

An old man wearing a cotton-padded jacket in front chatted with the auntie behind him.

"I don't know what they're checking either, they said it's checking genes."

The auntie muttered: "My son said this is wasting money blindly."

The old man laughed: "What wasting money is there for free, it doesn't spend your son's money."

The auntie thought about it and laughed too.

From the first day, testing began pouring data into Tianheng.

Five thousand instruments were distributed all over the country, and each unit could test nearly five hundred people a day. Five thousand units started working simultaneously, which was a testing volume of nearly 2.5 million a day.

In the data aggregation room of Tianmen Base, the numbers on the big screen jumped up second by second.

First day: 2.33 million.

Second day: 3.50 million.

Third day: 7.00 million.

The distribution completely matched expectations.

Grade F and Grade D combined accounted for ninety-one percent, almost identical to the proportion of previous military samples.

The shape of the bar chart was like a steep pyramid, with the bottom so thick it filled half the screen, and the higher it went, the thinner it became.

Grade C appeared sporadically, and the System marked it yellow.

Grade B was even fewer, marked orange.

Grade A popped up occasionally, marked red.

By the evening of the third day, a cumulative total of over four thousand Grade A had appeared.

Eleven Grade S had appeared.

Zhou Peide stared at the top two positions on the screen—SS and SSS, which were still zero.

He was not in a hurry; after all, the total population of 1.4 billion in Great Xia was right here.

As Root Bone testing equipment continued to be produced and then put into use,

On the fourth day, the total number of tested people exceeded 50 million.

At 2:17 PM, Tianheng's screen went ding.

A purple dot lit up.

Zhou Peide stood up from his chair, his glasses almost sliding off the bridge of his nose.

The first Grade SS.

The information popped up automatically.

A certain community health service center in Central Plains.

Male, forty-one years old, occupation: bus driver.

Three sub-scores: 87, 91, 84.

Total score: 262.

Rank: SS.

Zhou Peide stared at the four words "bus driver" for three seconds, took off his glasses, wiped them, and put them back on.

A middle-aged man who had driven a bus for eighteen years harbored a Root Bone talent with a probability of one in a million in his body, which he himself had no idea about.

Zhou Peide picked up the phone: "Subject number 13037, keep them under the guise of a re-examination, don't let them leave."

Over the next few days, purple dots lit up successively.

Two on the fifth day, three on the sixth day, four on the seventh day.

The speed was highly consistent with the model's prediction—about one Grade SS for every eight million people tested.

By the end of the seventh day, the testing coverage population exceeded 100 million, with a total of thirteen Grade SS.

Zhou Peide had people check the occupational distribution of these thirteen people.

Bus driver, textile factory female worker, high school physics teacher, food delivery rider, retired accountant, specialized pig farmer, supermarket cashier...

There was no pattern whatsoever.

Things like Root Bone do not look at education, occupation, how many kilometers you run every day, or how heavy a barbell you can lift.

It is hidden in the Meridians, hidden in the genes, brought from the mother's womb, and has nothing to do with everything Acquired.

These nineteen people were successively taken to designated locations in various provinces under the name of "genetic abnormalities requiring in-depth re-examination", and then uniformly transferred to Tianmen Base.

They still didn't know what had happened to them.

They only knew that "their genes are a bit special, and the state needs to do further checks".