240: Chapter 240 Gene Key

"The question is, how do we get the others inside?"

Gao Yuan asked.

"I don't know either; let's look further ahead!"

The six of them kicked off and flew forward.

The Spiral Arm was densely packed with various celestial bodies; the resources here were far more abundant than outside.

Gao Yuan took a look around and found that there were massive celestial bodies everywhere. Even the Human Fleet at its peak might not have been able to influence them. They were empty-handed, so how could they open the barrier?

"Gao Gan, the only thing we can rely on now is our own flesh and blood!"

"And then...?"

"Let's try using blood to dissolve the barrier!"

"What makes you think that?"

Gao Yuan actually had a suspicion. The barrier didn't block them, but it blocked other humans. This suggested that the barrier acted like a cell membrane, selectively allowing certain substances to pass through.

Furthermore, new stars were constantly being born within the Spiral Arm, and some would even exit through the barrier after forming.

How did the barrier identify them then?

Was it genes?

Therefore, Gao Yuan intended to use his own blood to test it.

"Come on, let's head out first!"

They flew out of the Spiral Arm without any obstruction; hundreds of millions of humans were waiting outside.

Various materials were floating here; only metal had disappeared, while other supplies remained.

This included ceramics, various biological membrane containers, as well as water and food...

Gao Yuan found a large vat of water and used a ceramic shard to slice his hand, letting his blood flow into it.

A few minutes later, Gao Yuan called Mo Yun over, telling her to dip her hands into this water and try going in again.

Though Mo Yun was somewhat confused, she did as Mo Xiaobai instructed.

Gao Yuan watched as Mo Yun, hands wet with the water mixed with his blood, flew toward the barrier. She held her hands out in front of her, and when she touched the barrier, it simply vanished this time...

Mo Yun entered without any resistance.

Gao Yuan's face lit up with joy.

"Come on, everyone, dip your hands in this water. When you go in, try to bring as much of our equipment as possible!"

Soon, people began hauling various supplies and entering after dipping into the water.

But for hundreds of millions of people, even if each person only needed 5 milliliters of water, it was still an astronomical figure.

Gao Yuan did the math: for 800 million people at five milliliters each, they only needed 40 tons of water!

He had just added about 10 milliliters of blood to a one-ton vat.

That meant only 400 milliliters of blood were needed to let everyone in.

And since there were five of them, an average of 80 milliliters of blood each would suffice. Even if the consumption doubled, it wouldn't affect them much!

"Gao Gan, hurry..."

Gao Gan also sprang into action. Vats of water were dragged near the barrier, and everyone could enter after wetting their palms.

The entire process lasted a long time...

But fortunately, all of humanity entered the Spiral Arm.

They also brought in a significant amount of supplies, though all smart devices and machinery were broken.

However, the data remained, as did some non-metallic equipment.

Hundreds of millions of humans began flying around inside, searching for a suitable base.

With a base, civilization could develop.

From now on, humanity no longer needed to fear the threat of the Polaris People. When humans emerged again, it would be time to wipe them out.

There were no fully formed planets here, only large meteorites.

Therefore, it was destined that humans could not all gather together.

Gao Yuan chose 16 meteorites of varying sizes nearby, and humans began to land on them to restart human civilization.

Humanity needed to rebuild its smelting systems—first smelting steel, then manufacturing simple lathes. Everything had to start from scratch.

Without smart devices, the efficiency was outrageously low.

Furthermore, although resources were abundant here, there was no life.

People used stones and the clothes on their backs to regain the power of fire.

But smelting was also a problem. Fortunately, humanity still possessed high-strength carbon nanomaterials, which they used as cutting tools and drill bits for their initial tools.

However, there were too few usable tools; the vast majority of humans could only rely on manual labor.

The only benefit here was the suitable temperature and sufficient oxygen.

Six months after the base was established...

Humanity finally had its first hand-built steam engine. Water and fuel currently relied on what humans had brought with them. If they didn't build aircraft before these ran out, they would be trapped to death on the meteorites...

There was nothing on the meteorites but rock.

Even large meteorites had gravity. No matter how incredible humans were, they couldn't jump off a massive asteroid using their own strength.

There was wind here... and storms would sweep across the meteorite's surface from time to time.

These storms would destroy human temporary shelters.

This made construction even more difficult.

Besides these, food was also a major issue. Currently, all food was centralized, but it was barely enough to last six months. If a solution to the food problem wasn't found within that time, humanity would starve to death here...

Back on Earth, there were plants and mature industries to manufacture Nutritional Paste.

But here, there was nothing but stone.

Eating stones would kill a person.

Gao Yuan's face was full of worry. He had thought they could start a new life after entering, but only then did he realize this was a dead end. The problem was, they had no way back now.

"Gao Yuan, the current situation isn't looking good!"

Said the now very old Zhou Zhengli.

Gao Yuan nodded. "Officer Zhou, I know! Right now, we can only rely on bacteria. Fortunately, many instruments from the Gold and Silver Laboratories were preserved. Gao Gan is currently cultivating a type of photosynthetic bacteria that can synthesize organic matter using light energy and inorganic substances! It's just that because the equipment is incomplete, it will take some time!"

"Sigh, it's hard on them! When we entered, all metal was stripped away. Those precision devices all had metal components. Before, everything was done with computer-guided precision, but now trying to fix them with manual labor and simple machinery is too difficult... The precision simply isn't there. And without precision, genetic engineering cannot proceed!"

Gao Yuan also let out a sigh...

At that moment, he thought of his elf-like second son, Gao Yu. The boy had previously demonstrated that the characteristics of his eyes were more impressive than many precision instruments...

Why not let Gao Yu give it a try?

With this thought, Gao Yuan immediately called Gao Yu over and brought him to the makeshift Academy of Sciences.

Gao Gan was leading a team to tackle the photosynthetic bacteria problem.

He saw Gao Yuan arrive.

He looked up. "Sigh, it's too hard... the equipment isn't up to it!"

"I've brought you a talent who might be able to help!"

Gao Gan glanced at Gao Yu. "If he wants to help, that's fine. Just find him a post... I don't have time to look after him!"

Gao Yuan nodded to Gao Yu, and Gao Yu began looking around the laboratory.

Finally, he pointed to a spot. "I'll work with them..."